The M Factor

Work areas in yoga can be divided into

• Teaching and Research
• Curing diseases (Yoga therapist)

To become a successful yoga teacher, apart from having the hands on experience, you must have all the required knowledge of yoga.

People trained in yoga have many opportunities of employment. You will have to decide your fees depending on the amount of experience you have.

It is always better that you start off by volunteering at the institute where you learnt and simultaneously start teaching your family and friends. This will help you gain confidence to teach an unknown crowd.

The key here is to market yourself well. You can charge anywhere between Rs.250 to Rs.500 per class after you have established yourself. You can teach at various places like health centres, gyms, call centres, schools, hospitals, offices, resorts, TV shows, etc.

You could also take personal classes at people's homes for families or could take a class at your own place or in a colony.

You could also take workshops on concentration and memory for school children as well as stress relief and concentration at work places or during corporate training sessions. For such sessions you can charge Rs.1500 onwards depending on the crowd.

You can also start your own centre. For this, you need some clean space and fresh air. In case of Yoga therapy and clinics, you can also start consultancy service.

For beginners, your income per month generally starts with Rs.10000 and could go up to Rs.40000. You can even earn up to Rs. 1 lakh per month. For private practitioners and consultants, the sky is the limit.

Few Points to Remember

• Learn and practise well before you start teaching.
  
   
•  Volunteer at different camps to get more knowledge.
  
  
• Improve and build on your communication skills because you will be dealing with different people with different needs.
  
  
• Learn to listen patiently to your students' issues and then tailor your training programme accordingly.
  
  
• Never feel bad to say you would check and get back if you don't know the answer to a question.
  
  
• You are not doing charity so don't be afraid to tell people what your fee is.
  
  
• There are no fixed working hours so you have to keep yourself fit and fine.
  
  
• To start your practice, you need to create an image of your own, through people you know, newspapers and some word of mouth publicity. Marketing yourself is the key to start off.
  
  
• Keep updating your knowledge by reading books and other research so that you are well informed about various aspects and you can answer questions as and when required.
  
  
• Remember, you can be a yoga teacher at 18 years or at 70 years. The more experience you have the better it is.

Author: Veena Balakrishnan

(The author is a freelancer)