8 Mistakes Yoga Teachers Make When Starting A Business (And How To Avoid Them)

You’ve done it! You’re striking out on your own and starting your very own yoga studio! If you’re not already bubbling over with excitement, then you absolutely should be. 

Enthusiasm and passion are excellent motivators, but those alone don’t guarantee success. It’s very common for new yoga teachers to make business mistakes. But that’s why you’re here, right? You want to learn, and we’re happy to support your first steps as an independent yoga studio owner.

We’ve reached out to other successful yoga studio owners who have been through the same challenges and are happy to offer you their wisdom. Their yoga teacher tips, tricks, and hacks might help you bypass beginner's mistakes and find success! 

And while we’re at it, we’d also like to share some relevant key features from OfferingTree, our very own yoga business management solution that’s helped hundreds of entrepreneurs like yourself. 

Ready? Off we go!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Top Mistakes Yoga Teachers Make

Mistake #1: Not Building Enough Word of Mouth

It’s tempting as a business owner to fall into the “Field of Dreams” trap, where you think “if you build it, they will come.” But simply putting out your shingle and setting up a couple of signs rarely works long-term.

We live in a digital age, yet you’ll never be able to replace good old-fashioned word of mouth. That goes double for yoga, a discipline built on being human and valuing human connections. 

Jana Johnson, co-founder of The Tree Yoga Collective, believes strongly in the power of a personal recommendation. “As a yoga studio, word of mouth is everything. At least it has been for us. When people have their own experience with us, they’re the best people to advertise for us. They’re the best people to let the next person know—and they do.”

The most reliable way to build word of mouth? Don’t focus on numbers. If only a single person attends your grand opening, then make that their experience the grandest and most life-changing yoga experience possible. It’s planting a seed that will grow exponentially.

Jana says, “The best marketing is someone who has already experienced what you have to offer. We educate and share information, which may convince and motivate people to share their experience with others in turn.”

Also, remember to ask. Some people won’t spread the word unless you request it. And asking plants a flag for people to remember you if the topic comes up. 

Mistake #2: Not Investing in a Website

Websites are a critical follow-through after you build word of mouth. Some entrepreneurs rely on their instagram profile or a simple one-page website for their online presence. All that’s doing is losing customers, and it's one of the most common yoga teachers’ business mistakes.

“Websites are extremely important,” Jana says. “If people hear about us, they’re going to want to look us up. Instagram is cool, but Instagram doesn’t cover all audiences. As a yoga studio, we want to cater to older folks as well, and to people who may not have Instagram or be on social media as much. But everyone knows how to look up a website on Google.”

But websites aren’t something you should just throw up there willy-nilly, either. They’re an important step in a customer’s journey. Once you’ve caught their interest with word of mouth, the website should help them do whatever they need to do to become your student, whether that’s book a class or sign up for a membership. 

That's where studio software comes in. You can build a beautiful, fully-functional website for yoga teachers without knowing a single lick of code, depending on the platform you choose. As a yoga teacher, website builder tools can incorporate complex website functions like bookings, payment processing, and marketing tools with the same ease as choosing an attractive website design. No web developers required!

Mistake #3: Ignoring Email Marketing

Emails have a certain stigma associated with them because of all the spam we receive, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to reach out. The key differences are your relationship with the recipient, and the value of what you’re sending. 

You have a strong connection with the people you’re emailing; they’re your students, and they’re going to want to hear what you have to say (provided that information is valuable). 

“It’s important to have a newsletter and an email,” Jana says. “All those are ways of communication, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about. We believe that we have this really great thing, but we have to let people know what’s going on, and these are just channels of letting people know.”

Your students will want to know your insights into the field of yoga and wellness. They will want to know when you’re introducing a new class or instructor into the mix. They will want to know the next time you have a seasonal sale or a promotional discount. The more value you can pour into each email, the more eager they’ll be to see it in their inbox.

With OfferingTree, you’ll be able to build emails to help attract, convert, and retain your clients.

Dress up your emails in customized branding that looks like it was built by an expensive agency. Organize your contact list into segments so you can target the people who are most interested in your offer (and reduce spam for those who aren’t). And personalize the messaging so that you can keep the human touch. 

Mistake #4: Not Knowing Your “Why” (As a Business)

The worst word you can apply to a yoga business is “generic.” Yoga practitioners value individuality just as much as businesses do—even more, in fact. As you figure out how to start a yoga business, you should know who it is you want to speak to and what values you want to express, because that will drive everything else. 

Jana believes that who you target is a personal question only you can answer. "That answer depends on why you decided to do what you’re doing. Whatever it is that’s motivating you to invest your time and money and resources into starting a business should align with who you target Your business should align with your why.”

“For The Tree Yoga Collective, our why is filling the holes of where yoga doesn’t exist in South LA. There’s a lot of yoga in the West side of LA, but none at all in South Central. For us it’s more niche. It’s not a wide net. We are speaking to specific people for the majority of our communication. Everybody’s welcome, but we want to make it clear that people who don’t feel welcome at certain places know that they’re welcome here.”

Finding your yoga studio’s identity is a journey you’ll have to take yourself, but once you’ve found that identity, platforms like OfferingTree are there to help visualize it.

Your brand can be digitized as a compelling online package for customers to engage with. Customizable website templates allow your teachers to create their own pages within your site that they can use to showcase their own specific brand and niche with their own images, colors, and content. 

Mistake #5: Under-Investing in Community

What makes yoga different from other fitness-based businesses like gyms and CrossFit is how strong and tight the communities can be. A yoga class can be a place of strong connection—with the instructor, with the students, and with the world of yoga as a whole.

Jana believes that the biggest factors in community building are who you are and how you treat people.

“The biggest factor in our community building is that all our teachers are Black and Latino. When people see themselves represented in the leadership, there’s more comfort. People start coming back, and they see the same people, and the community naturally creates itself. The programs and classes and everything we do… community building is embedded in how it’s facilitated.”

“Community building is also being real with people. Not putting ourselves above anyone. Equal sharing of information. That breaks down people’s walls.

But the moment people walk in the door. They get the vibe, they experience the aromatherapy, and the friendly welcoming. All those things matter in helping people feel like this is home, and they can be themselves, be at rest, and move with energy. Sometimes it’s challenging and hard, but sometimes it’s soothing and relaxing. And all of it is useful.”

Community isn’t just built in person, either. It can also be built digitally. Send personalized welcomes to first-timers, checking in with them by SMS or email after their first class, or reaching out to someone who hasn’t attended class in a while.

Mistake #6: Overcomplicating Pricing & Payments

When people research how to start a yoga business, they don’t often think about the impact their pricing structure will have on prospective clients. In fact, a common yoga teacher’s business mistake is to set the price in stone and not touch it ever again. That only works if you get your pricing right the first time—and new studios rarely do.

Lucie Prazska, owner of Sun Bliss Yoga, has seen many local studios come and go (and has advised quite a few herself). “Too many options confuse people,” Lucie says.

“The best thing to do is keep it simple. When I list my retreats or yoga offerings, I try to make it very clear what’s included and what’s not, so there are no surprises. Simple, transparent pricing helps people feel comfortable and confident about signing up.”

That’s an area where platforms like OfferingTree excel. You can simplify your money management by creating easy-to-understand session and membership fees, presenting them to students in a transparent manner, and offering a simplified and secure payment process that accepts all major forms of payment. 

Mistake #7: Setting an Unrealistic Budget

Most first-time entrepreneurs already know they have to set a budget. But they often get it wrong because they’ve never experienced just how quickly a business can burn money.

We asked Lucie to offer new yoga teachers financial advice, and she said, “From what I’ve observed through my experience running Sun Bliss Yoga and organizing international retreats, one of the biggest mistakes is underestimating ongoing costs and overestimating consistent income.”

“People often forget about small recurring expenses like software, marketing, insurance, or supplies — they add up quickly. And many overinvest in the look of the space, like décor or props, before really understanding what students value most. It’s the quality of teaching and community that make people come back, not just how the studio looks.”

And she’s right; it can be very easy to lose track of costs once you’re caught up in the day-to-day juggling of bookings and teaching classes.

Which is financial reporting is a key feature to look for when choosing yoga business apps and make sure it is as useful and understandable as possible when you choose one.

Mistake #8: Creating an Unsustainable Schedule

Entrepreneurs have a bad habit of going all in on their pet business, whether or not it’s healthy or profitable. 

“It’s very common in the yoga and wellness world,” Lucie shares. “Many teachers want to help everyone and end up saying yes to everything.”

“In my early days of Sun Bliss Yoga, I said yes to every opportunity — subbing extra classes, organizing events for free, or undercharging for retreats — simply because I wanted to share yoga with as many people as possible. Over time, I learned that wasn’t sustainable.”

“For example, I might spend an hour teaching a class, but another 30 minutes preparing, plus travel time — so it’s never just one hour of work. There’s always more time involved than it seems. You need to value your time and factor it into your pricing to make your work sustainable long-term.”

“I’ve also seen many great yoga teachers burnout and step away from teaching completely because they couldn’t sustain themselves — they didn’t know how to properly charge for their time or value their work.”

There are many ways that yoga teachers can lighten their burdens. You can reduce your class load by either offering fewer classes or delegating them to other teachers. You can hire more staff to handle time-consuming tasks that don’t require your oversight. Or you can invest in tools that can streamline much of your business operations. Studio software like OfferingTree is built to be one of those tools. Its extensive collection of business features helps you recover your time and preserve your energy. 

Mistakes Don’t Define Yoga Teachers; Learning Does 

Few people who open studios come into it with master’s degrees in business. You’re a yoga teacher; business mistakes are to be expected.

But the key to success is learning as quickly as possible, whether that’s through experiencing challenges firsthand or learning from others' examples. It’s learning to discern which advice, people, and tools will have a positive impact on your business.

OfferingTree stands ready to help you build your yoga business with confidence. Their platform was designed with yoga teachers like you in mind, and can help you avoid all these mistakes from day one.