Yoga Teacher Training Forum

Not offensive at all. I completely agree, having just closed down my yoga studio after a year. Best intentions, hours and hours of work every day, knowing a lot about marketing, teaching 8-20 classes a week... the paperwork and managing teachers are what wore me down.

It looked like the studio was going to be a huge success, as operating costs for two months got covered the week we opened by offering a prepaid one-year unlimited class plan.

Growth stopped, though, and my business plan failed me. I had hoped to offer high quality yoga at an affordable price -- $39 a month with a 1-year contract -- but when we hit our peak number of members, I was still only walking home with $600 a month. Then membership started to shrink, as people lost jobs, had to move, etc. The last month I worked another job and had to put most of that money into paying my teachers.

All said and done, it was a great year and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But I'm not sure I would do it again -- I lost my entire life's savings. Now I teach one class a week at a church and focus on my personal practice. I'm rediscovering my love of yoga, looking for a summer job to hold me over until I can get to Mexico this fall.