Initially I will be starting off as a freelancer/independent contractor so as to garner maximum teaching opportunities.
In the beginning experience is the most important thing, so the more classes I teach the more competent a teacher I will become. A variety of students, venues and teaching styles will also be important.
I don’t really yet understand my compulsion to teach. While I can say wholeheartedly that the relationships formed are a big part of it, there seems to be a significant intangible that I just can’t really explain yet. Maybe I never will be able to…
I need to work on: marketing. This is probably going to be the biggest thing holding me back. For certain venues, as the teacher, it will be my responsibility to get students to the class. So far it has been fairly easy for my weekly beginners’ class. Word of mouth has yielded as many students as my home “studio” can hold, but these are just friends and friends of friends. Not necessarily people who will pay for classes. How do I go about hooking other people that may have an interest in yoga but are not aware of my existence or the classes I teach.
Avenues to pursue:
- Home studio - owner has already offered me teaching/partial teaching of (a) class(es)
- Corporate - home studio owner wants me in charge of corporate client recruitment/maybe teaching some of these… what does this mean for my own interest in getting corporate clients? do I have an obligation to the studio?
- High school sports teams - is this an avenue? Was the offer I received not an indication of a potential market?
- Other studios - What to do here? Call and ask? Start attending as a student?
- Self-organized classes in public places - free? to be used to recruit for paid classes?
Since I am not really starting a business I will not have many expenses. Perhaps I will need to have an arsenal of supplies, but this will depend on the venue(s) accommodations. Other than that, I suppose gas would be my only expense.
Depending on the venue, class cost will vary. In some situations I will be reporting to a “boss” who will determine the value of my time, based more off the number of students in the class. Again this comes back to marketing. I wish I had something more concrete on this, but I suppose all is coming?
Ugh this is so depressingly pathetic. I don’t even know how to make a business plan. This is just the thoughts of the last month put down on paper… dontcha just love when attempting to be productive just depresses the fuck out of you?
