If you’re considering running a yoga teacher training, you need to consider how much you will pay your yoga teacher trainers – or associate faculty. Unless you’re teaching the whole training yourself, your faculty fees will probably be the largest expense that you have. And of course, faculty can make or break the quality and experience of your yoga teacher training and the student experience. So let’s take a look!
Yoga Teacher Trainer Roles
Once you have selected your faculty (based on their skill, emotional IQ, and professional responsibility), you will want to consider the role that they are playing your yoga teacher training.
- Is your yoga teacher training bringing and teaching their own material, or are they teaching yours?
- How much of the program (what percentage) are they teaching?
- Are they part of your Yoga Alliance faculty or credentialing organization (i n other words, do you depend on them teaching to maintain your credentials with your registration body)?
- Will the faculty help with marketing (getting students into the program through announcements, social media posts, and being a player in marketing efforts)?
My personal preference is that yoga teacher trainers – unless they are teaching a very specific subject – teach your curriculum rather than their own. I am a fan of studios and teachers owning all the material in their own yoga teacher training so that they are not reliant on an outside individual for the quality of their training. Trainers will of course add their own flair and voice to any subject that they are teaching, but you want to have the rights to your own manual and materials so that if your faculty leaves the studio, you don’t lose your training.
Payrates for Yoga Teacher Trainers
You can pay a yoga teacher trainer in two essential ways:
- by the hour,
- with a percentage of the training revenue. For example, if you have two faculty members that are teaching the program, you may think it’s a good idea to pay each of them 25% of the revenue, and the studio keeps 50%.
I usually suggest that you pay a trainer by the hour, as then you can estimate your own training expenses and revenue more accurately. I have also found that the burden for marketing your YTT (and of course other expenses) will generally fall onto the shoulders of the hosting studio. While you can implement referral ideas (hey, for every student you personally bring in, you get $100!), this can be challenging because students usually attend a YTT for a variety of reasons rather than simply for one faculty member.
Pay by Hour
Payrates per hour for trainers can range.
If you are providing the lesson plans and all the materials, then you may pay your trainers $50-$70 per hour. If someone teaches all 200 hours, the minimum they should walk away with would be 10K ($50/hour). Generally, YTT time should pay more than that teacher’s class rate, as it requires a higher degree of skill and knowledge. However, if you have experienced teachers who are using their own material, then you may pay them up to $125-$150/ hour.
You may also consider having YTT assistants who are learning the ropes whom you pay at lower rates. For example, you may pay an aspiring teacher trainer $15-$25/hour to assist the training ~ or even require that they take the training once for free as a student in order to learn the content ~ with the expectation that when they can pull their own weight, they will earn a higher wage.
Consider the following sample budget:
- 200 classroom hours, paying your fairly experienced lead trainer $75/hour = $15,000
- Your revenue for 10 students @$3000/student = $30,000
- In this scenario, you’d be paying your faculty 50% of the revenue
After you pay for your space rental, manual printings, Yoga Alliance fees, processing fees, etc, you’d probably net 8-10K. However, for every student that you bring in, you’d have another 3K of revenue.
You could elect to do bonuses to incentivize trainers to promote the YTT while covering your own investment. For example, the trainer could earn one fee for 8-12 students, a higher rate for 13-18 students, and an even higher rate for 19-25 students.
Pay by percentage
The benefit of a percentage split is that everyone is taking a risk, and everyone is invested. However, as I mentioned above, my experience has been that the studio usually bears the marketing burden.
If you are interested in doing a percentage split, consider the following
- Make sure that you are doing a split of the net, not the gross. In other words, carefully look at your expenditures and make sure that you are accounting for them (rental if needed, processing fees, marketing costs, manual printing) and for the trainer, perhaps their transport costs of (if they’re out of town), their lodging.
- A percentage split makes more sense if the trainer is bringing all the intellectual property and training materials with them. In other words, if you’re partnering with a trainer and they are providing everything and you’re just providing the space, community, and registration support, then you’d likely do a percentage split of 70/30, 65/35 or 60/30 (in their favor). After all, they’re bringing all the goodies. Just make sure that you’re not taking too much of a hit on revenue in the form of cancelling classes, etc.
Contracts
Whichever way you go, have a contract. Have a clear minimum number of students that you agree must be signed up by a certain time for the training to run. For example, you may have an agreement that you must have 10 students signed up 14 days before the start date. If faculty is coming in from out of town, make sure you have cancellation clauses for their expenses (transportation, accommodation) or ensure that they’ve purchased trip insurance. Now, you could choose to adjust these last minute, but it’s important to have your benchmarks set and agreed upon in advance so you are not caught be surprise.
Number of Trainers
If you are paying your trainers a decent rate (say, $75/hour), then you’ll probably only want one teaching a time ~ unless you have over 20 students. In our example above, if you were paying two teachers to be there the whole 200 hours at $75/hour, it would cost you 30K. Schedule your trainers judiciously. You may have a lead trainer and assistant there the whole time, or you may have two trainers there at critical times (for example, the welcome at the start of the training as well as the final assessment and graduation).
Be savvy about how you schedule your trainers and when so that you are very clear on what you will be paying every hour of the training.
Final Thoughts
Your trainers will make or break the training. Choose them carefully (see my blog here about selecting faculty. And treat them well. Create clear contracts and make sure they feel good about their relationship with you. Pay them as well as you can, and be fair and transparent in how you are arriving at payrates (it can even be useful to share your budget with them so that they understand your expenses). Teaching a YTT is a great opportunity for them, as it creates an opportunity to enjoy a more substantial payrate. And having wonderful faculty represent your YTT is great for you, as they will be a personalized expression of your brand and your business. When this relationship is entered thoughtfully and respectfully, it creates a marvellous win win for everyone: you, the trainer, and your students.
