How To Create Value For Your Private Yoga Clients
As a business of yoga coach helping yoga teachers grow profitable businesses with private lessons, one of the questions I get asked most often is “How do I create enough value for my clients to justify charging a high rate?”
When I hear a teacher ask this question, I hear two separate concerns.
I hear a commitment to service and a desire to ensure that the client has a valuable experience practicing yoga with the teacher.
I also hear a lot of fear within this question. The teacher who asks this question is usually afraid that they are in some way not “good enough” to charge a “high” rate for their services, and that the client they work with will not value them.
It is important to be of highest service possible to your clients and to create as much value for them as you can. This article will explore some ways you can do that.
It is also extremely important to develop a deep, unwavering sense of inherent self worth and value as a person and a teacher, and to not live in fear that your clients will not value you.
I urge you to consider this: as a teacher, business owner, and service provider, it is not your responsibility to justify your rates to anyone.
If you yourself are convinced of and highly confident in your own infinite worth and the inherent enormous value of the yoga you offer, you should have no problem charging any amount for it.
Becoming a person who feels inherently valuable and worthy of the rates you charge is the absolute best way you can create value for your clients.
Master that, and also use these five tips to create value for your clients.
1) Be Prepared
Take time before your first session with a new client to learn about them and their unique physical and emotional needs. My favorite way to do this is with an initial phone consultation.
During the initial phone consultation I ask my clients about their level of experience with yoga, if they have injuries or any physical limitations, and why they are looking to do private yoga lessons. I try to get a clear sense of what results they are hoping to get. They may be wanting to get in better physical shape, relieve stress, or establish a solid self care ritual in their life.
Arrive to the introductory session prepared with some ideas of how you will approach the session based on what the client told you on the phone. If you know they are an absolute beginner, arrive with the intention to teach the basics. If you know they have an injury, arrive prepared to offer appropriate poses and modifications. Depending on your level of teaching experience and your approach to sequencing, you may or may not want to prepare and memorize a detailed sequence to teach. As with teaching groups, always be prepared to throw the plan out the window and improvise in the moment as necessary.
Beyond the introductory session, continue to arrive to every session as prepared as possible with either a sequence or at least some loose ideas of what you would like to teach and focus on.
2) Be Present
Pay close attention to your private client while teaching them.
Watch their body for information about what you can offer to help them learn and go deeper. You are not just reciting a sequence and moving them through a string of poses. Look at what you see in front of you and offer verbal, visual, and tactile cues to assist them in getting the full benefit of each pose.
The unique benefit of teaching an intimate private session is that you can devote all of your attention to just the one student. You can check in with them throughout the session and ask questions like “How does that feel?” and “Where do you feel that?” With practice, you will find what feels like an appropriate balance of dialogue, teaching, and silence with each individual client.
Pay attention to your client’s breath and facial expressions and however possible, guide them to breathing and moving with more ease and flow.
People want to be seen, held, and understood. Giving your full, undivided, loving attention to your client creates infinite value for them.
3) Assign Homework
Your client’s yoga practice does not need to stop at the time they spend in session with you. You can create more value for your client by assigning them homework to do in between their sessions with you. This is especially beneficial if your client only works with you once per week.
The specific homework you assign will vary depending on who the client is and what you are working on with them in session.
If your client is a beginner, you may want to keep the homework very simple and just have them practice 2–3 basic postures on their own. Homework for someone of any level could be daily meditation or sun salutations. For an advanced client who you are teaching a specific sequence that peaks with an advanced posture, you may ask them to practice the same sequence and peak posture on their own.
I have personally had a client say to me “Your rate is a big investment for me so I am going to practice once a week on my own so that I get more value out of our work together.”
Your clients want to get meaningful results and will appreciate it if you assign them homework!
4) Stay Connected
Staying connected to your private yoga clients in between your sessions with them increases the value of their overall investment. The simplest way to do this is to check in with them via text or e-mail. You can reach out and ask “How are you feeling after our session yesterday?” or say “Let me know if there’s anything special you’d like to focus on next week.”
I send my clients articles to read as a follow up to something we covered in session. You can send your clients reading that clarifies a posture you worked on in session or a philosophical concept you taught.
If your client takes a long break from working with you because they are traveling for work or on vacation, stay connected! You can offer to work with them online via Zoom, or pre-record yoga videos to share with them so they can practice on their own.
5) Remember That You Are The Value
By far the most important thing I want yoga teachers to understand about creating value for their clients is that they are the value.
My private yoga clients did not choose to work with me for my number of hours of teacher training, for my credentials, or because I am the perfect teacher in any way.
The reason my clients said “yes” to working with me and continue to work with me multiple times per week in an ongoing sense, is because they connect with me as a person, feel good about welcoming me into their home, and enjoy working with me.
The most important thing you can do for your client is be your authentic self, keep your heart open, and let your unique light shine.
Your job is not to pretend to be anything that you are not. You do not need to know the answer to every question. You do not need to be able to do every advanced pose perfectly.
You only need to be who you are, know what you know, and teach what you know! Do this, and your clients will fall in love with you and happily work with you for a long time.
Do you want to teach more private yoga clients?
If you want to make more money as a yoga teacher by teaching private clients but are confused and stuck about how to find clients, sign up for Emily’s free masterclass, Entrepreneurship 108.
You can also apply to join Emily’s Facebook group, “Abundant Yogi Collective.”
Emily Sussell is a Brooklyn-based private yoga teacher, business of yoga coach, and entrepreneur. She has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, and Time Out.
*Photos by Stephanie Cowan, The Blonde With The Smile*
