What to Do After Yoga Teacher Training: Your Complete Next-Steps Guide

You did it. You finished your yoga teacher training. 🎉

Maybe you’re holding your certificate and feeling a rush of pride. Maybe you’re feeling a strange mix of excitement and “now what?” Maybe both at the same time. All of it is normal.

After certifying over 4,000 yoga teachers through my 200-hour and 300-hour programs, I’ve seen this moment thousands of times. The training gives you the foundation. But what you do in the first 90 days after graduation sets the trajectory for your entire teaching career.

Here’s your complete guide — from the practical logistics to the deeper questions nobody warns you about.

Brett Larkin posing with a group of women. She is holding a yoga mat in one hand and the 200-hour Uplifted Yoga Teacher Training manual in the other.

The First Week: Handle the Logistics

1. Register with Yoga Alliance

This should be your first step. Registering with Yoga Alliance costs $50 for the application plus $65/year to maintain. It takes about 15 minutes online. Once registered, you can use the RYT 200 (or RYT 500) credential — which most studios, gyms, and platforms require.

Is it legally required? No. But it’s the industry standard and opens doors that are otherwise closed. At $65/year, it’s one of the cheapest professional credentials you can hold.

2. Get Yoga Teacher Insurance

Before you teach your first class — even a free one — get insured. Yoga teacher insurance starts at about $110/year and protects you if a student gets injured. Some providers like BeYogi offer student rates if you’re fresh out of training.

This isn’t optional. It’s the thing that lets you teach with confidence instead of quiet anxiety.

3. Update Your Online Presence

Update your Instagram bio, LinkedIn, and any other profiles to reflect your new credential. If you don’t have a website yet, even a simple one-page site with your bio, class schedule, and contact info is enough to start. You can always build from there.

For a deeper dive, check out our guide on how to create a yoga website.

The First Month: Start Teaching (Yes, Already)

4. Teach for Free First

I know — you just paid for training and now I’m telling you to work for free? Hear me out.

Your first 10-20 classes should be free or donation-based. Not because your time isn’t valuable — it absolutely is. But because you need reps. You need to feel what it’s like to manage a room, hold space, adjust your timing on the fly, and find your authentic teaching voice.

Options for free teaching:

  • Friends and family in your living room (even 2-3 people counts)
  • Community classes in parks or community centers
  • Volunteer at shelters, retirement homes, or schools
  • Offer to lead warm-ups at a local running club or gym

This phase usually lasts 2-4 weeks. Then you’ll feel the shift — you’ll know you’re ready to charge.

5. Find Your First Paid Teaching Opportunity

The most common path: substitute teaching at a local studio. Take classes at studios in your area. Become a familiar face. Then ask if they need subs. This is how the vast majority of studio teaching relationships start.

For detailed strategies including email templates, read our guide on how to get your first yoga teaching job. We also have cold email templates for studio outreach and templates for corporate yoga.

Don’t limit yourself to studios. Gyms, corporate offices, schools, and online platforms are all hungry for yoga teachers. Corporate yoga pays significantly more ($75-200/session) than studio classes.

6. Start Teaching Online

Don’t wait for a studio to hire you. You can start teaching on Zoom this week with zero overhead. Even if it’s just 3 students from your training cohort, it’s real teaching experience — and it plants the seed for an online business.

Many of my most successful graduates earn the majority of their income online. It’s not a backup plan — it’s often the better plan.

The First 3 Months: Build Your Foundation

7. Find Your Niche

You don’t have to teach everything to everyone. In fact, the teachers who thrive are the ones who get specific. Maybe it’s yoga for seniors. Maybe it’s somatic yoga for stress relief. Maybe it’s power vinyasa for athletes. Maybe it’s Kundalini for spiritual seekers.

Your niche will likely reveal itself through teaching. Pay attention to which classes light you up, which students you connect with most, and what topics you can’t stop talking about. For more on this, read how to find your yoga niche.

8. Build Your Email List

This is the business move most new teachers skip — and it’s the one that matters most long-term. Social media followers are rented. Your email list is owned. Start collecting emails from day one, even if your “list” is 12 people.

Offer something free in exchange for their email — a recorded class, a pose guide, a meditation audio. Then send one email per week: your class schedule, a teaching insight, a personal story. Keep it simple and consistent. Read our full guide on building a yoga email list.

9. Keep Learning (But Don’t Over-Credential)

There’s a trap new teachers fall into: taking training after training instead of actually teaching. It feels productive, but it’s often procrastination dressed up as professional development.

Teach first. Teach a lot. Let the gaps in your knowledge reveal themselves through real experience. Then invest in additional training that fills those specific gaps.

When you’re ready, a 300-hour advanced training deepens your expertise AND teaches you the business skills most 200-hour programs skip. But there’s no rush — teach for at least 6-12 months first. You’ll get so much more out of advanced training when you have real teaching questions to bring to it.

The First Year: Think Like a Business Owner

10. Understand the Money

Let’s be honest about this. The average yoga teacher salary for studio classes is about $31/hour. Full-time studio teaching (20 classes/week) earns roughly $30,000/year before taxes. That’s the reality of the traditional model.

But it’s not the only model. Teachers who diversify — combining studio classes, private sessions, online teaching, workshops, and digital products — can earn significantly more. And those who build an online business can earn six figures.

Understanding yoga teacher tax deductions and considering whether you need an LLC are also important steps as your income grows.

11. Invest in Business Education

Here’s the thing nobody tells you in most yoga teacher trainings: being a great yoga teacher and being a successful yoga teacher require different skills. Teaching skills get you in the room. Business skills keep you in the room — sustainably, without burnout, with enough income to actually live.

This is exactly why I built business coaching into my 300/500-hour program. Because yoga teachers deserve to thrive financially — not just spiritually.

68% of our graduates report an increase in yoga-related revenue before they even complete the program.

12. Create a Simple Business Plan

You don’t need an MBA-level document. You need answers to three questions:

  1. Who do I teach? (your niche/ideal student)
  2. Where do I teach? (studio, online, both?)
  3. How do I earn? (which income streams?)

For a detailed template, check out our guide on creating a yoga business plan.

The Emotional Side (That Nobody Warns You About)

Can I be real with you for a moment?

The weeks after yoga teacher training can feel surprisingly hard. During training, you were held — by your teachers, your cohort, a structured schedule. Now you’re on your own, and it can feel like a free fall.

You might experience:

  • Imposter syndrome — “Who am I to teach?” (Everyone feels this. It fades with practice.)
  • Comparison — watching other teachers on Instagram and feeling behind. (You’re seeing their year 5, not their day 1.)
  • Grief — missing your training community. (This is real. Stay connected. Your cohort is your lifeline.)
  • Overwhelm — too many options, not knowing where to start. (Start anywhere. Momentum matters more than strategy.)
  • Purpose questions — “Should I actually do this?” (If you’re asking, the answer is probably yes. The pull toward teaching is worth listening to.)

All of this is normal. All of it passes. And all of it — including the discomfort — is part of the transformation that yoga teacher training initiates.

Your 90-Day Checklist

Here’s the simplified version you can screenshot and pin to your wall:

For even more action items, read our companion post: 10 Things You Must Do After Your Yoga Teacher Training.

The Bigger Picture

Your yoga teacher training wasn’t the destination. It was the doorway. Everything that comes after — the awkward first classes, the student who cries in savasana, the moment you realize you’re actually teaching and not just reciting cues — that’s where the real training begins.

You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to start.

And if you’re looking for a community that doesn’t disappear after graduation — that’s exactly what the Uplifted Membership is for. 1,000+ classes, continuing education credits, and a global community of teachers who get it. 🙏

Brett Larkin sitting on a yoga mat next to an Uplifted 300/500 hour yoga teacher training sample on multiple devices including a computer monitor, a laptop, a tablet, and a phone.
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