Thinking about becoming a Pilates teacher Part-Time?

Pilates teacher

When I first started as a Pilates teacher it was on a part-time basis.  I had managed to reduce my hours as a Police Officer with Devon Police  to 30hrs/pw and I made up the rest of my income with 10 hours of teaching pilates classes.   

I had a few classes in the morning and a few in the evening and they were all scheduled around my shift pattern……

Often when an idea comes to mind….  

Such as:

“I want to start teaching Pilates part time”

We often start getting all those doubts and fears in our head…  

“I couldn’t do that”

“My boss won’t let me”

“I couldn’t afford to reduce my hours”

“I won’t make enough money teaching Pilates”

Sound familiar?

And I’m sure there’s probably more you could add to the list above!

It’s absolutely NORMAL – our brain wants to keep us in SAFE MODE.

But I am here to tell you that it IS possible..

Don’t get me wrong it’s not going to be a walk in the park.

I used to work night shifts finishing at 7am and sometimes even later if I had to work over time. I’d go home have a nap and then wake up wanting to cry my eyes out because I was so knackered and still had to go and teach two classes.. One of them being an INSANITY class! (never again!).

BUT I DID IT…I became a Pilates teacher.  

Have you got what it takes to become a teacher ?

If you’re in full time employment wanting to reduce your hours your first step is to contact HR or whoever does your wages and ask them how much your pay would be reduced by if you dropped a day or 2 (however many you’d like to reduce) or as in the police it’s calculated in hours…  That will give you an idea of how many classes you will need to teach.

If you’re not in full time employment and you just want to do this in your spare time you can still follow the steps to find how how much you can make teaching Pilates.

The next step is to decide if you’re going to teach for someone else, which is a set payment on a regular basis or if you’re going to start classes yourself.

I did a mixture of both….  

Generally teaching Pilates for someone else, whether it’s a gym or a studio will get you anywhere between £20 to £35 per class.

If for example you wanted to earn £500 from teaching pilates and you knew you could get 1 class per week at a gym that paid you £20 per class you know at the end of the month you’d have £80 (give or take the months with extra weeks – consider those as bonuses!).

So you would have to find a way to make another £420 per month.

Do you want to do private sessions (ranging from £20 – £50 per client per hour) or classes?  

Money is in the classes – with private clients you’re restricted to the income per hour that you can earn, however it’s still an option, as it’s easier to fit one person into your schedule than it is 20.

Let’s leave the private client and work on classes.. (the calculations would be the same if you preferred to work with private clients rather than classes.)

If you know you have 6 hours to spare for classes then you also need to look at location and size of class.

Is your class going to have 12 in it or 20 in it?

Let’s go for 15 clients per class and we need 6 classes per week to make £420 (and I can tell you now…. You’ll make more with the numbers we are using for this example!)

£420 per month

6 classes per week x 4 weeks = 24 classes per month

15 clients per class x 24 = 360 bums on mats per month

Basically if you charged each of those clients £1 per class you would be getting £360 per month..

SO this is where the fun starts…

Working part time teaching pilates and making up the rest of your working hours in another job is not easy.  

You certainly don’t want to kill yourself or burn out as that’s not going to help you achieve anything…

Having the guaranteed payment from the gym is great and it’s a good learning curve when you start so let’s keep that…

So unless REALLY wanted to work 6 hours, lets reduce it to 3 hours per week.

Now you’re going to get everyone to buy a 4 class pass, as you won’t be doing pay as you go NEVER EVER EVER….(that’s for another blog!)

I always look at it from a “how much do I want to earn” point fo view and take if from there…  

AIM HIGHER THAN YOU ACTUALLY WANT..

So we know you need £420 to make up your income as you’re going part time…

BUT let’s push the boat out a little and aim for £800.. So you can have your nails done and treat your family to those lovely little extras!

So that’s 15 clients per class for 3 classes per week (12 per month)

=180 bums on mats.

How much are you going to charge ?

800/180 (per client / per class) = £4.44 per person per class BUT we’re charging for 4 classes

£4.44 x 4 class pass = £17.77

AND THERE’S NO WAY YOU’LL BE CHARGING THAT.. it’s far too low… (and that’s for another blog too).

So let’s say you’ll charge £24 for a 4 class pass (£6 per class).

15 people x £24 = £360 per month

So if you only ran ONE CLASS PER WEEK …. charging £24pp for the month you’d make £360…

So multiply that by 3 classes per week = £1080 per month!

AND THEY SAY YOU CAN’T MAKE MONEY TEACHING PILATES….

So actually include your £80 per month for teaching at a gym and that gives you £1160pm for working 4 hours per week teaching pilates and of course you will have to do lots of work behind the scenes to grow your business, however I hope this shows you the potential of earning a very good income DOING SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND ENJOY!

You just have to know how to charge and how to set up your business…

So at the end of the day it all boils down to have you got what it takes to do the work that needs to be done to achieve this….

We have spent a LOT of money (and still currently paying a coach 5 figures!) learning how to market our business and to learn how to get our classes FULL before we’ve even started….its hard work becoming a teacher, but rewarding.

For example, at the time of writing this blog we are looking at starting classes in Plymouth…

We currently have 60 people on a waiting list.. I don’t even have the venues or teachers confirmed!!!!!  

HOW ?

Because I know how to advertise my business and get clients in… FAST…

So …..

My final question to you is…

Are YOU ready to go Part Time???

If you’d like to find out more about becoming a pilates teacher and creating a fabulous business for you and your family then get in touch! Click here

Lots of love from Devon

Tanja x