My 2025 Review

This month celebrates a year since I left primary school teaching to embark on fully focussing on my Yoga business. I had set up the business a couple of years ago so I wasn’t starting from scratch but this was the first time I had come out of the classroom to try my hand at something else. I was both excited and nervous at the prospect but knew without doubt that it was the right thing to do.

I had heard and read a lot about how teachers have many different transferable skills. I didn’t appreciate how many until this year!

It is always good to review your year, I think. What you have experienced, what you have learnt and gained along the way.

To run a successful business, I have learnt that there are many different hats you need to wear – some I feel quite confident with, others have been a fairly easy learning experience and some have been much more challenging! I have reviewed my first year being fulltime in my business - my journey along my yellow brick road; all the jobs I have and how I have found each.  

Welcome to my review of 2025…

CEO – Chief Executive Officer

I have been to many different Yoga classes with many different Yoga teachers and I always find it so interesting that every one is different: All called ‘Yoga’ classes yet you can have completely different experiences in each.

As CEO, I have had to create the vision of what I am building: making the decisions of where I want to teach, the type of experience I want to provide, planning timetables and diaries, classes and events, setting goals and aims and keep everything moving forwards. This has taken some time – I just needed to build confidence. I have found my style this year and approach my classes with more confidence: “This is what I do and I hope you love it, but if not then there will be another teacher out there for you and I hope you find them because this practise has so many benefits.” is my thought every time I enter a class.

Planning, timetabling, diary organising – nailed it! Transferable skill.

Director of Teaching & Curriculum

I design and deliver classes, tailor sessions for different needs. I create lesson plans around certain themes considering what all my students need and enjoy. This is an aspect of the job I really enjoy. I am in my comfort zone planning lessons and I love thinking about a quirky class name and then theming my lessons around the title. I especially enjoy writing and delivering guided meditations which is something that I have discovered this year.

Head of Marketing & Communications

I made it my aim last year to write a monthly newsletter which I have managed to do. Some months are easier than others! As time has gone on, it has been really nice to get feedback from people about what I have written about. You send out these emails and in reality, no-one might read them so I always feel really grateful when someone tells me that they really enjoyed what I shared in my newsletter.

More recently, I have started this blog on my website. A decision that was made after I sent a newsletter about where my yoga journey started. I got some really lovely feedback and comments about this newsletter so I learnt how to add a blog to my website so when I had a newsletter that felt more relevant over time, I had a place to put them. Welcome to The Blog!

And then. Of course, there is social media. I spend so much of my time on Canva now, designing social media posts and flyers advertising my classes. Design is not my forte and I am a real one for procrastination so this part of the job can take me absolutely ages! At the beginning of the year, I spent time making slides and then never actually posting them because I didn’t think they were good enough. I am getting quicker at making and am starting to post more now but I still need to get better.

Getting the balance between informing people and telling them what I offer without feeling like I am going into broken record mode and nagging is still a work in progress!

I think the lesson that I have learnt most recently is post loads: I posted on a community Facebook page about my Yoga classes and then someone within 48 hours posted a question on the group asking if there are any yoga classes in the area… If people aren’t looking in the moment, then they don’t see it. Is there such a thing as harping on about something when social media is such a vast space? A question that I might be beginning to find an answer to.

Finance Manager

Deciding how much to charge for classes and knowing what my overheads are is, of course, all my responsibility. The hiring of different spaces and Zoom subscription; the props I have bought for my in-person classes; the subscription for my website and choosing the level of service I need; my insurance; training or courses that I want to do all need to be budgeted for so I know what my monthly outgoings are.

I also teach at a gym and cover classes at a number of different venues all which need different invoices for different amounts on different dates in different formats. If they are not done on time, then I don’t get paid!

And, whether it be my own classes or classes at gyms or studios, I need to keep track of who has paid and who owes and chase late payments up. It is surprising how many well-known, bigger companies don’t pay their employees on time!

Luckily, (as anyone who has worked with me knows) I am the Excel Queen and so this has come quite easily to me. I have a system and I keep on top of my finances well.

Customer Care & Community Manager

I respond to messages, both from current students and people who are interested in joining one of my classes. Mostly emails, but some people prefer to communicate through Facebook messenger, text and on some occasions, I have phone calls from people with enquiries. All of this takes time and needs to be kept on top of daily. Most questions and queries are super easy and quick to answer but there have been times when people have messaged me with various conditions they have asked if my yoga classes would be appropriate for them. I have spent time researching the condition and considering what modifications and alternative I can offer in my classes and invite them along. Sometimes I never hear from them again.

I have to keep on top of the different apps and Whatsapp groups I’m in to pick up cover work.

This part of the job takes a bit of time but is pretty easy to keep on top of as long as you check all the channels of communication daily and answer queries as you get them so they don’t build up and get forgotten.

HR & Professional Development Officer

I invest in my own growth and really enjoy taking courses and going to workshops to learning new skills or techniques to weave into my classes. One of the courses I have benefitted from the most is the Chair Yoga course. This led to me starting my own class in September and it is the most successful class I run! So grateful that I took that leap to start a class of my own.

I still go to Yoga classes as a student and am inspired by other teachers to continue to improve my teaching.

IT & Website Administrator

This one has probably been my biggest learning curve – managing my website. Creating it in the first place took weeks of work. I have upgraded and developed this space hugely over the last year or so to offer online bookings and online yoga programs and yoga series that people can either buy or subscribe to. All this requires ongoing updates and maintenance. There are so many different steps to setting up all the different functions. It has taken hours of watching YouTube videos to learn how to add a function to a page. There have been days where it has taken 8 hours to make a button do what you want it to! You feel like a whole day of work has virtually nothing to show for it and can be beyond frustrating. This is certainly one of the most time-consuming part of the job. There was certainly a time earlier this year when it took a customer 2 minutes to book a class but that function had taken me 8 hours to set up. Thankfully, I am getting quicker!

Health & Safety Officer

There are many people in my classes with different needs and it is my responsibility to ensure classes are safe, inclusive, and tailored to what students need by having props and suggesting alternatives to those who need different options.

Events & Programme Planner

As well as planning lessons, I also planned and ran two day-retreats last year. This part of the job I really enjoy and really feel in my zone of comfort. I enjoy planning and have loved considering what I would like a retreat day to look and feel like and used this to inform my planning of these events. The two days that I ran were really successful and got lovely feedback. I look forward to planning more this year!

On one of the days, I collaborated with another teacher which is something that I hadn’t done before in this line of work. It was really interesting working with someone else and learning how different teacher approach events. Something that I would love to do again in this coming year.

Logistics & Facilities Manager

I make sure that spaces are ready when my students come into a room. Music is paying and props are ready. The room has been warmed or cooled the best I can (heating or fans at the ready!).

I also have to keep in contact with the people who organise the venue hire, making sure they know the dates I want the space from and to and pay the invoices I receive on time.

This is mostly easy because I have systems in place. I think the part of this job that has been the most frustrating is the lack of responses I get when emailing venues about hiring their spaces. To me, it feels like everyone is winning with what I offer: the space gets money from me, the community have the opportunity to come to local Yoga classes and I earn from being there but it has been shocking how many places I have emailed and have never received a response from. This has made the prospect of growing my business a lot harder than I thought it would be and something I need to consider this coming year.

Overall, it has been a successful year. There are moments of despondency sometimes but never any regrets. Every experience is a lesson whether it is positive or not so much. A very wise woman (Amy Jones - if you have your own business, she is well worth looking up) says "Persistent consistent action in the direction of your dreams." What great advice to live by, whatever you are doing!