Yorigam
Ask someone what a yoga teacher does and they'll picture an hour on a mat at the front of a room. Ask a yoga teacher, and you'll get a longer answer.
The hour people see
The class is the part everyone sees, and the part most of us came for. But for every hour at the front of the room, there's another hour, sometimes two, that nobody sees.
Everything else
Getting there. Three or four studios across the city, each with its own room, its own sound system and its own way of doing things. Some of the working day is spent on the Tube between them.
Planning. Sequences, playlists, themes, cues. Something fresh for the regulars, something safe for the beginners who always turn up to the advanced class.
Covers. You need one for next Thursday. Someone needs one from you for Sunday morning. A message goes into three group chats, someone replies, someone else replies too, and you have to remember who said yes.
Private clients. Booking sessions, moving them when life happens, keeping track of who has bought a package and how many sessions are left, and the slightly awkward message when a payment is late.
Your own events. A workshop or a retreat is a small business in itself: a venue to book, tickets to sell, deposits and balances to track, emails to send, and a list of who's coming.
Learning. Trainings, workshops with teachers you admire, the next certification, the reading list. Good teachers keep studying, and it costs time and money.
Being visible. Instagram, a website, a newsletter, a bio and photos for the next studio that asks.
And the admin. Invoicing every studio, each by its own deadline. Checking who's paid. Chasing who hasn't. Keeping records for your tax return. Insurance and certificates up to date and to hand.
Why it matters
None of these jobs is hard on its own. The difficulty is that they all land at once, around a teaching schedule that changes every week, and many of them sit in your head rather than anywhere reliable.
That's what wears teachers down: not the work, but the constant background hum of things to remember. Miss an invoice deadline and you wait another month to be paid. Forget who said yes to your cover and you have an awkward morning. Lose track of a package and you either undercharge or have an uncomfortable conversation.
It's even sharper for teachers who teach alongside a day job. Teaching is the part you do for love, and every evening spent on admin is an evening not spent resting, practising or with people you care about.
Putting some of it down
You can't hand off the teaching, and you probably don't want to. But a lot of the juggling can be put down:
- Get it out of your head. One place for your week, your covers, your
clients and your money is calmer than five group chats and a notes app.
- Do the admin in moments, not evenings. Invoices that take a few taps
between classes don't pile up until the weekend.
- Let the boring parts be automatic. Your calendar updating itself, the
cover message writing itself, the reminder going out on time.
- Know your numbers. Seeing what's come in and what's still owed, by
studio, privates and events, takes away a surprising amount of worry.
Where Yorigam fits
We built Yorigam because we were doing this juggling act ourselves. It keeps your week, covers, private clients, workshops, retreats and invoices in one place on your phone, so the admin takes minutes and the rest of your time goes back to teaching.
Yorigam is free for founding teachers during the beta. Join the beta