When you start a yoga business, your main focus will be on finding a good space and advertising your classes so you can get your first students. It’s an exciting time, but there is also some boring admin stuff that you need to deal with as well.

All businesses need to deal with legal issues, and a yoga business is no exception. You need to do things like register the business and trademark the name before you get started. But as the business starts to grow and you bring more teachers on board, there are new legal challenges to deal with.

Employment law can be quite confusing but it’s important that everything is above board. If you breach employment law, your business may find itself in a lot of legal trouble and you may be subject to big fines, so you need to make sure that you follow all the right procedures. Here’s how you can ensure that your yoga business complies with employment laws. 

Worker Classification 

Worker classification used to be simple, you were either employed by a company or you weren’t. But the rise of freelancers and contract work means that there are a lot of grey areas there now. Full-time employees are entitled to certain rights like sick pay and annual leave, but freelancers that are technically self-employed are not. However, some businesses find themselves in trouble because they treat a teacher as a freelancer when they are considered a full-time employee by the authorities. This means that they are not given the sick pay and leave that they are entitled to and you are in breach of employment law. That’s why you need to know whether somebody is a freelancer or a full-time employee, which can be tricky. Usually, if somebody takes regular classes for you at set times, and they have a contract in place, they are a full-time employee. But if somebody does the occasional class for you as and when they are available, they are considered a freelancer. 

Payroll 

If you are hiring full-time employees, you are responsible for dealing with their tax contributions. It’s also important that people are paid the correct wage and any increases for overtime that are written into their contract. Handling payroll is a lot more difficult than people realize, which is why it’s a good idea to invest in ELMO Cloud Payroll software. Payroll software can automate a lot of the basic payroll tasks so everybody gets paid the correct amount, on time. It will also help to ensure that you are compliant where tax issues are concerned. 

Insurance 

When you open a yoga studio, you will need general liability insurance to cover you if a student is injured during a class and attempts to make a compensation claim against you. However, this insurance does not always cover any teachers that you hire. It’s best to be safe and insist that all teachers have their own insurance before they can take any classes. 

As long as you follow these steps, you can avoid any legal issues when hiring yoga teachers for your studio.  

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