Is music teaching your passion? Whether it is guitar or piano or drums, you love the idea of novice music enthusiasts becoming pro in their instruments and giving you the credit for the same? You enjoy seeing the satisfaction on their face when they can master a chord? Well then you are on the right side of this noble profession of teaching music. But you need to know that you have to also think of it as a business and cannot afford to be unprofessional about it. Here are some tips you can follow to make it work for you.
First have professional settings. This means that if you have a brick and mortar class make sure that the facilities and the instruments you have meet the requirements of your students. Build a proper studio, with right type of acoustics and all the instruments in good shape. Have proper sitting arrangements for students waiting for their lessons and get an administrator to arrange and organise things while you concentrate on teaching your students. It might sound a lot of cost, but if you think properly it might not turn out to be as costly as you think. Being a musician I’m assuming that you already have some form of facilities to support your passion. All you need to do is extend them to meet the requirements of your students.
Do not just focus on teaching in the class. You need to reach out to all the students worldwide. Internet has made world a very small place and you need to exploit this avenue to the fullest. You can teach music to your students on the internet either by selling your DVD’s and/or books to music enthusiasts or even do online classes through Skype or Webex or WiQzi. There are a lot of tools out there that can help you give live lectures to your students on the Internet and you should try and exploit them as much as possible. For this you will need to develop your website and actively market your services.
Once you have set-up your business start by contacting your close friends and family and offer them lessons. This can be a good starting point and they can become your ambassadors in the future. Also since most of these people know that you play well, they will be more willing to come to you to learn. The best way to get in touch with these people is through social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Even if your friends do not want to learn they can at least recommend you on their Facebook Wall and this will help you get more students.
Not to mention the time tested methods of marketing like flyers at local supermarkets or putting up an advert in local newspaper etc. I would also recommend Google AdWords to get more people coming to your site. Offer your services to some community events for free and in return ask them to put banners of your music institute and have a desk where you can solicit inquiries.
Finally ensure that you get your pricing right. Study what your competition is offering. Price it right and also think about what price promotions you would want to do. Also think about various types of courses like crash course to detail in-depth course. Finally you need to price private tuitions as well. This will help you to offer your special services at a price to someone who really wants to learn music well. This way you can try and appeal to wider range of customers.
The key here is that you need to have business sense when you are promoting your music lessons. It is not just about being passionate about teaching music that is important; you also need to know how to let the world know about your passion.
