I dont know what to think about dropping the prices of my lessons, I have been going over it in my head and I have these back and forth arguments....... Today I had a students dad who said - we can't afford to come every week at £20, so will come fornightly.
On the one hand I started at a lower price years ago - very low I was charging £12 an hour - and why did I do that? Because I was a novice at teaching, as I gained more experience I slowly increased my price and its stuck at £20 for a long time now, my students dad said "If it was £15 we'd come every week" but then if I drop it to £15 is someone else going to say "well if it was £10 id come every week" how far do I go? I cant accomodate everyone. On the other hand Ive thought well if I charge £15 I might get 10 people coming every week rather than half that who come every week or fornightly - however I dont want to be "the cheap teacher" and eventually I feel id have to charge more in the long run to get back to where I was - maybe that would be easier to do after a recession? I dont know. So I'm in the awkward position of sitting on the fence, silly thing is, he knew I charged £20 because thats what he paid the first time. Another thing that vexes me is the first time I saw him he bought his son a guitar for his 11th birthday at Dawsons,im almost sure this is a second guitar and maybe if he was so short for money he should have considered not getting another guitar for him and using that money on me........ but then again his first guitar could have been a £30 piece of crap. Or maybe this is his first electric (but I dont think thats the case)
So....... quesition for you or rather your view - if I charge £15 - which is what he wants me to do - first of all I feel to make it fair, you have to charge £15 to everyone cant make an exception for one person but not the other but if I drop my price - do I eventually try to get back to where I was charging £20 over time (building up in small increments)?
See I think my teaching skills are good, very good, I'd in fact say that I'm probably better at teaching guitar than playing it. My ex guitar teacher has built up his price over the years and now he charges £22 and I know hes going to raise it again in the future. He however (this will sound critical but there you go) is not as good a teacher as me : he is not positive about what his students achieve, in his words when I asked "Have you got any really good pupils who have impressed you?" he responded "Not really I've seen it all now, nothing impresses me" I mean COME ON! To see someone do their first song changing chords and strumming and doing both at the same time! That is amazing! It gives me amazing feeling, a buzz! I always thing I will feel that way and if I get jaded and bored and DON'T feel that way I will quit teaching and get another job. Seriously! There is no point doing it if you don't get excited about the progress made by the ones you teach. He also spends a lot of his time talking, not about guitar or music (which is only acceptable in small doses anyway) but about pointless crap, I remember him moaning about how much he hated his house and wanted to move nearly every lesson and I was too nice to say "I'm paying good money to hear this crap!" Eventually I voted with my feet and left. So he is charging £22 for something which I am providing at £20 and my service is much better, value for money I think!
However don't get me wrong, I am very much considering lowering prices........ if I got 10 people at £15 surely that's better than 3 and £20, however I don't think that lowering the price will instantly get me a huge queue of people lining up at the door, my phone simply is not ringing at all. No one has even called recently to say "How much do you charge?" so I don't know what to do at all right now.
Opinions?
together we stand, divided we fall..........
Tough question. Every market is different. But here are my observations and experiences from our school.
When I opened, my immediate competitors were charging $17-20 for 30 minutes. The closest competitor geographically had announced an increase to $22. I opened our doors asking $20.
We opened in 2008, just as the recession was hitting. I spent a lot of time and money marketing our place to stay above water. As the recession got worse, the overall size of the market shrunk - if you're laid off, you cut back. We lost students, just as everyone else did.
Our competitors responded by reducing their expenses, including advertising. I quadrupled our marketing budget. My thinking: if I did nothing, we would lose students, and profits would fall. If I spent the money, I would attract students, but with the extra expenses, profits would fall. Given the choice between the two, attracting students meant we'd be better positioned when the economy improved.
The economy is still bad, but it doesn't seem to be shrinking anymore locally. But it's still taken its toll on the market size. So you can look at that and say "this is awful!"... or you can say to yourself "this is an opportunity!".
I know my situation is different from being a solo teacher (although I worked as you do for many years), but my thinking was: if the economy is bad, and fewer people are taking lessons... well, that means there are good teachers without enough students to make a living. And I set out to find them. I hired the best I could, paid them more than my competitors, and marketed like mad to get enough students to be above break-even with my higher payroll cost per lesson.
Other costs, like rent and insurance, kept rising. Last year I made the decision to raise our price (to $22), which puts us 10 to 30% above our local competitors. I also gave all the teachers raises - something no one else was doing. I did that because I know how I would feel if I was teaching in a place that raised the rate without 'sharing the wealth' (I've been in that position). They also all know teachers at other places who are being asked to take less money, or give free lessons, or both. When I'm giving raises that ranged from 3-10%, that stands out. And we lost less than 1% of the students over the increase.
The end result: we've been able to grow. We grew 38% last year. Competitors are going under. George Kay Music in Joliet closed a few weeks ago (after 47 years). I've heard others are closing - one has been in business 19 years, the other was once a 3 location school that will soon be down to one. So they're losing students - in part because of the economy, and in part because people are willing to spend a little more for great instruction.
As I said, all markets are different. 30 miles from us, in a more affluent area, places are getting $28 for what we offer, with less experienced teachers. I know of markets that are getting $48 - more than twice what we are, with less experienced teachers. So there's always going to be some local cap that you're up against. You can't exceed that.
We do have students who can only come every other week for financial reasons. I pair them up in the same time slot - one week it's Suzy, the next week it's Joey in that time. In order to do that, you need more students. The challenge is finding them, not cutting the price to keep the time slots filled. They may not get their ideal choice of times, but I have to balance the need for students against our capacity - if they all get free choice, you could end up with no 'full time' slots left to sell.
If you're the best in the business, you should be at the top end of the price range. If you don't value what you do, neither will your customers. So I won't play the price game. Every week I get calls asking if we'll do a first lesson free, etc. I say no. They'll say "but so-and-so is offering that". My reply: they must be desperate for students. We're the best in the business, and many of our teachers have waiting lists.
You really do get what you pay for. Last year, in our local school district (the 5th largest in the state), only two students were chosen for the regional band. Both are our students. We've also had at least one all-state student every single year. Our competitors can't say that. So we shouldn't have to match their prices, and we don't.
I've also learned that I don't want every customer. The ones that haggle the hardest on price are also the ones you'll have the hardest time collecting from. About once a year I have a student who digs in their heels over something (usually our cancellation policy - if you cancel on less than 24 hours notice, you're charged for the lesson). I wish them well. I'd rather lose the one student and have the problem of filling one more slot than let all of the other customers know we don't really mean it when we set a policy. Roughly 1/3 of those who argue will stay. The other 2/3 I'm more than willing to let my competitors absorb - they'll cost them money in the end.
The bottom line: it all depends on how desperate your situation is. If we lost 10% of our students next week, I'd worry. But I'd have to lose a lot more than that before I'd consider dropping the price as the only way out.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Note: Good insight into the business of teaching. I THOUGHT you'd come unglued with a reply so pertinent to your livliehood...but I can see that you are like any other professional...you know your own mind as far as your offer of quality and competancy goes...so screw the pikers that want you to work for nothing. I'm the same way. If you weren't any good...yeah..."compromise" would be the rule. I mean...what...next time you are on the supermarket line and it's time to pay for your groceries...what'll you say: I work for nothing so this should be free???
Good on ya, matey!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Adding...hey, fleaaaaaa...screw 'em! Charge 'em! What...you'll gladly get paid for that hamburger on Tuesday? You ain't Whimpy, now are ya?
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
OK, this comes from the other side of the coin... someone taking lessons. You didnt say how many students you have, but im guessing more then 2 or 3 right? Anyways... you have one that needs to cut back a little. That will always happan. Wether the local markets or good or bad, some times things get tight in a household. Also it may not be the money, he might just be using that as a easy excuse. maybe things are getting busy at home with other things going on. maybe things are getting hetic, and the parents want to ease the activitys a little to give some breathing room. Personly I dont think lowering the price is something I would do, or expect, or ask a teacher to do. As you said... your not real high to start with, and if its only one student thats talking about it. Now if this starts happaning with other students..... well that would show that it might be more then the local income can support... but just one?.. I would just stick with what you have, hold your price line and keep offering the best lessons you can.
Paul B
I've kept my prices steady. I notice I've lost some at schools because their parents have said they can't afford it any more, but I've not lost any of the students who come to the house.
I've still got waiting lists at some schools, and I'm full at others; people aren't generally taking away their kids' hobbies round here yet.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Lucky you Alan :/ in England it seems people think "well my kid doesn't NEED guitar lessons so we will cut that" or as in this case half their lessons. I only have 2 students (and a half hour who hardly comes because she "has no time" which I don't buy - she goes to these guitar orchestras so she must have some time! So not counting her its two). I have also noticed ever since I got back from Norway I have had hardly any calls even enquiring about how much I charge or anything!
Just to clarify he is going to come, just once every 2 weeks.
I have been thinking it over and I was thinking of doing him an offer where he pays for 6 and pays £100 upfront, this would mean I would be getting a little less money (works out about £16.65 when you do the calculation per week) but at least he'd come every week and he'd pay every 6 weeks - and when hes coming fortnightly i'll only earn £60 in 6 weeks (I charge £20). What does anyone think of this?
together we stand, divided we fall..........
Tough one - £100 is a heck of a lot to stump up in advance, and there's still no guarantee your student will turn up every week.
I do a "Pay upfront for five and I'll throw in a sixth for free" deal with my students and it's quite popular, both with working students and parents wanting to get a reasonably priced guitar tuition for their kids. I think the longest that six lessons has lasted someone is ten weeks.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Once someone makes a decision to cut out continuing lessons...REMEMBER that these teachers ALSO live on a budget. If a decision comes to cut the non-essentials (say...groceries instead of lessons)...so be it. It's not a good thing for either side, no matter how ya stretch it! Soft-soaping a teacher for a cutrate scale is really not in the cards. Nor is it fair to make the guy feel bad...
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Tough one - £100 is a heck of a lot to stump up in advance, and there's still no guarantee your student will turn up every week.
I do a "Pay upfront for five and I'll throw in a sixth for free" deal with my students and it's quite popular, both with working students and parents wanting to get a reasonably priced guitar tuition for their kids. I think the longest that six lessons has lasted someone is ten weeks.
I think that unless he really cannot come, my student will come every week because he is very keen on my lessons and he was really upset when he heard his Dad say he would have to come every other week, I feel it is his main thing he looks forward to in the week now, like it was for me when I was learning. Now I know it may be hard to find £100 upfront, but its only every 6 weeks and he was prepared to pay £90 for every six weeks but in £15 installments per week, so this is only a tenner more and I used to have piano lessons that charged me termly and this was very expensive - I didn't have a full time job, I had some students - and a part time job stacking shelves in a supermarket. This person has a 5 day per week 9 - 5 job and I bet all my equipment that he has more money than I do (or even did when I had a more successful guitar business and a part time weekend job). He bought his kid a guitar for his 11th birthday (an Ibanez) and just bought a wah pedal for him too, he can't be that badly off.
together we stand, divided we fall..........
Over the last few months I have had 4 people see me after gigs and ask if I teach. At the minute I am teaching for free while I gain experience and improve. However, when I look at established teachers in the area they tend not to cost more than £7 per half hour.
The only exception is some bloke not far from me who charges £40 per hour, but I think he is some minor celebrity jazz player, and recognized as a great player.
This doesn't help at all I know, but in lancashire, £20 per hour would be seen as very expensive.
Edit, I used to charge £15 per hour as a science tutor for people needed help with their GCSE's, but even that was pushing it round here.
Having said, where I live is a small valley, near Blackburn, it's hardly a booming economic hotfoot round here :D
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
Wonder what "parity" is amoung all you teachers. I mean...7 pounds per half hour and, like, what $ per half hour? Is it pretty much the same everythere...Belgium, other places GN has subscribers??? What's the mean average...in udder woids?
My kid paid (well...it was ME that paid!) $25 Aussie bucks per half hour from a guy that knows what he's doing. I have NO idea if this is expensive or cheap.
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
I also have no idea what an average, or acceptable price should be. However, I would always say just look around your local area at other teachers. Then you have two choices, undercut the competition if you are unknown and inexperienced, or charge just a little it more if you really know that you are worth it.
That's just my view, but in my local area, you would have to be very very good to get away with charging £20 per hour.
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
What are other tutors charging in your area?
One thing I do is provide an offer of pay for 10 lessons in advance and receive the 11th free. This works well for me. Also, the majority of my lessons are 30 minutes and not an hour, I find people are more than happy with this and this reduces their cost of a single lesson.
Finally, rather than reducing your charge, I would look for ways of increasing your customers, then if someone is not happy with your fee, let them go elsewhere.
