How do teachers only teach 45 or so weeks a year and still make a living? I’m working 48-50 weeks per year and still feel like I’m just scraping by! Answered by Kristin Yost
You are the CEO of your company, if you don’t like your payment system, you are the only one that can change it. I think the most important thing for you to do is change your mindset – you aren’t charging “by the lesson”; your rate should be determined by your experience, education, student achievements, etc…and you should be collecting a tuition check every month, in equal amounts regardless of how many lessons are being taught. I personally teach 40-42 weeks out of the year and have a stable, predictable income. How you ask? I think there are two very important things you can do immediately to help combat the fatigue. Let me share with you how I think ALL piano teachers should invoice!
First of all, you need to change your billing system over to a 12-month revenue stream. Every other “job” has a predictable paycheck, so should you. As a piano teacher/independent teaching artist, you need to have a set TUITION price that is due on the 1st of the month, one month in advance. This protects you in case the student chooses to quit…you’ll have 30 days to replace that revenue. Our tuition is broken down into three semesters and parents can either pay for the whole semester or monthly. Since there are a set number of lessons per semester (e.g. 16 for fall and spring), we divide that by four and voila – steady income!
Our 12-month billing system begins with an invoice sent out 1 month before every semester begins, and it shows the semester balance. When a payment is made, the money then is subtracted from that balance so they can see how much they owe, and how much they have paid toward that tuition. The Centre for Musical Minds has 11 months of tuition and 1 month of an Annual Enrollment Fee. For us, that fee covers all recital and music costs for the year, and is equal to one month’s worth of tuition. If we don’t have that fee collected by July 1, you no longer have a spot reserved with your teacher of choice, on your day/time of choice.
Second of all, you have to plan for summer. Everyone has a few issues in the summer, but you don’t have to resort to Ramen for 3 months. What I have done to combat the “summer income blues” is to be pro-active. You have to account for families who need that psychological break or for those that travel. Offer different packages that have a mix of private lessons and group classes. Bring in some “specials” like African Drum Circles or a beginning guitar class. Offer a music camp that meets several hours a day one or two weeks during the semester. Whatever you do, change it up a little to keep people interested and get them excited to take some lessons in the summer.
One thing that has been tremendously successful for us is we began to offer discounts for people who pay early (2 or 3 months in advance, in full, for the whole semester). We offer a great discount in March for people who know they will continue in lessons. They can pay for summer, summer + Enrollment fee, all of the above plus fall, or the whole year in advance. The more semesters you pay for up front, the larger your discount! Summer tuition is also collected April 1, May 1 and June 1 so by the time summer rolls around, they have already paid. July 1 is the Enrollment Fee and August 1 is Fall tuition…see what I mean about the 12 months of revenue?
In addition, you HAVE to block off a few weeks in the summer that you will not teach – the worst thing you can do is offer lessons every week and have just a couple every day. Block your schedule so that you have set hours. Generally I have found people respect the boundaries you set.
Do you have students who don’t participate in summer but want to come back in the fall? They need to pay for part of fall (or all of it?) AND their annual enrollment fee before summer even begins – if they don’t, they forfeit their day and time reservation with you and need to cross their fingers you are still available when fall rolls around.
For more ideas on tuition collection, please check out my book, “How I Made $100,000 My First Year as a Piano Teacher” available at www.PianoAccents.com or www.Amazon.com.
If you have a business question you’d like to ask, email me (Wendy) and we’ll get your question answered in an upcoming post.
