As a voice teacher, it can be daunting to start your own private voice studio. It can feel less secure than teaching at a school, and you probably have concerns about how to find new students for your voice studio. If you’re looking to start your own voice studio, or if you haven’t tried to yet because of similar concerns, check out these free or low-cost ideas on how to find new students for your voice studio to help you make the leap.
First, before we get into these different ideas, you might want to think about whether or not you want to be a nice voice teacher. Deciding first if you’ll have a niche as a teacher and what it will be may help you develop ideas about where to find voice students. If you decide, however, that you do not want to be a nice voice teacher, or do not have an opinion about it at this time, read on.
Schools
High schools or colleges in particular are the best places to find new students for your voice studio. Here, you can find students ready to learn new skills, used to maintaining a set schedule, and are often exploring new activities. Look around to see what schools are located near your studio and reach out to the music department. At the very least, you can offer your information to the music teachers there in case their students are looking for a private teacher. To take it a step further though, you can see if you can put up flyers at the school, or perhaps even offer a masterclass so students can meet you in person.
Local Groups
Finding students through local groups is like finding students through schools with some key differences. First of all, more often than not, the students you’ll find in local groups will be adults. Adults can make great students though! And if you find them through a local choir, music Meetup, or another musical organization, you’ll know the members will already have an interest in music.
Online
It can be difficult to know how to utilize the vast offerings of the internet, but there are a lot of great ways to find students online. First and foremost, have a website or at least a Facebook for your studio so prospective students can find information about what you offer and how to contact you quickly.
Once you have that, you can reach out to potential students through online job boards like Craigslist or Thumbtack. If you do this, make sure to consider safety issues, especially if you teach out of your home, but it can still be a great way to get the ball rolling.
Word of Mouth
Even if you’re starting a brand new studio with zero students, worth of mouth can go a long way. Reach out to friends, family, and colleagues to see if they know of anyone looking for voice lessons in your area. If you’ve taught voice lessons in the past, you can also reach out to your former students. More often than not, you can find new students for your voice studio just by letting people know you’re looking for them.
It can take time to find new students for your voice studio, but it doesn’t need to be a dealbreaker when looking to strike out on your own. By setting up some methods of reaching out to potential students before you studio is even open, before you know it your studio will be all booked up.
And for those of you teaching for the first time, if you need help getting started on your first voice lessons, be sure to check out our post on teaching your first voice lesson, and subscribe now to receive a free studio policy planner!
How do you find new students for your voice studio? We’d love to hear from seasoned professionals to help out our newer teachers!
