As a new voice teacher, scheduling music students can be difficult. New students might be particular with their availability, and new teachers might not know when to make themselves available or how flexible they should be. Plus, you want to build a schedule for your studio you can actually maintain based on your needs and lifestyle. How does one do that though? Scheduling music students in your studio doesn’t need to be hard, but it does require a bit of thought and patience.
Start with you… Then with the students
Above all else, start with your needs. What days and times are absolutely not possible, either due to a day job, family, or other requirements? Then, what days and times would you love to teach? Pull out a weekly calendar to see what your regular commitments are now, then think about what you want your schedule to look like. Write in the possibilities if it helps you to visualize it.
Then you’ll have to remember that music students as a demographic often require certain times. Weekday evenings and weekends tend to be the most popular, but this also depends on the kind of student you wish to teach. Older adults, for example, might have more flexibility in their schedule, allowing for daytime lessons. You’ll want to weigh the demand against your desired schedule.
Stick to it
Once you have your schedule in mind for the days and times you’ll teach lessons, stick to it. Especially at first, students will always attempt to request times outside of your given schedule. It’s helpful to have extra time slots in a given day to accommodate this if possible, but it doesn’t make sense to teach one student on a Saturday just because they couldn’t do any other day you offered them. It’s hard at first – you might feel the pressure to work – but it’ll pay off in the long run.
Get some regulars
Your schedule, no matter what you do, will most likely appear in weird fragments at first. If you manage to maintain some loyal students though, you’ll find that they will become more flexible with their own schedules. Loyalty goes a long way in terms of scheduling, so know that a strange, sparse schedule will not last forever. If you’re really having a hard time filling certain time slots, perhaps offer a discount to students willing to take them.
These tips helped me build a schedule for my music studio! #musicteacher Click To Tweet
As a voice teacher, I spend much more of my time scheduling students than I would like to, but it’s part of the job. In order to run a successful studio, you need to stick to your guns about your business hours though. I will offer alternative times in special circumstances when I’ve formed a relationship with a student. However, you’ll be a much happier and more respected teacher if you take scheduling music students in your studio seriously.
How do you handle scheduling music students? Share your thoughts in the comments!