[Matthew Rusk]

I bought these ones and used to had them out to all new students at the end of their first lesson suggesting that they should stick it on the fridge door so that they had my contact details if they needed it (also worked well as if a friend asked about a good guitar teacher then that student could pass on my business card) – https://www.moo.com/uk/design-templates/business-cards/pack/guitar-silhouettes.html – I also used to have a good splattering of them in local music shops, at the university, colleges and local schools (not to mention battle of the band nights etc at local music venues!). Would also recommend Vista Print as well for bigger posters and adversing – http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/search/guitar-teacher.aspx – as for getting “off peak students” I use to implement an “off peak rate” to entice more uni students to come in the day:)

vistaprint.co.uk

[Matthew Rusk]

Hi Matt,

It is great question, I used to get a sore back from teaching from a guitar stool (probably just my posture when playing guitar to be honest) but started using the base of my office chair (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/chairs-stools-benches/office-chairs/markus-swivel-chair-glose-black-art-20103101/) and that seemed to really help as it was much softer. I didn’t have the arms or back on it – so just the base, the wheels were useful as well to move around if needed. Guess it looked a bit odd but worked really well for sitting on for hours.

More of a concern for me what that I have developed low level, but sometimes painful, tinnitus. Something that was really effected by teaching 30+ hours per week, as once it was aggravated it was very hard for me to allow it the time to recover. So I guess another questions might be around suitable ear protection for full time music teachers – interesting to get your thoughts.

[Matthew Rusk]

Great question Steph, I would recommend broadly a nice image with “Singing Lessons Southampton” as the main header “Singing Lessons” being the most important of that so the person knows what the voucher is for, your name, email address and phone number on. Teachers also sometimes put T&Cs on the back.

I would recommend doing one lesson vouchers each, so when someone is given 5 lessons they get five vouchers (looks like more than a single “five lesson” voucher). If you need any help designing the vouchers don’t hesitate to let me know, some examples below of what a voucher can look like:

[Matthew Rusk]

Hi Eliza,

Thanks for the question – just to clarify on that specific point, I leave it essentially with the teacher whether they wish to record the full commission at the time of payment or as the lessons take place. Either way I do not mind as long as that teacher is consistent in the manner that they record these transactions. Hope that helps to clarify it:)

[Matthew Rusk]

My personal advice would be, yes we do have incidents when clients request refunds (often for reasons of falling out with the person that they have bought them for…girlfriends/boyfriends breaking up etc.). In terms of the commission that isn’t a problem, business policy is that if you generate income from the lessons than commission is created, if you make no money then no commission is created – so in this case if you were to refund a client then I would refund you the commission on that clients lessons (or more likely deduce the refund amount from the next months payment). The more likely thing we find that happens if that the receiver doesn’t claim their lessons for months/years and turns up one day demanding their lessons…I would therefore recommend a 3 month expiry date to take your first lesson. That said it really is something to play by ear as lets say Student A is suddenly admitted into hospital it seems very harsh to prevent them from taking their £100 worth of lessons as they didn’t make it to their first one due to serious illness etc. Interested to hear what other teacher think/have done this year:)