Music Teacher Phil Schneider
Music TeacherForum Replies Created
-
I have standardised the 45 minute lesson for 2 years now from my point of view I prefer it. I did have a student who wanted a 90 minute lesson which I did reluctantly. I found it more like a 2 hour lesson. Its like running 1 mile regularly then running 2 miles at the same pace and wondering why you feel exhausted.
-
Since starting 45 minute lessons. I have found they are good for beginners but also I am liking the length for myself. Some students benefit from an hour for more indepth music. I only teach adults and Diane point is what I find. Work / family any thing else leads to cancelations. Also like Diane I can only keep saying 24 hours notice to cancel, but a lot of students dont pay or cancel 25 hours before. You can only push it so far without losing students. Any student with 3 cancelations in a row usually means giving them an off peak time. This type will nearly always continue with eratic attendance and think its perfectly acceptable.
-
I think the price point thery is correct having two price point gives more options. I am having a higher uptake ot this 45 length. Suitable for beginners too.
Not mentioned is if I can fit in an extra student it means the dreaded cancelations are a smaller percent of lost income.
-
The point about adult learners Alan raises is interesting. I only take adults. The lack of time to commit is a common reason. Then lack of money. Also people move jobs or are travelling away for work regularly. Retirees are good. My figures are skewed because I have students who take a 10 lesson package subsidised by their employer. Then that ends.
its not just retention its also regularity that counts. Im plannig next year to specify an 80% attendance rate.
I agree with Matt besides the difficulty of collecting age and gender of students it will not reveal much of use (too many confounding variables).
But the number of times a student has taken a lesson, how frequently those lessons are and the average number of lessons a student will take before they stop taking lessons is the key stat.
-
Yes Matt
Any stats would be great. I need to start collating my own too. As my thread was a guesstimate.
-
Hi Matt
Exactly Liquidity is the answer. When economic crisis hits liquidty is the biggest problem. It stops. To stop people sitting on money governments cut interest rates and print money and increase borrowing. The country is ran on paying back money in the distant future. I think this started in the 1700s we are still altereing the size of this loan.
Today we are hitting a conflict environment versus economic growth. Consume less v spend more. Of coure we can rely on the “free market” without government intervention to sort this out. Much like windows operating systems finacial systems become out of date.
-
Hi Matt
The more I read about how economies “work” the more frightened I get.
-
Beckie
Dont let students make your life a misery.Prioritise your own mental health. Does the next students lesson sufer because you are exhausted ? You are not a social worker on 50 k a year. If someone doesnt want to learn its time to suggest finding a more approprate teacher with specialised skills.
-
I have been handing out similar information to all students.
point 2. Arent the email service providers responsible for email security ? Besides not printing your password on your forehead or obvious self inflicted blunders.
Information Commissioner’s Office 486 employees and aroud 644 million active websites in the world. cant really see them being that effective
Legislation not clear anyway
Guardian
“The vast majority of emails flooding inboxes across Europe from companies asking for consent to keep recipients on their mailing list are unnecessary and some may be illegal, privacy experts have said, as new rules over data privacy come into force at the end of this week.Many companies, acting based on poor legal advice, a fear of fines of up to €20m (£17.5m) and a lack of good examples to follow, have taken what they see as the safest option for hewing to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): asking customers to renew their consent for marketing communications and data processing.
Why the GDPR email deluge, and can I ignore it?But Toni Vitale, the head of regulation, data and information at the law firm Winckworth Sherwood, said many of those requests would be needless paperwork, and some that were not would be illegal.
“Businesses are not required to automatically ‘repaper’ or refresh all existing 1998 Act consents in preparation for the GDPR,” Vitale said. “The first question to ask is: which of the six legal grounds under the GDPR should you rely on to process personal data? Consent is only one ground. The others are contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public interest and legitimate interests.
“Even if you are relying on consent, that still does not mean you have to ask for consent again. Recital 171 of the GDPR makes clear you can continue to rely on any existing consent that was given in line with the GDPR requirements, and there’s no need to seek fresh consent. Just make sure that your consent met the GDPR standard and that consents are properly documented.”
In other words, if the business had consent to communicate with you before GDPR, that consent probably carries over, and even if it doesn’t carry over, there are five other reasons a company can cite for continuing to process data.
What’s more, Vitale said, if the business really does lack the necessary consent to communicate with you, it probably lacks the consent even to email to ask you to give it that consent.
“In many cases the sender will be breaching another set of regulations, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which makes it an offence to email someone to ask them for consent to send them marketing by email.”
The lack of understanding around when and why consent is needed under GDPR has prompted the Information Commissioner’s Office to try to resolve some of the “myths” of GDPR.
“We’ve heard stories of email inboxes bursting with long emails from organisations asking people if they’re still happy to hear from them,” Steve Wood, the deputy information commissioner, wrote in guidance for businesses. “So think about whether you actually need to refresh consent before you send that email, and don’t forget to put in place mechanisms for people to withdraw their consent easily.”
Like Vitale, Wood emphasised that asking for marketing consent from people who had not given it initially could be illegal. “It’s also important to remember that in some cases it may not be appropriate to seek fresh consent if you are unsure how you collected the contact information in the first place, and the consent would not have met the standard under our existing Data Protection Act,” he said.
-
just had a non payer
This is my email“It looks like you have been unable to attend the lesson you have booked for today. I havent received payment for the last lesson and now additionally this lesson. Please pay in the next 7 days. If you are unable to pay please contact me and I can look at writing of the debt. If I dont hear from you I will assume you are taking the service(guitar lesson) and not paying for it. I will then need to look at escalating the case.”
after this ILL write it off anyway.All business has bad debts.
the worst bit is being ignored and people thinking that is problem solved -
You can write non payments as a bad debt in your tax return accounts. Most business have them
-
Well VAT payments are made quarterly.”From April 2019 businesses above the VAT threshold will be mandated to keep their records digitally and provide quarterly updates to HMRC for their VAT”. Which music teachers generally dont need to do.they eventually want all tax to be like this.
“The first businesses have already started keeping digital records and providing updates to HMRC as part of a live pilot to test and develop the Making Tax Digital service for income tax and NICs and we will continue to expand this pilot.”
Any way of avoiding this Digital exclusion opt out
“You will be excluded from the electronic bookkeeping and filing elements of MTD if you are unable to handle it, due to age, disability or location, or if it is contrary to your religion.Five tax returns per year
The first tax year to be affected is 2020/21. This runs from 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021.”
I think there will be chaos and outrage when this is mandated.Assuming you choose an accounting period that is co-terminus with the tax year your:
First report will be due in June/July 2020.
-
They want to make cash obsolete to take a % of all transactions the cashless soceity will cost more. Other reasons are to make you leave an audtiable trail remember hmrc can check and freeze your accounts and seize your money if you havent paid tax oh and you can go to jail for not declaring taxable income
I use izettle but avoid it. What happens when it goes wrong and the client says youve taken the wrong amount or been a victim of fraud are izettle liable or your self. Izettle and paypal are not banks very very important legal point. If they go down so does your money. by the way paypal have got a reputation for freezing accounts google it
-
I have done one lesson Time delay is a problem(buffering) . No chance of playing together. ok for copy this lessons.
-
Prioritise relaible customers
Unreliable customers allocate to the last or hard to fill times
Ultimately. Explain you cant offer the best service and stop teaching them. (Unless they pay for missed lesson not usually the case.)
My experience tells me if they miss 1/2 or 2/3 of booked lesson its not going to change.
-
When students enquire make your times clear.People can assume evenings only. Many people work shifts or are retired.If you dont want to teach in the day. Its yours to do what you want with.
-
Exit strategy always make sure you are closest to the door in your seating set up.
-
Worst guitar position: classical foot stool One leg up creates uneven forces on the lower back.
-
Hi
I’m the same as Matt an office chair or typist chair with hydraulic lift to adjust the height no arms and or no back For the students chair i take off the wheels as I have limited space and students would move the chair. you need to check the min max height too
-
from the daily mail
” while consumer ministers have urged shoppers to use vouchers before they expire, admitting that ‘hundreds of millions of pounds is going unspent’, there are no plans to ban expiry dates.
Instead a government business spokesman told the Mail they are working with retailers on a voluntary code to make all stores extend expiry dates to at least two years.
That is not the case in the Republic of Ireland, however, where in May, the government proposed a Bill to ban stores from having expiry dates at all. -
hi my menagerie of music is on sound cloud https://soundcloud.com/philipschneider
-
I have used music guard for many years. they do the public liability for the business too. https://www.musicguard.co.uk
-
I think you have answered the question even if the recital is part of the learning process a public performance of copyright material does need a licence.
-
If your policy is to offer free trials this is fine, If this isn’t what you do normally don’t bother. You can say I don’t offer free trial because my regular clients subside it no free lunch etc. put more sensitively. With enquires I find that clients have usually made the decision before hand to commit to paying and may have a couple of questions. If you’re ping ponging emails or having 30 minute phone calls its not a good sign. What sort of client will they be ? Finally You can always offer money back if the lesson is unacceptable. I have on occasion found I couldn’t help a client with their chosen area and waived the fee Its honest and is good pr
-
Funny thing is i recently received a similar enquiry. i am sure all enquiries are genuine and no one would be trying to trap you into a legal claim for monetary gain. You can’t discriminate on certain legally defined attributes but like when i tried to join the millionaires club but was discriminated against for being poor but it aint illegal If i was a disabled millionaire may be .
You need to tread carefully. Don’t give out anything that can be construed as discriminatory. you can’t say “I don’t like to teach disabled people” but “I do not have adequate qualifications for this specialised area of teaching” as long as it is true or ” I am full at the moment please try later ” Lawyers please note quotation marks for purposes of example the opinions expressed therewithin are not mine or anybody associated with me but serve an educational fictious example based in the Ottoman empire and have no direct relevance to the uk law or could be a humorous piece of satire and is not legal advice.
-
Hi there are some legal niceties in working from home here are some points from a government website the Bottom line is you may be uninsured,breaking planing laws and breaking your rental agreement.
Q: Do I need planning permission?
A: You’ll need planning permission to base your business at
home if you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions:
will your home no longer be used mainly as a private residence?
will your business result in a marked rise in traffic or people calling?
will your business involve any activities that are unusual in a residential area?
will your business disturb the neighbours at unreasonable hours or create other forms of nuisance such as noise or smells?
If your house is pretty much going to remain a house, with your business quietly accommodated within it, then permission shouldn’t be required. If you’re unsure, contact your local council to seek their views. http://www.planningportal.gov.uk
Q: Do I need to tell the local authority I’m working from home?
A: This depends on whether you pass the planning test. If you need planning permission, you’ll have to inform your local authority.
Q: Do I need to tell the landlord?
A: Yes, it’s best to let them know that you will be working from home. The good news is that the government announced on 1 November 2010 that social landlords should review any contracts prohibiting people from running a business from home.
Q: Do I need to inform my mortgage provider?
A: Yes, it’s best to let them know – even though it shouldn’t
mean any change in the mortgage repayment.
Q: What about my insurance provider? Do they need to know?
A: Yes, do inform your insurance company. Tell them about the equipment and stock you have at home. An upgrade from a domestic to a business policy is not usually expensive so don’t be put off in making this call. Your insurance provider is likely to recommend that you also take out public liability insurance in case anyone who comes to visit suffers an injury
THE HOME BUSINESS GUIDE | 12 -
I think some songs don’t have very rhythmic melodies especially true of the over articulation of 90s divas (what about singing the tune). If she could sing a bacharach song accurately I suspect the material could be the problem. It takes a long time to develop highly accurate timing. Sometimes you have to accept a student may not be so able but as long as they enjoy learning and you do your best for them accept it and them.
-
Are frustrated students frustrating you ?
Most of us teachers have some students who are easy to work with and others are somehow draining. Part of this is the attitude they bring into the lesson. Some students are easily frustrated if they fail to get the exercise right first time, there is a lot of huffing and puffing which increases on each following attempt. How do you deal with this? I always remind students mistakes are inevitable. It is a game of probabilities over a long term. Don’t judge just play. Be mindful. The consequence of their frustration is you can become infected yourself or become frustrated at their frustration. Don’t let it happen to you.
-
I hate to think of how much money I have lost via no shows.Even when the policy of 48 hours notice there is the problem of irregular attendance. For instance three 49 hour notice cancellations in a row. I have a rule not always explicit. Three no shows with no payment in a row the student may need to be asked to find a more accomodating teacher or take a floating spot i.e. Email them with free times for the week ahead. This can suit busy/erratic students as well as the teacher.
-
Anyone else been asked “So whats your proper job ?” I always give my 40 hours of opening times a week to clients and still people thinks its a side line or hobby. Which I do find a little insulting. I would not ask any other professional skilled worker this. Is it just the low value that teachers and muscians a combination which spells relatively low pay given the high skill levels required for both professions (brick layers are earning £1000 per week) are held in.
-
Well, we can all work for free and everbody is happy to take everything for free but its no business model that I recognise. If you dont put a price on your skills no one will.
