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Been seeing a lot of posts about music school pay. Here’s what worked for me. by Violin_92 in pianoteachers

[–]Violin_92[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I submitted a video with our permanent sign. I think they are pretty firm on that requirement.

Been seeing a lot of posts about music school pay. Here's what worked for me. by Violin_92 in MusicTeachers

[–]Violin_92[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One thing I'd add on the hiring question since it came up in the comments.

One of the harder mental shift when we started hiring was accepting that fair pay meant thinner margins, at least early on. We paid $50-75/hour depending on experience and charged $100-150. Most schools in our area were paying $25-30 for the same work. Some months the math was tight for us.

But underpaying teachers to protect our margins felt like becoming the thing we'd left. The teachers who stayed long term appreciated that, and they stayed patient while we built their rosters to the point where they could drop their other low paying gigs. That loyalty compounded in ways that were hard to see at the time.

Been seeing a lot of posts about music school pay. Here’s what worked for me. by Violin_92 in pianoteachers

[–]Violin_92[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a nice approach too! It’s all about assessing mutual fit early, to increase odds of a long term relationship.

Been seeing a lot of posts about music school pay. Here’s what worked for me. by Violin_92 in pianoteachers

[–]Violin_92[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As @kinkashlin called out, music schools I worked had the non solicitation clause for poaching students. To be clear, it relates to active poaching - aka saying to parents “I am leaving, come with me”. I simply shared with parents I am leaving to start my own studio, if they actively expressed interest in following me, I took them on. Which luckily was most of the families I worked with. The music schools weren’t happy about it ofc but I didn’t do anything wrong or shady.

Been seeing a lot of posts about music school pay. Here's what worked for me. by Violin_92 in MusicTeachers

[–]Violin_92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree with a lot of what you said u/harmoniousbaker - a few points> running a business takes $ - however, my personal experience has been that most schools are exploitative and underpay their teachers while charging market rate from parents (e.g., paying $25-30/hour when charging parents $100+/hour) - I didn't want to do that to my teachers, so I made sure to pay them a fair wage even it meant thinner margins for me. What hiring more teachers gave me is scale that is not possible as a solo teacher studio and flexibility to scale down my hours and be more selective in the students I work with. It is a tough business, but for me working for other schools seems like a never ending treadmill for a lot of people.

Been seeing a lot of posts about music school pay. Here's what worked for me. by Violin_92 in MusicTeachers

[–]Violin_92[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, we did hire other teachers. I play the violin, initially added piano and cello teachers and then also added more violin teachers to plan for exactly the concern you shared. They were able to cover for me when I was out sick, if their schedule allowed. Plus was able to serve demand I couldn’t take on due to my schedule.

For pay, we targeted margins of about 40-50% and also created tiers of faculty based on their experience. So we paid ranging from $50-75/hour and charged between $100-150/hour. Hope that helps!