I’m not making this up, I’ve done it, my friends have done it, and you can do it too. In this series I’m going to walk you through the steps of building a Six Figure freelance business. Of course, if you don’t want to wait for all three articles to come out, you can always head over to TheSixFigureArtist for the whole system.
What I’m going to show you isn’t for everyone. It does take some work to set up. But if you are willing to make a few phone calls, this will allow you to reach more people with your music and make a bigger difference.
It comes down to three main things:
- Filling your studio
- Filling your gigs
- A magic ingredient that I will tell you about later.
In this article, we will focus on filling your studio. Don’t worry, if you hate teaching, I’ll be addressing performing in part 2.
If you would rather watch the tutorial video on filling your studio, you can access it HERE.
Step 1: Location
While you can teach out of your house, I wouldn’t recommend it because you lose out on 1000s of leads. Here are three places I’d like for you to consider instead:
- Your competition
- A Community Center
- A Church
Competition: Dance / Karate / Gymnastics
They all have parents who value investing in their kids. They want to reach more parents (you can help them)
This is a win-win, some parents will bring kids for dance and also sign up for music, other parents will bring kids for music and sign up for dance. All you have to do is find one of these places that has a spare room you can use. They might do free (because you’re bringing them more traffic) they might do a low percentage of each lesson - either way you explode your growth.
Community center: YMCA / Jewish Community Center / Boys N Girls club
Not every community center will be a good fit, you’ll have to shop around, but they all have space and a pile of people who are used to going there for enrichment. Hit them up, it’s a win-win relationship.
Churches:
This is prime real estate with lots of empty rooms every week. This is a HUGE win-win. Every church has 100s if not 1000s of people who are used to going their every week for enrichment. Every church WANTS to grow the number of skilled musicians in their congregation. By offering lessons you are helping the church to add value to the local community AND attracting people to visit who they might not normally reach. Plus, you just got an instant audience of 100s to 1000s of people to learn about your music lessons.
Step 2: List
Write a list of everyone you can find that offers private lessons in your area. After you have done that - get to know them! Give them a call, send an email, or say hi on Facebook. Here are three things to ask them:
- How is your studio going?
- Would you like more students?
- Would you be willing to teach at my location 1 day a week?
By doing this you are helping them to get more students and they are helping you to offer a wider range of instruments to your parents. Everyone wins! Parents hate having to go to 3 different places to get lessons for all of their kids. One stop shopping is a parent’s dream.
Step 3: Leverage
Prepare your teaching allies to make an announcement about THEIR new teaching location. There are three things they will need to be ready to share with their contacts:
- Where the new location is
- What day they will be available there
- Why you should come visit them there
This last item is crucial - be sure your teaching allies know to communicate the benefit of one stop shopping to their list of parents. You might even want to write the announcement for them. But mostly … just be sure they know that they are expected to announce it to their contacts if they are going to join you one day a week.
Boom! Everyone wins
Your friends just reached more students quickly.
Your parents just got easier access to music lessons for the whole family.
And you - are reaching more people and making a bigger difference with your music.
to your success,
Jarrod Haning
November 28, 2015
Reader Comments (1)
Hi Jarrod,
I tried to run my own guitar teaching business from home, last year. As you said in your blog (you wouldn't recommend it. While I agree with you that a public forum is the better place to teach. In my home town, there are few places that are free to rent and most of the buildings are one lease occupancy. So while I think your article has a lot of merit and would work in larger more reciprocal cities. I don't believe that it is the right fit for a regional city such as the one that I live in.