When starting out your own business it can be hard to stick to your guns. You may feel that you have to do everything to get work, and often times you do have to make sacrifices. But are these ones that you are going to be able to live with long term? And I mean, not that it's a stepping stone and you might regret doing it, but is it going to set a president for the way you are going to run your business?
So currently I am teaching from home. I have a home studio. But I want to grow it into something much bigger in the future. Not because I want to earn more, (which of course would always be nice) but because 'I have a dream'. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a home studio, or tutoring from home (loads of my friends do it), I want to set my studio with the potential to grow it and move into a separate venue. This entails much more than I'm going to discuss now, but I realise that the things I do now will hugely affect how I run my business in the future.
So to be more specific, I have decided not to teach from students homes. My one student is 9 and every weeks asks me to come to her house to teach her. I also get people who regularly query if the lessons will be at their home. These are a few reasons why I have chosen not to do so.
1. I have a home studio, it is all set up with (almost) everything I need.
2. I do not want to spend my time driving abound from place to place all day. (This is actually one of the reasons I decided to open up my own studio)
3. It's not just the money, it's the time. So even if you are being paid petrol money, are you being paid for your time to get from one place to the next?
4. When I open up my dream studio, I will not be offering lessons at my students homes, so why do it now.
5. I want this to be a business, not a coffee date. One of my teachers once advised me against it and this is why: She said that you end up being offered coffee (which sounds great), but then also offered to watch a video of your student's last recital, then a baby starts crying in the other room, you have to help cook supper and it can just spiral out of control. So, as a beginner teacher (in my youth lol) I decided I would try it with one student. I would put what my teacher had said to the test. After all, surely it can't be that bad!? And as sure as Bob, it was just as she had said. It was not a 'bad' experience, but certainly not conducive to running a business. And perhaps it also depends on your circumstance/situation, but my experience was just as my teacher had explained. Since there was no dedicated room to give the lessons, they started out in the lounge. The mom would 'pop-in' every now and then to ask something. I would be asked to watch a concert on dad's cam-cord, which is all very well if you haven't got somewhere else to be. And then there was building that started happening. And the whole house was in dust and the lessons were in a cramped bedroom, which is not ideal. So that was that. I decided from then, that I would never do it again.
I know that some of my friends have arrangements where they teach from their students homes. I'd love to hear from people how they make it work. What is your opinion on this matter?
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