How the hell do you get students?

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Hey so I have a building with a really nice small performance space and right now I use it as a speakeasy but recently I’ve been having thoughts of turning it into a small school/teaching studio during the day.

For those of yall who have a good amount of students, how did you start off? I’m like a baby when it comes to business acumen.

I don’t need/want like 30 students or anything just enough to cover my rent.  Which is like 5 students at 75 an hour or something.  Not expecting to do thing full time at all

[lelle]

I don't have any students at all, but I've been in the middle of the classical music scene in my city, having a degree, and many friends and colleagues who started teaching. I still see new studios with familiar acquaintances involved pop up all the time so it's clearly in demand.

Most of these people just do guerrilla poster marketing when they get started. Normal printing paper with information and your studios website, phone number, email, taped up here and there in your area.

If you have a budget you can do facebook marketing targeting people in your area. It's a long time since I did facebook marketing but as far as I recall you can get enough views and clicks out of 200 dollars.

Apart from that you can put the word out among your colleagues that you are looking for students and sometimes get referrals that way.

Several people I know primarily targetted the rich areas of town. Rich people are willing to pay more and piano lessons are valued in these circles.

[klavieronin]

You could try something like this; https://www.apprentus.com
I signed up a couple of months ago and managed to get a couple of students from it and I gave a trial lesson to another student who may or may not come back.
I would also build a nice website, then list yourself on Google My Business and Bing Places as well as as many local business directories you can find online, and be sure to link to your website where possible. Many of those things on their own might not do anything but the combined effect was quite successful for me when I first started out.
Just a few thoughts.

[thorn]

I haven't taught for years but networking with other teachers is another method- when I had to give it up because I moved city I knew someone who was starting out and passed them my students, or you might have someone who is full up so when they get enquiries they could recommend you. The way I networked here in the UK was exam board forums but I imagine these days they've moved onto FB, Reddit etc

Also it never hurts to offer accompaniment alongside teaching both for extra cash and as another way of networking- someone you accompany has a friend who wants to learn piano etc

[lostinidlewonder]

Facebook is very helpful, join music teacher and various chat groups in your area. Its important to provide excellent teaching service to maintain students and generate word of mouth.