Take Your Classroom to the World
In 2019 people live their lives online. We're all guilty of it. We post every waking moment of what we do on various social media platforms, messaging services have replaced conventional conversations, we find out about news and events in friends lives through a screen. People even run businesses totally online with no physical location required. As musicians the internet is fantastic. It allows us access to the world and the ability to create a strong base of followers from all corners of the globe without stepping foot on a stage. As a music tutor, this technological revolution could be a game changer.
What if you wanted a guitar or vocal lesson from a leading expert, but the only problem is that leading expert is an 11 hour plane journey away, what do you do? Get on Skype and learn from across the seas. Many high profile musicans offer online lessons in their downtime as a way to get some additional income. Anyone that teaches a craft can learn from this method and implement this in their own business. As long as you have access to a webcam and an internet connection, you can take your music teaching buisness to the world rather than waiting for the world to come to you. Not only will you increase your potential reach, but you get a lot of control over your working hours. If you want to only take lessons during your day time, you can look at timezones that match up with your hours and plan your promotional activities accordingly. If you're looking to fill more evenings with work then perhaps look at promoting your services in places such as the US who would be on their day time as the UK winds down.
Being able to conduct business all over the world is the way of the future. Everyone has embraced this change and now it's time for teachers to do the same. Companies like MGR Music work with leading Skype Guitar Teachers and Skype Singing Teachers to provide quality lessons across the globe.
Things to consider before you go into online teaching:
- Are you able to deliver quality tuition without that person being in the room?
- How are you going to handle payments? I'd recommend online payments ahead of the lessons.
- What about write ups? Are you planning on providing the student with a write up of topics covered - you need to factor this into your time/cost.
- Is your internet connection stable? You don't want to be dropping in and out.
- Audio and video quality is vital. Invest in a good microphone and webcam. Students need to hear and see what you play or speak about very clearly.
- Promotion - How are you going to promote your services? Are you targeting specific countries? Timezones?
Take your classroom to the world.