Foundations
Defining Your Niche & Target Student
Many music teachers make the mistake of trying to reach everyone with a guitar and a wallet. Often, the claim to teach "all styles" is rooted solely in the fear of turning someone off. But NOT EVERYONE is a student you WANT, nor are they all students that YOU are the best option for. And ultimately, this all depends on YOU.
Jason Aaron Wood
Lesson instructor:
Professional guitarist, teacher & music education entrepreneur. Teaching since 2008.
Defining Your Niche & Target Student
Defining a niche — and in turn, who your target audience & ideal student is — is one of the most important tasks ahead of you.
There are really 2 parts to this, though:
If you're new to teaching guitar, this is probably not something you'll be able to answer just yet, until you've taught some students and been able to identify patterns, behaviors, or even genres you'd like to see more of (and others you'd like to see less of, or even weed out altogether).
If you've taught guitar before, then you probably already have a good idea of at least SOME of the things you don't want to deal with, whether that's styles you can't stand that sap your energy and make your job feel like a chore, or student behaviors/attitudes that preclude any significant progress being made.
Where Do You Really SHINE The Most?
The style(s) that you play and are most familiar with, however, are a good starting point — you were passionate enough about that style to pursue it and make it YOUR style, so that's exactly the passion you want to bring to your lessons as well, as much as possible, at least. That will enable you to not only teach your students in the styles you're most familiar, but to also inspire them with your own work (your riffs, solos, and songs) in that style.
It's always more motivating when you can see that your teacher is really good at the thing you want to learn from them, so remember to keep them inspired as well as informed.
What Types of Students Do You Want to Attract? What Types DON'T You Want to Attract?
When it comes to style, the types of goals you want to help them achieve, and the types of skillsets you are going to cover, that's really something only YOU can determine.
So, that's something you should start thinking about now.
Part of the reason for this is that, at least at the moment, it may not be profitable enough in the way you would approach it, so for now I would advise casting a wide net, and being open to at least related genres, until you have your marketing honed well enough to niche down even further.
However, when it comes to the types of students you don't want to attract, * I * can tell you a few right off the bat, because the stability of your business largely depends on it:
Avoid:
I actually take the time to be helpful and give free guitar shopping advice when contacted by these students, but I do make it clear they would need to have their own guitar in order to take lessons, because otherwise, how would they practice? If/when they DO come back and they have an instrument, then of course don't avoid them at that point.
There is a nuance to this, though: The reason is that on one level, they're telling you that you're not worth the value you stated. They may just not have had the value you're going to offer them communicated clearly enough, or they may just try to negotiate a discount everywhere they go. On another level, sometimes people just don't have a lot of money, and they can't benefit at all from your lessons, no matter how good you are as a teacher, if they can't afford them. So this is where having other, more affordable options is something you need to have in place, ready to go so you can down-sell them and make it possible for them to say yes.
There is no hidden nuance here. If you don't have the money in your hand, DO NOT TEACH THEM until you do. You can't get your time back, so have the money FIRST before teaching anyone anything whatsoever.
If they show up for the lesson and say "Oh, I forgot!," expecting to just come in and be taught a lesson they haven't paid for, simply say "Oh that's okay, there's an ATM right over at ___" — OR, better yet, say "Oh that's okay, we can take care of that right now - I accept all major credit cards, and it'll just take a second." (Use something like SquareUp on your phone and invest in a card reader.)
If they avoid paying at that point, they're wasting your time, they lied to you, and they were planning on getting a free lesson. So that's the point where you tell them "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that without payment in advance, we won't be able to have your lesson today. If and when your situation changes, let me know and I'll send you a PayPal invoice so we don't run into this situation again and you don't end up wasting a trip next time."
And then stand firm — don't be afraid of 'losing a sale' because this person was about to take a lesson they weren't planning to pay for, so you already lost any potential for a sale there might've been at that point.
This whole thing could of course be avoided by requiring payment before even allowing students to book, and automating the whole process, which leaves zero room for any of this or any misunderstanding.
Your time is valuable. If they don't respect your time, don't give them a second chance to do it again. However, if a student who's been reliable suddenly does that, give them the benefit of the doubt, of course, and ask if they're okay. And honestly, no matter what the answer is, including "oh I just forgot" or "oh I decided not to come," give them a replacement video lesson.
In fact, a few minutes into the lesson, instead of sitting there the whole time doing nothing, start recording a video version of whatever you were going to show them. THEY might not have shown up to the lesson, but YOU DID, and here it is.
This makes it so they can't add further insult to injury (if they did indeed just blow off the lesson) by claiming they paid and didn't get anything for their money.
Sending it in an email (especially a YouTube video link, w/ the video set to Unlisted) gives you something in writing you can literally POINT TO that you did, in fact, give them for their money.
And if it was an honest mistake or an emergency, then of course be patient and give them a second chance. On the other hand, if they blew off the lesson and when asked they appear to simply not care, then expect that's what they'll do on any or all of their remaining lesson slots they've paid for, and get ready to (a) send them more replacement lessons for their remaining sessions and (b) replace them as a student because they probably won't be around for much longer.
When I first started teaching, for the first year and a half, I was driving TO my students' homes...and it was BRUTAL on me. Not only was half of my potential lesson time wasted driving all over the place, COSTING me money in gasoline in the process, but also the student/teacher DYNAMIC of the lessons was often undermined by the student being in their own environment, in the comfort of their home, while I, the teacher, was a guest — an intruder — in their familiar space. Being in their own element manifested in not prioritizing the lesson or the lesson time, and sometimes not taking it seriously. For example, sometimes they'd be finishing dinner, and keep me waiting while they prioritized that over the lesson they scheduled.
Ultimately, the convenience I had tried to use as marketing leverage backfired and turned out to be a nightmare for me, because they barely had to do anything, and often they DID barely do anything.
The moment I started teaching from MY studio, everything changed, including most of my students, since the ones I had previously were attached to the zero-commitment model they'd grown accustomed to. However I quickly grew my student base higher than it had been, since I now had the entire night to teach, and travel time (and cost) was no longer a factor. Students either finished their dinner before coming, or cut it short if they were eating in the car on the way here, and when they arrived, the lesson started.
They were in MY environment, and that simple change, alone, made them take it more seriously and pay attention. They were at another person's home, they had driven themselves there, and I already had their money, so they gave me their undivided attention because they now wanted what they paid for, and there was nothing to blur the lines between the lesson and whatever recreational activity they might've undertaken in the comfort of their home.
Fortunately, with the things I'm going to show you in the coming lessons, you're going to be filtering all of these things out almost entirely.
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Next video:
Components of a Teaching Business
Defining Your Niche & Target Student
Subscription vs. One-Off Lessons
Crafting Clear Cancellation & No-Show Policies & Providing Replacement Lessons
Advance Payment & Subscription Models
Your Teaching Website
Platform Comparison: WordPress, Patreon, & Udemy
Booking & Content Access Tools
Gear & Studio Setup
All Things Green Screen
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