When you are giving private art, music, or tutoring lessons, you might be struggling with how to determine what to charge for your services. You don’t want to charge too little so that people either don’t take you seriously or you get too many people and can’t serve everyone. You also don’t want to charge too much so people will avoid you like the plague.
Finding the right balance is difficult. Here's a guide for what to do when choosing your rates for your tutoring, art, or music lesson business.
Where Do You Give Lessons?
When determining your fee, you need to factor in where you’re giving your private lessons. If you are giving them in your home, then you probably won’t need to charge as much as you would if you drive out to people’s homes to give lessons, or even if you have to rent a separate space to give lessons.
You’ll need to factor in these costs when coming up with your rate. Once you have included the cost for you to travel or to rent a space, you can follow the steps to setting your rates for your tutoring, art, or music business.
Steps to Determine Your Private Lesson Rates
1. Check what other art teachers, music teachers and tutors are charging for their services in the same area you intend to work in. If there are no lessons being provided in your area similar to what you’re going to provide, then you can judge by what other enrichment programs are charging. You don’t need to let these lessons dictate your rates, but it’s a good jumping-off point.
2. Determine what you need to make to be comfortable. Not only will this help you set your rates, but it will also help you see how many students you’ll need in order to make the income you’re comfortable making.
3. What education do you have? Experience is important, but a degree is easy to prove and sometimes people are willing to pay more for someone who has a degree. Your education has value so if after you see what other teachers are charging in your area, you might be able to charge a little more if you can offer up qualifications that are greater than someone else’s.
4. Charge the same fee for everyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend or a family member; if you are going to be creating a business, then you need to use the same rates for everyone. Otherwise word gets out that you’re charging different prices for others and that won’t be good for business.
5. Don’t offer family discounts. It might be tempting to do, but your time is worth the same whether you teach one of their kids or multiple kids.
6. Your rates should not stay constant forever. You will need to raise your rates at some point. This may cause you to lose students, but chances are that if you are good at what you do, then people will be willing to pay the increased cost.
It’s time to raise your rates if you have a full roster, you have been doing it for two years without an increased fee, and you are below the rate for teachers with the same degree and qualifications as you.
The most important thing to remember when you’re setting your rates for your tutoring, art, or music instructions is to value your worth. Your time is worth something, so don’t let people talk you out of your rates. If they aren’t interested in paying you what you have set, don’t jump to conclusions that this means that you’re overcharging for your services.