 Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels You're tight on money this month and your conversation with the electric company goes something like this: “You can’t pay your electric bill this month? No problem. You’ve been a loyal customer for three months now, so just mail us a check when you can.” Yeah, right! What utility company would operate their business with a ‘pay when you can’ standard? It's just not going to happen. Businesses that succeed have good business practices, including timely collection of payments from clients. So, if you’re hearing something like this from your clients … “Oh, sorry. I’ll bring you a check next week. I forgot it.” “We won’t be here next week, so can you adjust our bill?” “Would you be willing to barter for [fill in the blank]?” … you can make some simple changes to get paid consistently and on time – every time!
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 Photo by Moose Photos from Pexels Are you frustrated by multiple absences, cancellations, and even no-shows? Do you wish students would take their private lessons more seriously and be more considerate of your time? When I first started teaching, I drove to clients’ homes to teach students private piano and flute lessons. Occasionally, I would show up and no one would be home! Or, I would receive a phone call (the day before, if I was lucky), saying that they needed to cancel (often from the same student multiple times). This meant I would have to sit in my car for 45 minutes, waiting until it was time to drive to the next students’ home. How annoying! It also resulted in inconsistent income – and that’s really a bummer! Now, I understand that things come up. Life happens to all of us! But, wouldn’t it be great to have a 99% attendance rate? Out of 881 lessons taught during the 2018–2019 school year, there were 53 absences (94% attendance rate). However, I only taught 2 make-ups for any of those absences. How many make-ups did you teach?  Our 39' sailboat, Gitana, in the Bay of California near our hometown of San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. Back to teaching I received a call from a church music director a few months after quitting my public school job. He asked if I was interested in teaching private lessons at their church through their conservatory. I told him I needed a break from teaching, but would like to be able to call him in the future. After several months of working at Starbucks and then a yarn store, I wised up. I knew I wanted to go back to teaching music, so I called him. I was lucky! He still needed teachers so we set up an interview. I was hired and started teaching piano and flute lessons in the spring semester. The following school year, I was hired at another local church's conservatory. I had students every weekday afternoon, but I still needed to tweak my job just a bit to fit what I really desired for my life. I still needed to tweak my job just a bit to fit what I really desired for my life.  Photo by Giftpundits.com from Pexels Do you remember that moment as a kid when your eyes lit up; when your mind started racing with ideas; when you got so excited you had to tell your friends or your parents; when you realized what your passion was ... the moment you knew exactly what you wanted to do when you "grew up"? I vividly recall sitting in band class as a 7th grader and thinking, "This is it! I want to be a music teacher! I want to give students the amazing musical experiences and opportunities that I've been given!" "You like an interest. You live a passion." |
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