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Sliding scale for lessons

Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2019-03-02 01:03

Folk,

Now that I'm pretty much retired from an unrelated profession, I'm beginning to teach individually again now that I can be in my home area full time. Previously I taught part time in a fairly affluent town, and had enough students who could afford my full rate and fill the hours I had available.

Now, because I want to expand my teaching, and also because interest in private lessons is very low in this part of Virginia, I'm going to have to branch out to three counties to collect enough students to make travel and scheduling worthwhile. More than that, though, I'm going to have to find a way to make lessons affordable out here in the sticks.

With the exception of a very few places, most students in this area would not be able to afford my normal rate, employment being mostly in the service areas and in other areas that don't pay much. I'd expect to get one, maybe two, students from each high school at the most, which means that "economy by volume" won't happen.

I'm not out to make a bundle of money; I'm more interested in getting kids interested in instrumental music than I am making much of a profit, but I can't (and would never) teach for free.

I want to make lessons affordable for motivated students, and I think that charging on a sliding scale based on income might work. I'd like to hear how others have gone about this. Is it feasible? Is it worthwhile? How should I structure my scale?

Thanks for your help.

B.

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