Need someone good with figures

Steffo

First child cost + second child cost + travel and set-up.
If one child quits, no matter which one, you will still charge first child cost + travel and set-up.
The discount for child two is the omission of the additional travel and set-up.

Lestratcaster

Ok so the parent says they want 30 mins for each son who aren’t the same level. One is an acoustic learner and the other electric. 

They keep saying this bullshit about budget but they send their son to other tutors on other instruments so it’s hardly a valid reason to say they’re watching budget.

What I need to consider is there’s more prep now for 2 separate lessons within an hour which surely warrants money? I would think my hourly rate plus travel would cover that even though I feel it’s too cheap. 

I also feel 30 mins isn’t enough for the older son so want to push so the parent does 1 hour with son only or 1 hour with him and 30mins with the younger one.

Wazmeister

Guitar_Slinger said:

Maureen me love, it's getting a bit busy in this thread.  Now, you gave me a tenner? 

Brilliant

Phil_aka_Pip

Sounds like you should walk away.

Ravenous

Lestratcaster said:

What I need to consider is there’s more prep now for 2 separate lessons within an hour which surely warrants money? I would think my hourly rate plus travel would cover that even though I feel it’s too cheap. 

"This deal's getting worse all the time" as someone famous once said.

I'm not a teacher so have kept quiet, but it sounds like you're either getting the runaround, OR you will be very shortly...

Sporky

I think at least you charge one travel and two half-hours (ie more than one hour).

Ravenous

By the way, re-reading you original post very carefully...

Your time Is £40 an hour. Your travel & setup charge if needed is £10.

£10 covers a 15 minute early arrival.  But clearly not enough to cover fuel, actual travel time, etc.  Too cheap really.

(I wonder what other instruments the lads are learning... well not my business really.)

Lestratcaster

The £40 is the total travel cost for 4 lessons paid monthly. 

My actual rate is £132 a month which works out £33 per lesson. 

So to travel it’d be £172 with the £40 added on.

A half hour lesson I’d charge £72 for 4 lessons without the travel (£18 per lesson)

Ravenous

Oh got you. That makes the £10 travel fee more sensible then, compared to the hour lesson price.

stickyfiddle

Travel + 2x 30min lesson cost.

It might be useful to make yourself a little table of your rates, so you can give people a "shopping list" and make it absolutely clear what your rates are for each option.

e.g.

A	Lesson, 1 hour	33
B	Lesson, 30 mins	18
C	Travel	10

So in this case they want 2B+C, which is 46 per trip for you (184 for a month)

Lestratcaster

Its the charging in monthly blocks of 4 that I need to consider but I guess the figures will still be the same.

Also as one kid is acoustic and one electric I'd have to travel with 2 guitars for each child. Then have time to setup the amp and speakers for audio playback which again is more time to eat into the 30 minute lesson.

I am thinking 3 options:

Option A - 4 x monthly lessons Child 1+2 (30 minutes each) = £184 (2 x £72 monthly blocks plus £40 travel).

Option B - 4 x monthly lessons both children (1 hour fee) £172 (1 x £132 monthly blocks plus £40 travel) - this is the normal rate I charge for teaching 1 hour for 1 person at their house.

Option C - get older child to do 1 hour, younger 30 minutes and charge together but only 1 travel charge = £132 + £72 +£40 travel = £244

For the time I have to spend prepping for 2 different people I should charge option A?

Ravenous

I'd say "A". Giving them "B" is more hassle organising teaching for two short lessons, at the price of one full lesson. You're already saving them a bit by travelling only once.

Sounds reasonable to me anyway.

Lestratcaster

Cool I've sent the options and I'm pretty sure if they do want the lessons they'll pick the cheapest one which is A.

Strat_a_tat_tat

Good luck.

Try not to let any customers give you the run around.

... and remember... sometimes it's best to walk away from some customers.

Lestratcaster

Thanks, will defo be more wary of being done over, been guilty of that in the past before.

Actually gonna whack the 30 minute lesson up to £92 for 4 monthly lessons for 2 people. If you add travel there's only £20 difference between that and having the older son take 1 hour lessons. Also need to charge more than £18 per 30 minutes cos its more work for 2 people.

Still awaiting their reply.

Lestratcaster

Bit of a late update but they never replied to me. They must have found another tutor.

Anyway I have another predicament, another learner who usually pays in monthly blocks of 4 wants to do 1 lesson next month with a few of their mates as a band jam thing, so each person will be given parts to play in an ensemble type environment. The parents seems to assume they only need to pay for the extra hour (alongside the initial one-to-one lesson their child usually has) but they should pay for each extra person instead shouldn't they? So instead of adding on my hourly rate for the second hour it should be split between however many there are in the group, e.g £15 per person, if there's 4 of them its £60.

After all if we're out at a restaurant and someone else wants to join us they will need to pay their share for the meal too!

Paul7926

I don't think that they should pay the full amount for each extra person simply because they will all get slightly less attention then if they were on their own.  However I agree with you that it's not fair to just pay for an hour of your time and then expect you to teach half a dozen people at the same time.

you have to decide on what you are happy with but as an example, my tutor will teach 2 students at a time (presumably because he teaches kids and it covers the 'siblings' scenario).

He would charge £28 for an hours lesson for one person and would charge £18.50 each for an hour teaching two people at the same time.  So as you can see two people pay a total of £37 which is more than a one person lesson but not as much as doubling the one hour lesson fee.

Lestratcaster

Yeah originally I thought it would be my usual hour's fee added for each extra person but I don't think they'd take too kindly to that. I'm expecting the group to be more than 2 people so if it was say, 4 people with the learner making it 5 that's alot of prep work to be doing.

munckee

Lestratcaster said:

Yeah originally I thought it would be my usual hour's fee added for each extra person but I don't think they'd take too kindly to that. I'm expecting the group to be more than 2 people so if it was say, 4 people with the learner making it 5 that's alot of prep work to be doing.

My daughters piano lessons at school are £8 an hour from a teacher who normally charges I think £17.50 per hour because she is teaching 5-6 kids simultaneously if that is any help.

Lestratcaster

munckee said:

Lestratcaster said:

Yeah originally I thought it would be my usual hour's fee added for each extra person but I don't think they'd take too kindly to that. I'm expecting the group to be more than 2 people so if it was say, 4 people with the learner making it 5 that's alot of prep work to be doing.

My daughters piano lessons at school are £8 an hour from a teacher who normally charges I think £17.50 per hour because she is teaching 5-6 kids simultaneously if that is any help.

Hmm my private hourly rate is almost double that, so if its around the £22-25 mark each person might seem ok, depending on how many people there are in the group.