Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Has anyone tried Takelessons.com?

So I've been doing some browsing around trying to find out what teacher directory sites are getting the most hits and I came across http://takelessons.com/ .

It looks like you put up your information for free, they do a background check, and then students sign up for lessons through them. They pay upfront, so when you are contacted the student is all ready to start lessons. The student continues to pay through the website, and TakeLessons retains 25% of the fee. They also do the billing and can manage the schedule.

You can have other students that are not a part of the website, but I don't think they will do billing but not sure about this. I think you can add them to the calendar.

Some reservations I have:
1) No control over who you accept into your studio, although maybe you can dismiss a student
2) Not sure about rescheduling policies
3) You essentially pay 25% for life or until they (or you) run out of business

Thoughts?

Let me be charitable: this is a game for beginning teachers and beginning students.
Why would a respectable teacher more than a year or two out of school put up with such a scheme? Can you imagine the flake students or parents who would choose a teacher this way? Conversely, wouldn't you be suspicious of a teacher trying to build a class this way? I would.

To me this sounds even worse than those grab-and-go music schools we keep discussing in Irvine, California.

lol @peter k. mose- I think that's a little harsh, everyone has to start somewhere with students.
& That is actually where I started when I first started teaching I applied for a job with Take Lessons, it gave me the confidence I needed to start attracting new students. I worked for them about 8 months to 12 months. After that I was able to get my own students and the family's I received from them were of quality...one was even a professional football player! To the OP I think overtime you will learn how to market and advertise your services to gain more students. If you want there are tips on my blog about advertising your services: www.musicacademyadvantage.com

I'm not a new teacher (I've been teaching since 1998), but I have recently moved and started up a school last year. We have students, but I am looking to get more. Since I'm new to the area, I don't have the contacts that I had in my old location, and word of mouth doesn't cut it when you only have 4 students.

A few questions since you have first-hand experience. What if a student who has paid for lessons doesn't work out? Can they leave, or can you dismiss them, and what are the terms for doing so?



I understand your point of view, but I am also in desperate need of students. My rate and policy itself usually deters students that are "flakey", so that is my first line of defense.

I think the website itself looks professional though.

edited to add: I'm not sure there is a correlation between students who find teachers via a website such as this and "flakiness". I'm sure you have had your fair share of flakey, non-talented students and you don't subscribe to this sort of thing.

From a parents point of view, I'm sure going through a site like this gives them some peace of mind since background checks are done on all the teachers who advertise there. I hardly think it's more or less in their minds any different from any other form of advertising on the web.

To be honest, it's been so long I can't remember what their policy is and beside by now i'm sure they've since changed their policy.

However I have just moved to a new area last year and I have still found other ways to market. I mean there are some pretty standard things you can do to get new students. I wouldn't advise you to use take lessons, the money you make won't be worth it...and just because it's a company doesn't mean that you will be overflowing with students. They may still only provide you with one or two students.
Let me get this straight are you offering a music school or private lessons?
What types of ways have you already tried to advertise and/or get your information out to the community you are in?

It's a vocal conservatory. We offer voice and piano lessons. We have been listed in some directories, and are currently putting together a website. We have also tried connecting with local schools, but not much comes from that. I'm planning on doing some craigslist ads as well.

Ok so Craigslist is an awesome place to start but how about local magazines, local kids magazines, article features etc. It seems to me that you haven't really put forth an effort towards advertising unfortunately and you are ready to throw in the towel and let someone else do it for you. If that's the case hire a marketing and advertising strategist however, don't hire a company that is going to already take a percentage from what you will need to help add to your monthly income.

No matter what area you are in it is possible to attract new students, you just have to know the basics of how to market and advertise. It doesn't always take a lot of money.

How about setting up some events?

You can get free media coverage in all of your local 'things to do' newspapers. Have your students perform in costume somewhere either public-like the mall, or somewhere underserved like a nursing home or hospital . Host a sing-in for the winter holidays. Perform at neighborhood street festivals.

Let people see you doing what you do best!

How do I find these magazines? I have not seen any, that is the problem. It's not a lack of effort, it's just I don't know where these things are. And if I haven't seen them, does that mean they aren't seen by others? When I lived in WI I knew what the locals newspapers and magazines were and advertised in them.

edited to add: I'm not throwing in any towel here. As I explained, I noticed this was getting top hits on Google and so I was investigating, thus why I posted about it. I don't care for the implication that I'm being lazy just because I'm asking about something.

Hello, I am not saying your lazy...I know speaking for myself, I remember a time when I hadn't put forth any real effort towards marketing I just fully relied on word of mouth and my website to pull students in. I paid for it though in terms of...I had a lot of students at certain times and not enough students at other times. Some Music Teachers aren't advertising because of lack of knowledge on where to advertise and/or lack of interest to seek out where to advertise.

However I just did a search on google for Boynton Beach, FL
here's what I found for suggested advertising:
1. http://www.smartguy.com/profile/pro/Boynton-Beach-FL-Coupon-Magazine
2. are you listed on review sites such as yelp.com, google plus and yahoo local?
and even from there, there is tons to do in your area.
However if you still want, go ahead and try TakeLessons.com they may or may not be able to fill your studio and even if they are able to fill your studio it will still feel as though only half the amount are there because of the pay cut take lessons will take!

If you have the space, and especially that you teach both piano and voice, have you considered group lessons for young kids? Or even a musical after school drop off to start with?

Since the price for each student is lower than private lessons so hopefully you will get a lot more students. After "graduating" from the group lessons, hopefully, some will continue with private lessons.

And you don't have to deal with the (famous) transfer students.

Actually, we are in Boca (I live on Boynton but don't teach here). We are on yelp.com, but not the other two. I'll add something to those as well. Thanks for the suggestions!

Yes, I will be starting a young voice class mid-October in order to hopefully draw more students. I've thought about doing a piano class as well, but I will start that after the holidays.

The musical idea sounds like fun, but we'd have to do evenings because we are teaching otherwise . Maybe that is something we can try as well, thanks!

Morodiene, have you tried mailings? Post cards? Home delivery?

Several years back, I had a large batch of custom made post cards made by Overnight Prints. I'm sending you one in the mail - look for it in a few days. It's a very effective way to reach potential students especially in new developments.

John

Have you thought about going through the church route? A few teachers in my branch are heavily involved in their church activities (one is the pastor's wife) and they have students lining out the door. And if you can coach the church choir, that's a double bonus for you.

Also, how many teachers are in your area? You might be stuck in a place with way too many teachers and/or many well-established studios.

My studio is battling the behemoths called "music schools" (I'll gripe about this later), and I've only gotten four new students this past summer, to replace the two who graduated from piano. I did try to advertise more this summer, but it's a wash for me.

Interesting... tell us more about this!

Ok, I'm kidding, so I'll get to the point at hand:

Most such services have a very simple problem: There's very little control. And I'm not talking from the side of the teacher, but from the side of the service picking the teachers: I know a couple of such services where ever hack in the world is teaching! I managed to save a couple of students from there, offering the same rates and all, but it's relentless... A nice website (which takelessons.com doesn't seem to even have that) and BINGO!

I'd say stay away, if only because "the company you keep shows more about you than about them"...

(If you replace the words website and takelessons with 'music schools' I think that AZN above will be very much covered! )

But I'm not kidding! I know there have been behemoth threads on this behemoth problem before. It might be a local problem, or a problem that's germane only to a few metropolitan areas. But I'm not sure it's directly related to what the OP is experiencing.

Take a look at local shops that sell kids clothing, toys, teacher/education supplies and stuff like that. They may have a stack near the front of the store. Maternity stores might be a source. Here there is a breastfeeding supply shop that is really kind of a community center for new moms. (Of course I am not suggesting that you enroll infants, but many newborns do have older siblings!)

I know a few people here who have taught music lessons through various community ed. programs, through school districts or university continuing ed. They will offer one group course, and then if people want to continue they can continue as private students.

Morodiene,

The subject of your post is "has anyone tried Takelessons before?" so I will try to respond to that.

I have used them and here is what I liked and disliked about the service.

Pros:

-They do a lot of advertising. It seems that they always have banner ads on websites, radio spots, and even a TV commercial the other day. Logic would dictate that with all the advertising they do, students would find them for lessons.

-They handle the scheduling of students and billing. You just teach the lesson.

-You are covered by their cancellation policy.

-Students pay in advance, so your payment is guaranteed.


Cons:

-They take 25% commission of every lesson. It used to be 50%, and that was why I initially quit using them. At the time, I had 3 students from Takelessons that they had sent to me over 2 years. I think they were charging 60 dollars for my piano lessons, and I gave each of these students around 48 lessons in the year. That amounted to $8,640 that Takelessons made off me in those two years (at 50% commission). I just couldn't justify three new students for that much money; it wasn't worth it. Now at 25% commission fee, that would only be $2,160 per year or $4,320 over those two years. To me, it's still not worth it.

-You can't talk to a student first to see if they are a right fit; they just send them to you.

-Not sure if they do this anymore, but they used to charge a $49.95 setup fee. That made me upset that they would take a commission and charge me a setup fee.

There are other services out there that don't take a commission and still give you tools to manage your lessons. When I left Takelessons, I started using onLessons.com. It's free to sign up, they don't take any commission or other fees, and they give you many tools to manage your lessons. I have received 3 new students from them since I signed up 6 months ago. You can read about how it works at:

http://www.onlessons.com/howitworks

I also use Craigslist to find new students. I hope this helps to give you an honest opinion, and best of luck!

Thanks, pianoSD. I have posted on craigslist and so far only spam. But I'll keep renewing my posts and see what that generates over a longer period of time.

TakeLessons no longer charges a sign-up fee, and 50%!!?!? That's outrageous, and I can see how over a period of time, paying 25% even would get annoying. After all, you're doing the same amount of work for less. And while you can charge whatever you want on TL, I know students who signed up through them would be resentful if they were charged more to cover that cost while other students at the studio were paying the normal rate.

I will check into onlessons.com though - thanks for the suggestion!