Hello all,

After my rather long post about the discomforts of home visits, I'm making a list of students I will have to pass on. I know it's the logical thing to do to phase out students who live the furthest away, but in my case the students who live the furthest away are the ones I'd rather keep. So I thought I'd post my reasons and hopefully some of you may point it out if I'm being unreasonable!

-I have two girls, siblings. Their main instrument is violin and although they learned piano from me initially, more and more they're only learning theory from me according to mother's wishes. As I'd rather teach piano and theory isn't my speciality, I think they're better off going to another teacher.

- Another set of family who lives acroos the road from these girls. Obviously it's been a very conveninet situation for me so far to have all these students on the same street but if I only want to teach from home I've got to make cutbacks. I love teaching the children in this family but don't really enjoy teaching their mother. She burdens me with wanting to be friends and during lessons don't really listen to my instructions. More often than not I end up going overtime with her as she can't stop talking or playing and although I've become more business like with her recently I find her emotionally draining. She always pays upfront however and is very accommodating with time changes on my part. I'd love to keep on teaching the children but not the mother. Very likely I'll have to give up the whole family as I don't think mother would like it if I only taught her children. Am I being fussy?

-Student who moved to another area from this area but pays me more than what I ask for. Does no practice but we do have fun. Always pays for lessons he's missed, but doesn't live close to any of my other home visits. Also a terrible flirt. When told I may cut back on students, he begged me not to 'dump' him! Think I might have to though..

-4 students who live within 5 minutes of each other. It takes me an hour to get there but they're lovely kids, pay upfront and gives me no emotional burden or added b***. Very straight forward lessons, mothers all professionals and know I'm busy so try not to take up my time. I think for this reason I'll keep them.

Am I being reasonable?

Maybe he'll propose instead!

In seriousness I think you are being very reasonable. I get the impression it is very important to you to be seen to be fair, but do also remember to be fair to you. You are the one offering the service - your time, expertise, preparation, etc. Give them reasonable notice, and by all means be open to talk about it, but do keep in mind what is not negotiable for you and stick to it. Remember the end of all this is getting together a good business base that you can service from home well into the future; time and mental energy spent building up those foundations is time well spent even if income may suffer for a while.

Go for it!

One of the benefits of being your own boss is that you can pick and choose who you work with - there are lots of downsides to being your own boss so you might as well make the most of the benefits!



With a bit of subtle encouragement, he may come to you




After a hard day with other students who are less satisfying, an afternoon with these kids might restore your faith. Definitely worth having to keep reminding yourself why you want to stay in teaching!


Good luck with your home practice

I agree. Make the most of working for yourself. You can be fussy, if you want. The only one thing I'd say is that if you need the money, you can't be quite so picky. And also, it seems a shame to stop teaching the children whose Mum you don't like to teach, but if you're looking to drop a few students, then there's nothing wrong with stopping their lessons.

The only other thing you need to be careful of is your reputation. I don't know about you, but I tend to get most of my business through recommendations. Make sure each student has another teacher to go to if possible, and make sure they understand your reasons (i.e. not wanting to travel), so you won't lose out on potential new business through their recommendations.

Your reasons sound fine to me. You'll have to lose the whole family with the Mother you don't want to teach, otherwise you will end up dealing with her anyway. Good luck with your cull...

Not sure if this will happen as I'm married and he lives with his girlfriend! Think his girlfriend is already little bit wary of me and it would be disaster if he came to mine, his girlfriend probably won't let him and I've got my husband who will definitely not be impressed!

Not meaning to sound judgemental or nasty, but I think you should be more professional with this guy. You shouldn't get into a situation where you can't have a student at home because it might rock the boat in this way.

Beagle - don't forget that the pros of being self employed are that you can pick and choose your hours, set your own working environment and generally just choose what suits you best.

If the students are keen to carry on learning with you, then they will consider coming to you. If they are not, then I don't think you should have too much trouble with picking up new pupils surely but slowly. PM me if you need any tips on marketing and advertising your business.

tell them you're teaching from home, see how many will come to your home.... dump the theory one's.. put the talkative mother first and then say, kiddies time... i have one of those too, she was talking to me, her father was visiting and she started talking to him.. he told her off and said your supposed to be having a lesson!! hahahaha

if they won't move, then pull names out of a hat..... you may be surprised..... that's if you haven't already asked.....