Hi

im now thinking of putting my prices up and also petrol prices too, just wondred what other people charge for going to home visits?

Graham

I used to have a teacher who came to my house and he charged about £10 i think

What do you charge at the moment for lessons - and what do you charge for travel? - How do you work out the surcharge?

Andy

Until the end of this month (when I'm stopping to have a baby!) I'm charging £8 if they come here and £9 if I go there. I know this is too low. From January it'll be £10 for everyone and the only home visiting I will do is for 4 families (8 kids) who all live in the same village as each other. As it's worth my while going over there for 8 of them (plus another 4 at the village school) I won't charge them extra. Maybe I'm mad...

My teachers have almost always taught me at home. The first teacher I had charged £7, then the second one charged £10 & my current piano teacher who I have had for six years firstly started off charging £10 but now this has been changed to £25 but I don't know if this was because of travelling costs.

I stopped doing home visits a few years ago, as in the time it took travelling to and fro, I could have taught an extra 2 or 3 pupils at home. Now I only visit one pupil who lives on the way back from school-I charge an extra £2.50 per lesson. I think the problem is that to charge a realistic fee for visiting which reflected time travelling there and back, as well as petrol, would mean a lesson fee which is very high-unless you have a lot of pupils all in the same area.

i charge from 50p to £1.50 for travelling , and 8.50 an hour but both fees going up soon, i fear tho i may lose one or 2 ppl.

When I was teaching I had two villages that I visited, one on Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays. At each village I had a full evening's work. One village was about two miles away and the other probably eight miles - but in that case I worked at a school during the day and that village was on the way home. it made for a twelve hour day in total but it worked very well. I don't recall charging extra. It is true though that it is inevitable that your travelling time between houses - and even just your "getting out the door" time - will mean that you take at least half an hour longer than you would take to teach the same number of pupils at your house, and that's without allowing for travel time to and from the area you are teaching in.

Liz

well im thinking of charging from £1 -£3 on travel around near where i live and as well as putting the price of lesson up....i just dont want to lose many cos of it.

I charge £3 for home visits to cover petrol and time, although I try to avoid doing them at all.

well im trying to avoid them lol but out of 30 i go to 3

All my lessons are in the homes of my students. I charge (from Sept 2005) £16.30 per half hour lesson, with a 10% reduced rate for additional family members (whether taught at the same time or not - otherwise it ties things in knots), or the same reduced rate if I ever teach a student at home. I live in the south, an hour from London, and have a couple of decades of experience, full time for nearly a decade.
So I know exactly how much I charge for travel as, in a sense, it is the difference between my full fee and my reduced fee. The difference is £1.60 per half hour lesson. However, I find it very helpful to think of my fees in terms of total earnings I would expect to earn for a certain number of hours at work, and compare that to what I would earn in a different job, or working at home, and take expenses into account also. This way I can make sure I would earn the same amount working "full time" at home or as a travelling teacher, and relate my earnings per equivalent full day to other professions. Also, rates for teachers in the area need to be taken into account a bit, but lessons in their own home is a service that many people really value, and as such are happy to pay a comparable amount to other professions.

This advice about expenses etc. is what you will find in information from the Musicians Union and from the Incorporated Society of Musicians, who also give suggested minimum rates (see their websites - via google - or phone them).

I think that's a good way of thinking about it - it's not like people in office jobs get paid for their 40 minute commute into work, so as long as you feel you're getting a fair salary for your work all should be well

Ive only just put mine up to £20 (and thats in London?!!) and considering I have to travel to the other end of London and then in between houses thats a darn good price! But I will be putting up EVERY year until it gets to what it should be. And if they get funny about it Ill say "fine, show me someone else who would spend 3 hours total on the tube and then up to half hour between each pupil for that price".

Sorry. Rant over.

*nods* i think when the travel is that excessive you have a perfect right to charge more - especially in London.

£8.50 per hour? per... hour?

charging 50p for some of your travel is far too low i would say, i agree with what the other posters have said - Think about how much time you are losing in each journey - your fees - whether for lessons or travel should compensate for it!

Do you mind me asking what your qualifications are, as your lesson fee seems really low!!!

Andy

I have LLCM diploma......the 50p is for in the village.

You need to whack those prices up dude!

Have you seen the MU or ISM recommended rates??

Best of luck with it - there have been many posts along similar lines to yours - and i can tell you from experience that the more you charge, the more people value you!!!

Andy

i just fear i might lose ppl becuase of it, im not a member of the MU or ISM

Told him this ages ago.

You won't lose pupils.And many parents ie the majority, haven't even heard of the ISM and MU!!!

well ive told one person that it may happen weeks ago, and they hummed and argghed saying they would have to rethink!!!

If you're charging only £8.50 PER HOUR then you can double your prices and still be cheap. Tell them "good luck finding someone else who teaches this cheaply". I doubt they will unless all the other teaches in your area are ridiculously cheap.

My teaches charges £10 for half an hour, that's in the sticks and travelling to lessons, and though he now has several years' experience, he has a BA in music but not a diploma in teaching or performance.

You can still go to the MU website and download the teaching rates and print the sheets out - I have them hanging in my porch for all pupils to see!! Even though i charge slightly less (£20 per hour) - It's good for my pupils to see that i am cheaper than the recommeded rate - and its in a lovely frame too .. matches the lamp shade... really lovely..

- at the end of the day.. some teachers/unions/professionals would argue that you are cheapening the profession by charging so low!! - you wouldn't want that now would you!?

Go for it!

Andy

I like your style...

Gaz.You are up my neck of the woods.Your rates are way too low.And tell the rethink to take a hike!!!

Good heavens yes, £8.50 an hour is ridiculously low. I had a friend who had no qualifications beyond grade 8 and A level and she was charging £12 an hour last I heard - and that was three or four years ago. I haven't done instrumental teaching since 1995 but i think i was at £12 an hour when I finished.

Liz

At £8.50 an hour you could double your fees and still be below the unions' recommended rate. I doubt you'd lose more than half of your students if you did this.

You could alternatively start a lesson price escalator - essentially, you need to make up for lost time by putting your lesson prices up in excess of inflation. Say, put them up by £4 a year for the next three years and you'll be approaching a reasonable salary. It'd probably be less noticeable if you made it £2 every six months.

If you say you might be putting your prices up, people feel like they can negotiate; as has been said before, a quick letter 'Dear X, I will be charging this much from 1/10/2005, Yours...' deals with the situation with no haggling.

im in norfolk semele.


by the way guys, thanks for your responses

can you tell me where i can find the rates on MU has ive looked and cant find it.

Like it!

Just to echo what others have said, Gazdudeuk, I reckon a reasonable increase would more than cover the odd lost pupil. Just draught a pleasant but firm letter (... I have recently carried out a review of charges and found that ... etc etc).

I'm not a member of MU or ISM but that doesn't stop me charging what I feel is a fair rate.

Good luck! Be confident that you're worth it.

hey, ive just looked on MU and their going rate is £23.60 an hour!!

theres no way i would get that here in Norfolk lol

Neither would I in Somerset, although I know of a cello teacher who does (they're quite a rare breed). Most people here charge £20/ hour, and all of the schools I work at charge the kids (and pay me) £18-£20. So I've just put my private fees up to £20 from £16. I know there are people who are going to moan, and what annoys me most is that one of the parents who is guaranteed to complain can clearly afford it! Still, I've now got enough confidence to say, "fine, you're quite welcome to find another teacher who will come over to your house for less" or "OK, don't have the lessons then - I've got a waiting list!"

thing is in norwich and cambridge they can get £17-18 an hour but im in a small part of norfolk, and if i put my fee from £8.50 -£10/12 im gonna end up with none! Thing is i made a mistake 12 yrs ago, by starting of charging £5 an hour!!

Think its very important to point out that teaching fees vary greatly from city to city and in between and also according to the level of education the teacher has acheived themselves. With the best will in the world it is impossible to compare the cost of a lesson with jo bloggs (that'l be me lol ) to the cost of a lesson with say Perlman ( to go to the other extreme!). I beleive every good musician has some idea of their own worth as a teacher but if you're unsure a good place to ask is your local music store....juat go in and ask what local people are charging and pit yourself accordingly. Flutey toot i think as a college graduate you might be selling yourself short at £20 in london

Apologies.I was getting you muddled up with another member on here. But given you are in Norfolk,despite you saying it's a small part,you need to put up your fees.
I would write a letter like Maggie suggests,quoting the going rates recommended by the MU and ISM. Then they can rationalise your NEW rates against theirs.

I wonder just how difficult it would be for the parents to find another teacher.

When I first started teaching many years ago I made the big mistake of charging too low.It took me a while to level out,but it's about right now and I prefer to teach in 45 mins slots,paid upfront on a monthly basis,so I know how much my income is.

Good Luck.

thanks for all your comments on this matter and ive review both the lesson and petrol costs and am happy with what i have put it up to now. thanks!

Isn't that always the way? I worked for a year for a Saturday music school, and we put the price up on a drama course which had been HEAVILY subsidised to a price that approached the real cost (though it still didn't actually reflect it) and the parent who complained most bitterly was a consultant a hospital and had a husband who also was. Combined income of WELL over a hundred thousand a year at our most conservative estimate (and probably a LOT more) and she complained bitterly at having to pay something like £50 extra a term I think it was... - it was those parents who were struggling to make ends meet who complained the least...

Yes! As predicted, this parent had a real rant as soon as I handed her a letter last night. I hadn't put my prices up for 3 years - don't people realise that everything goes up?! She works full time for the MoD, had just been transferred from a city 50 miles away to an office just down the road, and has one of her children in private school because she thinks he's too clever for the local comp!

*Nodding* That's just typical I'm afraid. Those who really can afford it don't want to pay and object to even the smallest increase, while those who are probably living on a financial knife-edge (which includes some musicians incidentally) are the ones who will pay the increase without hesitation, even if it means having to cut back elsewhere.

Hmmm I could go into the tax rules on "normal commuting" and "business travel". I think this is "business travel" and therefore should be re-imbursed and the travel time counting as working time too.

A useful definition if you charge for your travel costs and time otherwise as you do not pay income tax on business travel but you do on normal commuting.

I've just spoken to a very good friend of mine who lives in a small village north-east of Norwich. She is a guitar teacher and tells me that she and a friend (a piano teacher) both charge £24 an hour and are going to put it up to £25.

She couldn't believe what you are charging and said that you MUST charge properly for a professional service.

Her suggestion was that you should put your fees up to £10 for half an hour, no question!

Good luck!

thing is norwich is a totally different area to kings lynn area and i just wouldnt get that fee where i am

Yes

Have faith in yourself! You are a professional - you deserve it! I'm in a smallish fairly rural town and I charge £20 per hour.

I agree. I live in the middle of nowhere in a part of the country where the cost of living is amongst the cheapest in the land. I have charged £20.00 an hour for two years. My letters informing parents of a rise to £22.00 an hour after Christmas, will go out in the next few weeks. I know from experience that there will be no problems.

Stand up for yourselves, fellow teachers. This is your livelihood we are talking about.

Steve

but going from £8.50 - £15 an hour will not be welcomed by any of my pupils!

No increase in welcomed by anybody.

How many other teachers are queing up to visit these pupils for £8.50 an hour? For £15.00 an hour? For £20.00 an hour?

Behave professionally. Charge professionally.

£8.50 an hour? Am I reading this correctly? And the National Minimum Wage for the Totally Unqualified Ane Nearly Unemployable is....?

How dare you charge so little and call yourself 'professional'?

I am angry, now. I have to earn a living from this work. What happens to me if someone like you moves into my area? What happens to other private music teachers in my area?

I am going to stop now. The last time I truly spoke my mind on a furum, the moderaters stepped in, gave me a warning and removed my contribution to the thread. That is how cross I am.

I'm not a teacher but thinking about this you probably need to do it gradually rather than a sudden jump. I think if you put it up by a reasonable amount but more frequently it would probably go down better.

I think that the response that you're getting is partly due to the way that your wording your discussions about increasing your fees. As Steve says if one is positive, assertive and confident people don't tend to argue so much.

Think of this analogy, suppose Tesco sent you a customer questionnaire (I apologise now to all teachers for comparing them to Tesco!) saying we might be putting up our prices what do you think. Obviously, if you chose to respond, you would say 'that's a bad idea of course I'd stop shopping at Tesco if you did that and go somewhere else', if you thought there was any remote chance they'd keep the fees the same. Suppose now Tesco just hiked the prices (but were still cheaper than or as cheap as everywhere else, or even maybe if they weren't) it's unlikely that you would change supermarkets.

The moral of the rather poor analogy is that if people think they can affect your decision to increase fees of course they'll say whatever they can to try and stop you; this doesn't imply that if you're assertive they'll actually do as they say....

i find this post a bit OTT!!!

increasing gradually is what i intend to do from november 1st

I was restraining myself.