wanted: piano students

Oh the joys of advertising for students.

Obviously, we all know that this is an important step when setting up your studio. For a young teacher starting out (or any teacher looking to expand their studio, for that matter) it can be a daunting task. I seriously would love to get to the point where students come to me with little to no effort on my part, and to where I actually have a waiting list. That would be the life. Unfortunately I have moved around quite a bit during my years of teaching, so I have never actually gotten to that point yet.

I have had quite a few students in my teaching career, so I obviously had to acquire them somehow. Here are some ways I have found students in the past:

1. teaching unsuspecting younger siblings & cousins as some of my first "guinea pigs"
2. mailing little brochures to people with young children in my neighborhood
3. delivering fliers to every. single. door. within a five mile radius of my house with the help of my [amazing] mom and her minivan (probably got 1, 2 students tops from this method - plus a lot of exercise)
4. putting business cards and fliers in random places, such as a car wash (got one student from the car wash. awesome.)
5. putting fliers in music stores (this method actually works pretty well)
6. advertising on craigslist or some other online classifieds website (this method guarantees you will receive plenty of spam email from folks in other countries who are sending their children to America on holiday and they would like you to teach them for x number of hours per day for x number of months and they would like to know how to wire the money directly to your bank account. score!)

And, the absolute best method, in my opinion:

7. WORD OF MOUTH

So, I guess what I'm getting at is this: feel free to tape fliers to hundreds of doors and advertise online to your heart's content (and you may have to use some of these methods when you're just starting out), but my advice would be to get to know other teachers in your area and let them know you're looking for students. Be the best teacher you know how to be, so your students will refer others to you.

I'd love to hear what others have to say on this topic, as I am currently searching for more students myself. I could use a little inspiration in that department :)

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