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From:  gwyee@r...
gwyee@r...
Date:  Wed May 2, 2001  12:55 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Re: cost of lessons


At 05:00 PM 5/1/01 -0400, Karen Mercedes wrote:
>I know why my old teacher - and why many teachers - bill by the month, and
>often in advance: it's because they need a predictable income flow. But
>I'd strongly urge teachers who can manage to keep a "cushion" in the bank
>to go to a "pay as you go" scheme with their students. For one thing, you
>can stop worrying about billing your students (or their parents), so your
>administrative overhead goes down.
>
>By the way, ALL the coaches and accompanists I work with are "pay as you
>go". I could never figure out why teachers don't work the same way.

Dear Karen and Vocalistmates,

There may be another reason for the pre-pay scheme. One of my former
teachers used to schedule her students one-after-another every hour on the
hour. She initially used to use the pay-as-you-go scheme, too. But at the
end of the lesson, the students would suddenly realize they'd have to write
a check. Sometimes they'd have to run out to the car to get their
checkbook. Or sometimes their parent, who was waiting in the car, would
have to come into the studio to write a check. [We're pretty flaky here in
California.] Then the next student who was expected to be on time would end
up waiting (sometimes up to 10-15 minutes) while the check-writing banter
went on. You couldn't help but feel short-changed. So she went to the
monthly pre-paid scheme to smooth things out.

My current teacher schedules the lessons with at a half-hour space between
students. We pay cash-on-the-scheduling-desk at the end of each lesson. I
like this system better. If there's a trouble spot that takes a little
extra time, it's available.

GWendel, dT


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