Why You Should Never Rely On An Agency For Guitar Students
When I started teaching guitar, like all guitar teachers who get started, I struggled to find students.
So I did what seemed obvious, I went and signed to different agencies that would provide students.
And in every single case, I had problems.
Agency 1
This was your typical agency for new teachers, they would create a website for you on their domain, give you some lesson materials, some basic tax advice etc.
And rip you off.
They charged a monthly fee (nothing wrong with that), but when I stopped paying, they left up “my” website and started taking calls for me!
How kind of them.
They left up my website, profile etc and changed the contact number and email address to their own.
When someone phoned up, they would say that I was unavailable and that they could direct the prospective student to another teacher.
I knew this was happening, because I phoned them up to see what would happen.
They only stopped using my profile and took it down after I had a lawyer contact them to tell them to stop mucking about.
Agency 2
This agency was geared more towards peripatetic teaching - something that, in retrospect, I would recommend all teachers either:
- Avoid like the plague
- Charge travel time at your hourly teaching rate
The agency landed me some clients on the other side of the city I was living in. On the one hand, travelling for about an hour each way was rubbish, on the other, I was teaching three kids one after the other, which gave me about two hours of teaching, so at the time, the money sort of made up for it.
Now as the agency had landed the clients, all communication about lessons and payments was to be made through the agency - which is reasonable.
When it works.
The kids never practised and they would often muck about in the lessons, which I found quite draining, so I eventually told the agency that I wasn’t teaching them any more.
When the following week came round, several minutes into the usual lesson time I get an angry phone call from the mother asking where I was. When I had contacted the agency about no longer teaching those children, they had acknowledged my email to them… and failed to mention to the family that I was no longer teaching them.
Agency 3
Another agency… another problem…
This one was geared towards finding local students that would come to me.
I’d had a couple of students from them, which was great. Easy money.
Then Covid hit and everyone transitioned to Skype lessons. Again, nothing wrong with that.
Except that when it came to paying me, the agency decided to pay me less than usual because “that’s normal for Skype lessons”.
Our initial agreement made no mention of this.
After taking the agency owner to task over this and pointing out that the agreement we had in place specified an hourly rate and made no mention of whether the lesson was in person or on Skype, he finally relented. Apparently he disliked being called dishonest. He wasn’t able to show why that was an unfair label to give him.
The agency owner ran a WhatsApp group for teachers which I left.
I then had a message from a student I’d got through the agency saying they had a received a message from the agency owner that I had stopped working for the agency and would they like a different teacher. Which was news to me - I had not communicated I was leaving the agency, nor had the owner communicated to me that I was no longer working with them.
Anyway, the student enjoyed lessons with me and continued with me for a while, which was nice.
Lessons From Working With Agencies
The number one lesson from these agencies was that they are a pain to deal with.
The only reason I had to deal with them was because I was struggling to find students on my own. And solving that problem, so that I could find my own students, created multiple benefits:
Finding My Own Students Meant I Could Charge More
When working via an agency, the agency would take a cut of the hourly rate. Which is fair enough. But by finding my own students, I could charge the same price as the agency, but now I got to keep all of the money.
Yes there were additional costs from paid advertising, but long term value of the additional money far outweighed the cost.
Student Communication Was Easier
No agency means no awkward chains of communication.
When an agency is involved, organising anything with the student has to be done via the agency.
When there is no agency involved, you can just talk directly to the student.
Whether you are organising payments, lessons times, or wanting to no longer teach a particular student; being able to do so by directly communicating to the student makes everything so much easier.
No More Conflicts of Interest
When you leave an agency there may be assets in place, for example websites or student contact information, that they control.
And that they will continue to use.
After you leave the agency, they will re-assign any existing students you have to other teachers (this is usually specified in an agreement that you will sign with the agency, but it is hard to enforce).
After you leave the agency they may, as in my first experience, continue to use any promotional materials made for you to now compete against you and send your potential students to other teachers.
If you are finding your own students, none of these problems or conflicts exist.
No Agency Will Create A Full Schedule
Perhaps most importantly, no agency is ever going to give you a full schedule, unless you happen to be lucky. And if they do give you a full schedule, it is highly likely that you could have got those students yourself by learning a few simple marketing tools.
Agencies rely on you not understanding how to market yourself. And they have no obligation to you.
They may take on other teachers in your area - from their perspective this is good, as it gives potential students more choice and flexibility.
From your perspective this is awful, as they are now sending you less students.
How To Be Independent Of Agencies
Agencies might be a good way to get started finding your first handful of students, but it’s much better to simply learn how to do advertising and marketing yourself.
The truth is… it’s not that difficult to learn.
By learning a few key principles and looking at what others have used effectively in the past, you can easily create advertising systems that work for you and bring you new students around the clock.
The reason agencies exist is because most guitar teachers don’t want to learn how to advertise themselves properly and don’t want to invest into paid advertising.
Don’t bury your head in the sand - take on learning a new skill that will make you independent of agencies and able to fill your schedule and earn an income teaching guitar.
How To Become A Guitar Teacher
Want to learn how to teach guitar effectively, inspire students, grow your client base, and create a side-gig or even a full-time income? Check out the Guitar Teacher Training Program.