Many people have a skillset that other’s desire to have. As a result, there is a huge opportunity for people to develop an alternative stream of income by teaching their skill to other people.
In my own case, teaching golf is something I have done in the past. But, there are so many other things that people buy instruction or training for every day, such as…
- Fitness training
- Guitar lessons
- Drum lessons
- Piano lessons
- Martial arts
- Art
- …and the list goes on.
The beauty of this potential stream of income is if you do it well, it has the potential to replace your full time job.
I’ve got a good friend of mine who was a school teacher as well as a PGA Professional. He has ultimately left school teaching to teach golf full time and he is making an excellent living.
Keep in mind, golf is one skill that people are willing to pay a lot of money to acquire. Top local teaching professionals often command $150 for an hour lesson, while nationally recognized teachers are capable of charging $250, even $500 for a one hour lesson. In fact, these instructors rarely schedule one hour lessons, preferring to schedule half day or full day sessions while charging several thousand dollars to do so.
This likely won’t be the case if you intend to supplement your income as a piano teacher, unless you have some local notoriety with a band or orchestra. Still, if you develop a reputation as an excellent teacher, you may be able to charge a considerably higher fee than your competitors.
If this is a path you want to take, the steps to get started are basically the same as what I described in my previous post about creating a second business.
However, you can also take a more casual approach as well. You can first start out by telling friends and family, make an announcement on Facebook, etc., just to get things rolling. That probably won’t get you a ton of new clients, but it should get you a handful.
As always, I highly recommend setting up a website and getting some nice looking marketing materials (business cards, letterhead, presentation folders, etc).
Here’s a pretty cool marketing tip for this kind of business…
First of all, you should keep a client database with a program such as Excel. When you have an opportunity, collect as much information as possible about your clients along with their email and snail mail address. This will provide you with multiple opportunities to market to them in the future.
Now, a really cool marketing technique I learned a while back is to set up a few drop boxes at places that you frequent (with permission from the proprietor of course), such as you favorite watering hole, where you get your hair cut, etc.
With the drop box, make an offer in exchange for a business card, such as a chance for a free golf lesson, or whatever it is that you teach. Indicate that you will conduct one drawing each week.
Yes, you’ll give that one free lesson each week, and that may lead to further business from that individual down the road. But, along with that you are collecting contact information from other prospects that you can now market your teaching/training to in the future. Put those names in a separate database until they become clients.
You should strive to set up at least three or four of these drop boxes around town and be sure to stop in to collect those cards each week. At the very least, these are warm leads interested in what you have to teach. You can find some of these drop boxes here.
That’s just one marketing technique you can use and it won’t cost you much at all. Another obvious strategy is to post flyers around town wherever possible…bulletin boards in schools, libraries, grocery stores, etc. are good places to get the word out about your teaching service.
The bottom line is that if you have any extra skill that other people find desirable, you have an opportunity to develop an alternative income stream through teaching what you know. I’ll be covering more marketing ideas for these businesses in future posts, so keep coming back!
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