The Myth of Guitar Teaching - It's a BUSINESS

Let me begin by saying "IF YOU WANT TO MAKE MONEY TEACHING GUITAR YOU MUST REALISE GUITAR TEACHING IS A BUSINESS" The biggest mistake most guitarists make is they set out to teach guitar as a sideline to get money so they can spend their time playing guitar. While this is a great goal and one that I bought into at age 19 years it was a fantasy. Guitarists often believe that being a guitar teacher will give them a way of being paid to play if your like. BIG MISTAKE. Teaching guitar is a business. You need to approach it right from the start as a business. When people pay you money for a service it is called a business. Not a hobby or a charity. Your students expect/demand to get value for money. What they are paying for is a system that will result in them being able to play guitar. When you go to a restaurant you expect to get a clean table, friendly waiter, prompt service, good food and a fair bill. That is what you are paying for. But imagine if you turned up and the chef was really only living out their personal hobby of cooking. Everynight the menu changes. Sometimes the food/service is good and other times not so good. Now the chef's hobby of cooking soon turns to stress because customers are not happy and there seems to be so many other obligations. Bills, banking, taxes, cleaning, waiting tables, hiring staff etc. This is what happens to the average guitar teacher. Within 12 months the joy of guitar has turned into a nightmare of stress. If you think this won't happen to you just take the statistic that 96% of small businesses fail. The other 4% don't necessarily have it easy either. They just manage to survive. FACT IS GUITAR TEACHING IS A SMALL BUSINESS and if you don't accept that right from the start you will find yourself pedalling up a very steep hill.