Employ a Simply Music Teacher
Found in: About Business, About The Method, Studio Management, Teaching and Teacher Training
Kylie S., Australia
I am interested that you have an employee teacher. I am wondering how this works..
I am a brand new SM teacher, but yesterday another music friend (who I actually used to have a business partnership with running preschool music classes) mentioned to me that she would also love to train as a SM teacher, but can’t afford it at this point in time, and wondered what to do.
I believe some teachers have other teachers working for them??
I can see this may work in my area. I own The Music Room, and it would be wonderful to have another SM teacher onboard within my business as we have no other SM teachers in our large area, and I am already a very busy mum and won’t be able to take on a large student base, at least in the next ten years or so.
Is it viable to train someone to work for you?
Would love to hear thoughts and ideas from you Amber, and from others who have been there and done it.
Robin Keehn, Washington
There are teachers who employ other SM teachers and we call that having a Provisional Teacher. You can come to any agreement that works for you regarding contracts, who pays for the training, what you are providing to the teacher and what he/she is responsible for.
What SM does is to provide the teacher with a Provisional License which protects you from having the teacher go through the training and then compete with you. A teacher has to be designated as a Provisional Teacher before they go through the training. All teachers go through the training–a SM teacher cannot provide that training but they can, and really should provide ongoing coaching and support to any teacher they employ. So, a Provisional Teacher pays for the training (the training cost is less) and then teaches for you. If he or she quits, until you tell us that you have released them from employment, their license is no longer valid so that they cannot open up down the block and compete with you. If you both agree that this is what you want, you notify SM Head Office that this is acceptable and then we issue them a standard license. All of their Teacher Training Materials are theirs to keep.
If you want more details, please contact me and I’ll be happy to share more information with you.
I have had three provisional teachers in my studio and it has worked well for everyone involved.
Emily D., Ohio
I have an idea for my business that I’m discussing with a friend … kind of the idea of a co-op of artists helping one another, but with united goals and a potential partnership with a charity where each artist would give to that charity. We’re trying to figure out how this would work without me having to 1099 the other artists. It may be a co-op, but does anyone know of a way for multiple sole proprietorships to be under the same umbrella for marketing purposes?
Original discussion started June 20, 2012