HHTV 6: Found My Roadblock
- Apr 8, 2015
- 3 min read
My Checklist From Last Week
Create a flyer for beginning child group class.
Create a list of 10 places/people to send the flyer to
Have a list of possible locations to contact
Have the template and guidelines for the lesson plans
Putting Myself Out There
While it was easy to email and send copies of my private lesson flyers to orchestra teachers across the city, I realized this is my last opportunity to turn back from the group class. Technically, nobody knows about it, nobody is signed up yet, and I haven’t started branching out yet. It’s true I made a one-page to find a location but I have to confess… I never actually gave it to places. I haven’t really had human contact as far as my “business” goes, which is what’s holding me back. On one hand, I feel completely comfortable teaching lessons, creating flyers, making policies, emailing, snail-mailing, and even teaching a group class. I am currently quite uncomfortable with calling people or meeting face-to-face in order to promote my business. I think that’s why I’ve been putting it off. But my project actually cannot go any farther without human contact. I need a location. Enough planning, time for doing.
Daunting
It seemed really daunting to just show up at random locations and ask if I can use their space to teach music classes. What if nobody is there? What if the person in charge isn’t there? What if I go up to the building and can’t find the entrance and realize I don’t know what I’m doing and then interrupt a class or service because I’m lost and don’t know what to do or where to go or who to talk to. SO… I made a list of potential places to contact and call. I even found them all on maps and found which Suntran bus I should take in order to get there. I also went to several of the locations’ websites to see if they offered other programs, what their whole “deal” is, and how open to the community they are.
Last Week I Said “I Need Students”
So true to what I said last week, I managed to put together 10 more contacts and send them my flyer. It sounds really simple but I assure you, it was not. Sending a flyer includes all of these steps:
Check list of orchestra directors
Search google for their school
Find all the teachers at the school and double-check to see if they are still the orchestra director there. Copy additional information about the teacher that can be found.
IF the school’s website doesn’t have a list of teachers then I check Facebook to see if the teacher has an account and also lists their school of employment.
Add the address of the school to the list.
Send out a customized email with an attached and newly updated flyer.
Print and sign introduction letters, along with 3 color copies of the flyer.
Go to the post office and put everything in an envelope, and address it correctly.
(This is evidence that I truly did all of those steps at least 10 times, I even used a real pen to sign my real name!)
And More
Other things I did for my “business” this week (sorry, I’ll stop putting the word business in quotes, it’s just that I don’t feel like it’s really a business yet) are
Rearrange my website to be more streamlined
Create a flyer for the group class
Next Week
Find a location!!!! IF I find one then I can move on to…
Advertise group class flyers to at least 10 different places/people
Develop a list of teaching materials I should have for private instruction and small group instruction
Create a list of 10 places/people to send the flyer to
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