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When I was in college, before I started University, I was told that the way the music scene worked "back in the day" was that if you worked hard enough to make the right impressions with the right connections then you'd have the luxury of being tethered to your phone. You could quite literally wait for the gigs to come to you. All that exhasperated longing for the past was followed by: "This doesn't happen now, ever. You need to hustle and if you're waiting by the phone, you are waiting for your career to die." Yes, it's an extreme sentiment but a common jazz musician is not swimming in pools of money and the concept of being "lazy" is a way to seperate out who's in it for now and who's in it for the long (possibly pay-less) haul. To a degree I find this can apply to any small business owner; you need to hustle or you'll never last. However, I'm arguing that I'm always tethered to my phone for better or for worse, the "gigs" (my students) are coming to me AND still I'm constantly hustling. Since calling someone on the phone no longer gaurentees communication I'm also emailing, texting, and phoning multiple numbers. It's not something to really groan over, it's just that my administration efforts can only go as far as my communication efforts do. I can't expect that if a parent who is interested in signing their student up for lessons and calls me once, and I don't answer, would call me back several times. Whereas I might call them several times because the short of it is that I do work for them- administration is (unfortunately) part of the service that I provide along with teaching. I've had to change some of my routines around this. I think the morning is the best time for email- the morning on weekends is the best time for phone calls, while anytime after 8:00pm on a weekday is the best time to touch base and have a conversation. Knowing some of my students' parents the way that I do, I'll send a text message before I go to bed, knowing that it will be something they read first thing in the morning. It's a challenge to keep track of which communication style is best for each parent, but I've prided myself of being very organized of such information. ****(Once I recover my lost files from my dead computer, I will link some free PDFs of the forms that I use to gather information from my students and parents) ****
This past week I was in the Bahamas on a family vacation. It was beautiful, it was relaxing, we had a great time. However, as soon as I touched down in Toronto I was flooded with emails and vmails, all of which left me both determined and overwhelemed. Determined because I knew this would happen- I knew that parents would want to start scheduling their students in the last 2 weeks of August. I knew that some of them wouldn't have read the hand out I gave out in June about how I'd be unreachable from the 24th-28th of August. Plus, I was really hoping to have a few new students contact me, and I hate the impression of leaving a voicemail without an immediate return phone call. I was overwhelemed because each voicemail felt like a missed opportunity, one that I would have to generate for myself for the next few days and hope we catch each other. I know that I could be more type B about this part of my job. I could think less about the misscommunications and be more passive about scheduling students and parties and recitals but that's not how I'm choosing to run my business. As important as it is for me to be an awesome teacher who loves the time I get to spend with my students, I also need to dedicate time for their parents and grandparents who bring them to lessons and find value in what I do. Going forward, I'm going to dedicate about 1 hour every night between 8:00-9:00 pm for voicemails and phone calls. That way I'm not scrambling all day to write a message down at the gym or the grocery store. I want to have everything I need, schedules and policies, available to me. Plus, I think having a set time of the day to do something- if I need to, will lift that feeling of being in a communication hampster wheel. I'm going to prep for 2 lessons I'm teaching this morning that I booked -out of the blue- last night at 9:30 pm (yes, their mom called me) I'm hoping that teaching this morning will remind me why the struggle of administration is worth it, not just for my business but for my students!