|
Music teacher Kay Charlebois
spends her summers providing private music lessons to elementary through
high school students. She began offering private instruction to just a
handful of her public school students who wanted to continue to work
with her over the summer. Kay
realized that tutoring could provide her an excellent opportunity to
supplement her public school teacher's salary while continuing to do
something she loved.
The next summer, Kay printed flyers on her home computer advertising
her services. She hung them on community bulletin boards around
town, and passed them out after her church choir practices. She even had
them included as bag-stuffers in a local instrument repair shop. She
doubled the number of regular students she had that summer, but she knew
she could do better. By that fall, Kay had a number of regular
students who wished to continue their sessions one evening per week.
By the
end of the following school year, Kay received several calls from former students
who wanted to begin their summer sessions again. Kay knew she could
almost teach full-time during the summers, if only she could fill her
schedule. A friend suggested that she engage a telephone answering service to
help her.
"An answering service," Kay recalls, "seemed so far-fetched. I mean, I
just teach music lessons out of my house. I didn't really see a need for
it." Fortunately, Kay's friend, an office manager, convinced her to give it a
try. "I had no idea how many people I was missing," Kay said.
"When I would leave
the house to run errands, or meet a friend for lunch, I was missing calls
I didn't know about. I
just assumed that people would leave a message if they called. But they didn't.
To me, it was just music lessons from my home, but I found out was that they
expected somebody to answer the phone during "business hours." They expected that first
call to be business-like. They came to appreciate the hominess of it
later. I never really considered that aspect of it when I got started."
That third summer, Kay was able to fill her entire schedule - thanks to
the answering service. She earned about a
third of her total year's salary during her summer ‘vacation’ from her
home.
"I would never have
believed that something that seemed so 'professional' to me could have
made such a difference. I've got so much business now that I've had to limit my students to elementary-aged kids
only. I've
enjoyed all my students, but the young kids have such an enthusiasm when
things start to click. I just wish I'd tried that answering service
sooner. If it wasn't for my friend's advice, I don't know if my lessons
would have taken off like they have."
Learn more about telephone
answering services and discover how they might be able to help you.
| 