What to Charge for Pro/Am or Student/Teacher

[Dancing Irishman]

And what about the wear and tear on our bodies? You do know we have a shelf life as to how long we can actually do this.

And what doesn't sit right about charging and agreed upon price to provide a service and then the competition rewarding is for bringin clients. We don't work to win top teacher prize money most of the time. And still we are providing a service to the client not to the organizer. If we happen to make that 20k you mentioned it was hard earned I can tell you that much. It's not like we did t provide such service.

Most pro's I Know from mid range to top pro am are charging a flat rate per style. Example of a student does rhythm and smooth it's $2000 per each style plus expenses.

Customers have a reason to distrust salespeople with volume-based incentives: the customer's interests are no longer well aligned with the salesperson's - this becomes especially aggravating if the salesperson tries to claim the fees are owed to the organizer as a totally separate entity, and then the student sees their teacher getting cut a five-figure check because of the large sum of money the student paid the organizer (because LBH, top teacher is mostly how many entries your students pay for, not how well you or they dance).

Not sure if you've read the news recently, but there's been a pretty high profile story making the rounds showing that people sometimes do unethical and/or illegal things when their livelihoods depend on hitting very high sales numbers.

This is not to say that every instructor who takes their student to a comp is misleading the student for the instructor's profit, but the system could easily make a new student feel that way and there are some students who almost certainly are being taken advantage of (and there are some who just want to do 100+ single dances for reasons I don't personally relate to).

TL;DR it's a little shady if the teacher doesn't disclose that they're getting a volume-based incentive from the organizer when selling the student on a large number of entries which the teacher will reap large benefits from. As you pointed out, the teacher is effectively the comp organizer's salesman and being compensated as such.

 

[stash]

Customers have a reason to distrust salespeople with volume-based incentives: the customer's interests are no longer well aligned with the salesperson's - this becomes especially aggravating if the salesperson tries to claim the fees are owed to the organizer as a totally separate entity, and then the student sees their teacher getting cut a five-figure check because of the large sum of money the student paid the organizer (because LBH, top teacher is mostly how many entries your students pay for, not how well you or they dance).

Not sure if you've read the news recently, but there's been a pretty high profile story making the rounds showing that people sometimes do unethical and/or illegal things when their livelihoods depend on hitting very high sales numbers.

This is not to say that every instructor who takes their student to a comp is misleading the student for the instructor's profit, but the system could easily make a new student feel that way and there are some students who almost certainly are being taken advantage of (and there are some who just want to do 100+ single dances for reasons I don't personally relate to).

TL;DR it's a little shady if the teacher doesn't disclose that they're getting a volume-based incentive from the organizer when selling the student on a large number of entries which the teacher will reap large benefits from. As you pointed out, the teacher is effectively the comp organizer's salesman and being compensated as such.

By the same token, the customer should take buying seriously and should be a smart shopper.... And no one is holding a gun to their head to buy from any particular instructor. If you aren't happy find a new instructor or pay up...

 

[caw]

The number of people who are advising me not to try to con my own student is disturbing. Firstly it's disturbing because it's a big enough problem that it is one of the primary things to be mentioned. Secondly it's disturbing because the reason people have been giving for not me not to con my student is that I might get caught and lose a customer... that an argument for self interest is more compelling than an appeal to basic morals.

 

[MaggieMoves]

The number of people who are advising me not to try to con my own student is disturbing. Firstly it's disturbing because it's a big enough problem that it is one of the primary things to be mentioned. Secondly it's disturbing because the reason people have been giving for not me not to con my student is that I might get caught and lose a customer... that an argument for self interest is more compelling than an appeal to basic morals.

Don't take it personally, but there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there in the dance world. I think all of us have been burnt at one point by someone in the business, whether you're a professional, amateur, or student. I can only comment on the latter two.

See this student as a way to build your brand. Good luck at the comp!