Pricing classes - what do you think of this?

[neepsntatties]

I want to start a teaching drama classes for secondary school aged pupils. I am qualified for this and am in the process of trying to get organised to start in Sept. The space that I am going to use is £11.50 an hour - I am planning on an hour and a half for juniors and two hours for seniors. Price wise I want to keep it as cheap as possible but am a bit fearful of getting in debt! I was thinking of £3.50 for the junior session and £4 for the senior with all pupils paying a £5 joining fee at the start of the year. I was going to ask for a term in advance mainly as we will be putting on performances and I want people who will commit for a term at a time at least.

Do you think these prices sound ok? I have to pay insurance costs which seem to be about £100 for the year and advertising of some kind too. I am trying to find a balance between making things affordable without risking debt for myself. In an ideal world I would be able to pay myself the going freelance rate which is £20 an hour but I realise that might not happen for a while if ever!

You don't say how many pupils you will be having. Do those prices give you a reasonable profit? I don't think they sound expensive, maybe you could charge a bit more for the joining fee.

Agree, how many are you aiming for ? tbh that sounds too cheap. Work out what pay you want to achieve p/hr (I'd suggest £20+ but could easily be more) plus the hire charge and allowance for insurance and advertising and you are looking at trying to achieve about £45-50 p/hr. Divide by no. students in group ie. 12-15 and you arrive at about £3.50 per hour each or £5 per session. You could use the joining fee (is this an annual fee?) to fund your insurance so then you are simply trying to cover weekly costs and advertising but you may also need to charge extra for performances(hire of venue , printing tickets etc) and costumes or risk not breaking even.

I was thinking 20 per class but I don't know if I will get that many to start with. Perhaps I should go up to £4 and £4.50 and make joining fee £10. I am worried about people not being able to afford it I suppose but certainly don't want to be out of pocket! I am not good with numbers either which does not help.

What sort of area are you in? Is it a well off area where parents drive range rovers and children own ponies, or an inner city estate where most people earn minimum wage? Do you know what other drama classes in the area cost? Or even singing lessons/dancing etc as that covers the same market.

If you're aiming for 20 pupils then you need to ensure your costs are met by, say, 10. Then if you can get the extra students it can all go towards your income, costumes, advertising productions etc.

It's pretty mixed but I want it to be as accessable as possible. I am not really looking to make a huge profit or anything just pay for my time if I can.

Offer a free session (perhaps shorter than a regular one) before they have to pay the annual fee. You may take an initial financial hit but if they are interested and come back you should recoup that. Good way to find out what the kids are interested in doing too.

Good idea! It's great to talk this through rather than me just thinking about it on my own.

Hello again - I am in the same position! Hoping to set up a youth theatre in the local area (we are East London though so our hire charges are £25 an hour!).
Would be happy to share business plans- not done yet/costings/support etc. I have a spreadsheet which you can change number of people/amount of cost to see how much to charge...

Am planning a few taster sessions and charging per term, with a discount for booking by a certain date so i can check my minimum numbers.

PM me if you want to chat and hand-hold!!

I've just been looking into theatre classes for DD. Here (Newcastle) it looks like £4 for a 1.5hr session at the biggest theatre in town (though it's been more expensive at private, out-of-town places 9 this surprised me). There's no joining fee but you do have to pay the £40 for a ten-week term up front. It's the same price, whatever the child's age (classes from age 4-18). That seems reasonable to me.

How about upping the session rate and doing away with the joining fee?

Hi Laugs... I have been looking a bit too... which theatre is it the royal?