Thanks for your interest in a teaching position here at Naperville Music. We do not always have positions immediately available, however we consistently add teachers as our enrollment grows throughout the year, so opportunities are always on the horizon.

 

I hope this information will help you understand our philosophy of teaching, and our ideas on how our school can best meet the needs of both our students and teachers.

 

What about Naperville Music

 

To see a map of our location and get directions visit: http://www.napervillemusic.com/map.htm

 

We are the areas largest private music teaching school with over 400 students attending classes.  We began teaching in 1976 and have taught tens of thousands of students during that time.  We cater mainly to children. About 70% of our students are between 8 and 16 years old. We also welcome teens and adults which comprise about 30% of our student base.

 

We realize that most of our students will not become professional musicians. We strive to provide a fun and educational environment with well-organized administration, talented and fun teachers, first-rate equipment and competitive prices.  The emphasis is always on student progress and fun.

 

Where should you teach?

 

There are several places you can teach music around the area. Why should you consider teaching with us?

 

As a music teacher you can either teach privately in your house or in student’s homes, or you can teach in a music store or school - both have upsides and downsides. If you teach in your home or student’s home,  the upside seems that you can keep all of the money you collect from the student. But you are the receptionist and administrator, book keeper and you pay for your advertising and operating costs. 

 

There are other downsides of teaching in your home or your student’s homes. It can be hard if not impossible to keep your schedule constantly full of new students. Getting a full schedule can be difficult and expensive. If you have ever tried Facebook or Google ads, you know the results are not always encouraging and they are very expensive. Even if you are a good, well-liked teacher, it can take a lot of referrals and word of mouth to fill your schedule. If you are driving to students’ houses you also must factor in the driving time between students (as well as the ever-increasing cost of gas), which limits the amount of teaching you can actually charge for.

 

Another downside of teaching on your own can be the difficulty in enforcing your attendance and absences policies. No one likes being a collection agent.  It can be difficult to concentrate on your teaching when you have to keep track of who owes money and to make sure you are paid.  It’s very frustrating to teach lessons to students who have not paid you.  What is your pay rate on a lesson you can not collect for?

 

If you are teaching on your own, it can also be difficult to enforce your teaching policies and have your time respected. For example, if a student tells you they are going to Disney World for the next two weeks it would be difficult to make them pay for their lesson time. Many students will refuse to pay for those missed lessons because they will think “ I’m not getting my lesson so why should I pay?”

 

Chances are you can’t book another student in that lesson time for just 2 weeks, so if you don’t schedule a temporary student into the time slot when that student is in Disney World, you have just lost 2 weeks of pay. If that scenario happens a couple of times each month it can greatly reduce your earnings.

 

Why Teach at Naperville Music
 

What initially appears to be the biggest initial downside is you don’t get paid as much per student. While the teaching rates that in-home teachers and music schools like ours charge are usually pretty similar, the payment per student to the teacher in a store is lower because of the rent, advertising, receptionists, book keeping, taxes, insurance, maintenance, technology costs, office equipment, license fees, and other expenses that must be paid from the income derived from student.

 

A big initial advantage of teaching at a store or studio is the possibility of having a consistently full schedule of students each day. Being paid a lesser amount per student but having 10 or 11 students in a day might mean you can actually earn more overall in a far more compressed time.

 

Another upside to teaching at a store that most teachers forget, is the treatment of income taxes.  If you teach in your home, you are responsible for all income taxes due on your income, as well as the accounting and bookkeeping required to make the necessary quarterly tax payments to the IRS.  But the part that most home based teachers forget about is the 13.5% Social Security tax that is also due. 

 

As your own boss, you are liable for 100% of the Social Security tax that is due.  If you have held other jobs, you probably are aware that the employer withholds 6.25% of your check for Social Security, but you might not realize that your employer pays the other 6.25% out of his pocket (a savings to you).  Being self-employed, you are liable for the full amount!  Most teachers don’t make the necessary quarterly payments to the government, so they get a big surprise at the end of the year, for taxes they owe but did not plan for, as well as all the penalties due.  This could be thousands of dollars due in taxes.  When you work for Naperville Music you are our employee.  We do all the bookkeeping, and you will receive a W-2 at year-end.  This alone saves you 6.25% or more.

 

Another upside to teaching at Naperville Music is that you do not have any collections hassles. You are not responsible for collecting tuition.  You only have to focus on the teaching.

 

Our store provides a professional educational environment that is stimulating to the students. It is also free from distractions found in a home such as ringing phones, doorbells, as well as noisy family members.

 

You can set your work hours and workdays.  Here at Naperville Music, you simply tell us what days and hours you wish to teach, and we do the rest.  No more phone calls interrupting your private times to deal with students and parents.

 

Those are the general differences between teaching on your own and teaching at Naperville Music.

 

Here are reasons why music teachers choose to teach at our school over all other choices

 

1.      A constant flow of new students to keep schedules as full as possible

 

Over the course of the year, students can move or quit. This can leave a teacher with gaps or holes in their schedule. Most student register and start lessons in September. Most music schools only advertise in August and September for new students.

 

At our school we spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing year-round to keep our teachers’ schedules as full as possible. Each year we spend over $60,000 on advertising in concert flyers, direct mail, direct email, Facebook, Google, community publications and other media to constantly attract new students.

 

We are continually registering new students for our private music lessons even during typically slower summer months like May to June.

 

2.      Extras are taken care of — your only responsibility is to teach

 

We have full time front desk administrators to handle all of the “details” of administration.  From adding new students, to schedule changes, to collecting fees- all these details are handled by our administrators not the teacher. This means the teacher is free to focus on teaching and not get bogged down by administration.  You come in, you teach, you get paid, and you go home.  What could be simpler?

 

3.      Your time is respected, and you are paid whether or not students show up

 

Teachers are paid for lessons whether students attend or not. Each student is allowed only 2 excused absences each calendar year that you would not be paid for.  If a student misses classes for illness or other personal events past the 2 that are allowed, the teacher is still paid.   If a student does not pay for lessons or has an uncollectible debt, the teacher is still paid. Our priority for our teachers is to assure that your time is not abused, and your teaching day can be as productive as possible.

 

4.      Fringe Benefits

 

As our employee and valued team member we offer some benefits that you might be interested in.  All teachers who teach a minimum number of students each week will accrue vacation time.  Essentially, you get 1 day paid vacation per year, for every day you teach each week.  For example, teach 2 days per week, and get 2 paid vacation days per year.

 

We offer a Simple IRA for all eligible employees.  This allows you to save for the future, and we will match your contributions to the plan – up to 3% of your pay each year.  It’s like getting free money!

 

5.    Recitals
 

Parents and students expect performance opportunities.  That normally means that you have to have recitals.  You have to find a location, pay a fee, rent some chairs, provide some refreshments, set it up and tear it down and administer the entire event yourself and at your expense.

 

At Naperville Music our recitals are available to all students and teachers, and we provide all the logistics including photos, videos, refreshments, administration, and we pay all the costs. 

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​6.  Professional Standards
 

At Naperville Music we have adopted professional standards based on those of the Music Teachers National Association in determining our studios’ professional standards philosophy for our music teaching/coaching staff.  Our teachers are expected to adopt those standards.

If you want to review them here is the link. http://teachercentral.napervillemusic.com/professional-standards-for-teachers-020918/

 

 

7.   Training and On-Boarding for Success

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         We care about the success of both our students and our teachers.  For this reason, each of our new teachers participates in a on-boarding program.  Most other studios do not offer any form of training program, and new teachers are often thrown into teaching with little or no guidance.  Those teachers who teach out of their homes or travel to students’ homes receive no training.  Our on-boarding program helps new teachers to feel at ease in the lesson studios and allows teachers to become acquainted with store teaching procedures before they begin teaching.

 

For those teachers with extensive experience, our training program will orient you to  the ideas of "what Naperville Music does, and how Naperville Music does it”.  You can fully utilize your own teaching style within our proven method which guarantees the highest levels of customer (student) satisfaction.

 

Our teachers are already accomplished musicians, so we strive to help them become accomplished and effective teachers as well.  The training program consists of a series of readings that teachers are asked to respond to.  New teachers are asked to complete parts of this training before they receive their first student.  Hands-on training and observation sessions are also provided before the teacher begins teaching. 

 

If this program appeals to you, we would encourage you to explore our websites at https://www.napervillemusic.com , and https://www.lessons.napervillemusic.com, that will give you an idea of what our store and studio does, the music products and services we provide, and why we are always generating students who want to take lessons from us.

 

I would also encourage you to visit our store/studio if you have not already done so.  This way you can determine if the drive is acceptable to you.  You can leave your completed application with us on your visit, if you wish.  It would be our pleasure to meet you, however, we might  not be able to discuss your application with you at that time.  We will have our HR department review it and contact you within a few days.

 

You can also return your application to us by any of the following methods: 

 

          

 

Mail:

Naperville Music     

636 E. Ogden Avenue

Naperville, Il. 60563

 

Email:  nate@napervillemusic.com

 

Thank you for considering us.

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