so im thinking about doing unicycle lessons now that i have a extra uni. Sorry i knoiw this has been posted alredy but i culdnt find it in the search engine and i dont remeber who posted it.
But someone sed they were thinking about doing it and i have some questions for them and everyone else.
1- How much Should i charge for half hour? An hour?
2-Should i make them pay for like 1 lesson at a time, or set a schedule and have them pay for all them at once?
Yeah, it seems to me that the people most interested in lessons would be people that never tried to ride one, and they really need to try it rather than take lessons. I can’t think what I’d teach anyone in lessons. “Pedal! Don’t fall! Don’t fall! Pedal!”
I think Connie Cotter says she can get the average person riding in something incredible like an hour - so maybe intensive tuition does help.
Having someone around to tell you what you’re doing wrong when you’re learning is really very useful - it could save people hours of trying wrong things. It’s also useful, as a shoulder to lean on / arm to hold can really help beginners to get the hang of riding.
Obviously teaching unicycling is different to learning it yourself - and the sort of ability that Connie has only comes with an awful lot of teaching practice.
In terms of how much to charge - I would look at how much people charge for teaching other things in your area. For example look at piano lessons / sports games etc. But then you need to take into account, at least for now, that you are inexperienced, and charge a fair bit less than them.
If you’re in the US, it might be worth emailing mr Just One Wheel (whose name I can’t quite remember), for tips on how he started doing unicycle tuition. http://just1wheel.com/content/view/22/92/
I don’t know much about unicycling but for guitar lessons we charge $15 and that is much lower than anyone else around. Most are $20 or more. Also I believe you should charge half as much as a bicycle lesson because you really are teaching them on 1 wheel.
Alaska needs more unicyclists, any way possible. If some people want to pay for lessons, more power to ya! Some people just feel better about learning something if they have someone to help them avoid wasting time doing the wrong things. Some people may not even be willing to try certain things without a trainer to work with. I certainly wouldn’t want to learn skydiving by trial & error…
Do lessons of not more than one hour at a time. Then, if the student has their own unicycle they can practice on their own, but if not they’ll have to wait til the next lesson (or buy one).
As for how much to charge, not too much and not too little. Take it from there. As you’re new at this, start out cheap. As you gain experience as a teacher you’ll be worth more. The people who don’t want to pay for lessons know who they are, so you don’t need to worry about them. Maybe you can help them find good unicycles, or act as a go-between to help them shop.
Or, better still, if there is a local friendly bike shop, convince them to start stocking unicycles, and to promote them with one hour free lesson. You can charge the shop half price (say $10), and once the customer has seen your work in action (and you have given a demo of what is possible on a unicycle), they’ll come back for more lessons at $20 per time.
The shop sells more unicycles. You sell more lessons. More people learn to unicycle. It’s a win-win-win situation!
If spmone asked me for lessons I’d teach them free because 1 I need somone to ride with and 2 I wouldn’t be that great of a teacher. I mean what would I do tell them not to lean forward or backward as much?
I want to revive this thread because I’m starting to give lessons and I’m wondering if I should charge at all. I’ve already given lessons to 3 people, and they’ve all learned freakishly fast. My cousin was riding 150 feet consistently within 45 minutes, another friend could ride 200 feet within an hour an a half, and another guy rode 20 feet after just 5 minutes of me correcting him. I even taught one friend how to successfully freemount on his 3rd try ever! He couldn’t even ride 100 feet when he was like, “teach me how to freemount”. I explained it in detail for a few minutes and then on his 3rd try he rode away. I’m not bragging here, but it seems like people get it really fast when I teach them.
Now I’m wondering what you would do about charging other people. I need some kind of income if I am to get more leaner unicycles. Right now I give about 2 hours of lessons to someone and sen them home with my uni. A few weeks later they’ll bring it back and decide if they want to continue with the sport or not. I would like to raise the number I own to be able to lend a few out at a time.
If I don’t charge them, more people will get lessons and we may have more riders (which seems like it would be worth it).
What would you do? If you charge at all, what would you charge?
EDIT: And when I teach them, I’m really there correcting all their mistakes and walking them through it. Teaching is much more than just “pedal! Don’t fall!”.
I know of people who make a living teaching unicycling.
I taught myself how to unicycle and there were things that I just noticed after lots of trial and error that could have been fixed initially if I had learned with someone who knew.
A lot of people would take unicycling classes with the main goal being social and not learning how to ride.
A smart way of giving classes is through the education system. Get a school or boy/girl scout troop to sponsor the lessons. Give them through a country club. The possibilities are endless.
You could also give more speciallized lessons such as advanced trials skills or have organized muni rides on singles of various difficulty.
The hardest thing would be to market yourself. I think that if you get the most popular kid in school to take lessons with you then a lot would follow.
I agree! The people with the money are not necessarily the people who want lessons. I’ve been pretty lucky so far but I still face the challenge of demanding big dollars now that I have established a lot of experience teaching. I am about to go do some free lessons cos it is so much fun. If you don’t demand lots of money you won’t get it. I wish I could always teach for free.
