How should you pay your instructors?
Eugen Esanu, Founder of TimiTomi7 min read
The short answer
Pay the instructors you want to keep a flat monthly fee, and a fixed rate for every class on top. At our studio that is €300 to €650 a month, plus €30 a class. It costs us more than paying per class alone, but since we started, our instructors have stayed with us for more than a year, and some for almost three.
Paying only per class kept instructors moving between studios
When we opened, we paid per class, like every other studio. It looked fair, and it looked cheap.
The problem was that nobody stayed. Instructors came and left. Here, the same instructor often teaches the same class at four or five studios, and some of them are on the same street. So a customer could take her class with us, or walk two minutes and take it somewhere cheaper. Why would she stay?
Our schedule suffered too. A class with us clashed with a class at another studio, or the other studio asked for a favour, and our instructor could not come.
One instructor’s week, paid per class
We tried a few things. In the end, we decided to pay for our peace of mind.
We pay a flat fee, plus €30 for every class
Every instructor who works only with us gets a flat fee each month, between €300 and €650. Where they land depends on their skill, their experience and how many classes they take each week. They get it whatever happens that month.
On top of that, we pay €30 for every class they teach. A private class pays more. When a private class is at the customer’s home, we also pay the taxi, because a taxi there and back can cost what the hour pays.
When an instructor brings in a new customer, they get 10% to 20% of that customer’s first purchase, whether it is one class, a pack or a membership. It is a one-time bonus, our way of saying thank you.
Say an instructor teaches four classes a week, about 17 a month, and her flat fee is €450. Paid per class alone, she would earn €510. With us she earns €960, and she only has one studio to think about.
Do not make bringing customers the instructor’s job
The bonus is a thank you. It is not the reason they work for us, and I would never make it the main part of their pay.
Some studios do exactly that. A studio owner who looked at our software recently wanted their instructors to bring them customers. Those instructors teach at three or four other studios, some of them nearby. Why would they send a customer there? If they find a customer, they are much better off selling that person private classes themselves. Honestly, it is a little delusional.
Our bonus works because our instructors work only for us. If yours teach for five studios, do not expect them to bring customers to yours.
Five studios feel safer than one
I still find this hard to understand. Many instructors could earn the same at one studio. Instead, they run across the city, learn new rules at every door, learn new customer names and get tired. Their classes get worse, and nobody pays them more for it.
I think the reason is simple: no studio gives them a reason to stay. When every studio pays per class, one studio is only a few hours of income, and those hours can disappear when the schedule changes. Five studios feel safer than one. Some instructors also like being seen by more people, which helps if they build their own name later.
The flat fee is not a gift. It gives them, from one studio, the safety they were getting from five.
One instructor told us she would rather keep working for several studios, so we did not pay her the flat fee. To earn the same money, she had to teach at least 10 to 15 more hours a month somewhere else.
The flat fee costs more, and instructors stay
We pay more than a studio that pays per class only. We know that. We take the hit on money, and in return we get quality, consistency and a calmer instructor who knows our customers by name.
And they stay. Since we started paying the flat fee, every instructor has stayed with us for more than a year. Some have been with us for two years, and some for almost three. They have no reason to go anywhere else.
- Paid per class, they left
- We start a flat fee
- They stay
Months with us, our longest instructor
Almost three years, and still here
Pay per head when your classes are big
We do not pay per person, because it does not fit our format. Our classes are small, and the flat fee already does the job.
It makes sense when classes are big. Some studios here have 40 to 50 people in a class. They pay their instructors €70 to €120 a class, about $80 to $140, plus a flat fee. With 40 people in the room, that is less than €3 a person.
Some instructors set their own price instead: a rate for the class, and €5 more for each extra person once it is full. We do not do that, because our classes have a fixed number of spots.
We pay a class when the instructor came in
If the instructor is at the studio and at least one customer is booked, we pay the class, even if that customer does not come. She came in and kept that hour free for us.
If we cancel the class before she leaves home, we do not pay for it. The flat fee stays the same either way.
A substitute is paid the same €30 for the class they teach.
Pay a new instructor per class for the first month
Do not offer anyone a long-term deal on day one. We did that a couple of times, and it went wrong: the quality was not there.
One class tells you nothing. One week gives you a taste. A month of regular weekly classes shows you who the person is: whether they come on time, whether you can trust them, and whether every class is as good as the first.
So pay per class for the first month. If you are sure after that, make them an offer. If you are not sure, keep paying per class.
When this is not right for you
- You run only a few classes a week. A flat fee is a cost you pay every month, so wait until your schedule can pay it.
- You have known the instructor for less than a month. Pay per class until you know them.
- The instructor wants to keep teaching at other studios. That is their choice, and paying per class is the fair way to pay for it.
- Your classes hold 30 people or more. A rate per class, plus a little per person, fits better.
Instructor pay in TimiTomi
TimiTomi works out what every instructor earns each month, so there is no spreadsheet at the end of it.
- Each instructor, their own pay. A monthly flat fee, a rate per class, a rate per participant, or a mix of them.
- Scheduled or attended. Pay for every scheduled class, or only for the classes people came to.
- A start date on every rate. A raise from March does not change February.
- Substitutes and days off. The person who taught the class is the one paid for it.
- A portal for every instructor. They see their own classes and pay, get their week’s schedule by email, and have every class in their Google or Outlook calendar.
Set it all up for free. You pay only when you go live.
