Am I a bad teacher? Or just unlucky? How can I do better?
Before I start, this is gonna be a really long post because I feel like I should explain the context, so please bear with me!
Basically, I'm a young piano teacher (still a teenager), and I only started teaching about 2 years ago after getting my ARCT. Recently, I've been having a lot of doubts about my qualifications as a teacher because I've been having trouble keeping students. Basically, I've been able to find students, but they don't stay for long.
My first student was a young girl who was about 5, I think. Our first lesson was a trial, so no charge, and then in the second lesson, her mother cut the lesson off after 45 minutes (the lesson is 1 hr) because the girl was having trouble focusing. The mom didn't pay me for either of these lessons (the first one was a trial, though, anyway, so it's fine), which I thought was strange, but I didn't push back because it was my first time and I wasn't assertive. The mother told me they would try again in a few months, but they never reached out again.
The second student was my brother's past student who had quit. The mom wanted her to try piano again, so they set up a trial lesson with me. I thought the lesson went okay, but afterwards the mom told me that her daughter still wasn't interested and didn't want to continue.
My third student is an adult, and I've been teaching her since November I believe, so not long. I find her really easy to work with and I think we've built a pretty good relationship, so there was no problem with this student.
My fourth student was another adult; we had 2 lessons together, and she was incredibly kind. I remember having the 2nd lesson at her house, and she offered me tea, and cookies. She wanted me to explain some theory to her, and sort of plan out how things were going to go, instead of actually jumping right into piano playing. We ended up spending most of the lesson talking and I feel like she liked me? She also offered to pay me more than I was charging (I charge $30/hr but she said she would do 75$ for two classes so basically $35/hr) and was just a really sweet person. A week later though, she messaged me saying that her siblings had some medical issues and she would have to stop lessons.
Fast forward to this summer, I started with 3 new students, all kids.
Two of the students were brother and sister, and I had two classes with them. They weren't too interested in learning (I got the feeling their mom was forcing them to take classes, and I also think their mom might be paying them to take classes), but they were learning pretty quickly as we were going through the method book. The mom also got them a piano and a subscription to Simply Piano, so I thought they were pretty serious about piano. After the second lesson, I reached out to schedule our next one. The mom asked for a specific day, which I said yes to, and she said she would confirm the time with me later. The day of, I sent her a message asking her to confirm the time, and she said that she forgot. She then asked for another day, and I explained I would be on vacation and offered her two other times that week. She never responded. After I came back from vacation, I decided to reach out one last time to see if they still wanted to continue classes and told her I could do it anytime that week. She responded a minute later, asking if I could do that the same day. It was already like 2 pm, and I had plans, so I just told her I meant any day besides today and asked if another time would work. She never responded.
The third student, I've had 7 classes with, and though she gets distracted more easily, I think she's more interested in piano. I think I have a pretty good relationship with her parent and I'm hoping they'll stay.
I'm not really sure how you guys go about finding students because I've struggled to. I've tried posting on Kijiji and NextDoor without any luck, so if you have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.
I'm also just feeling doubtful in my own abilities as a piano teacher because so far, I've only been able to keep 2 students. It's not like I'm mean to my students; I would never yell at them or say anything hurtful to them. I try to be encouraging, I offer them incentives like stickers, and I try my best to be friendly with them. My lessons aren't disorganized either. I normally have them follow the Leila method book, and also do some exercises for Piano Adventures. I try to focus on technique too, like good posture and fingering.
I feel like I see a lot of people on this subreddit with many students, and I haven't seen any posts about teachers struggling to keep their students, so I feel like it's me who's the problem. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it!
Sorry for the long post and thank you so much for reading!