As real estate is not particularly affordable for artists and people running new businesses in Canberra, I’ve been teaching piano and preschool music from my house and to make some extra money I’ve also been interviewing for various part-time or casual jobs with people who are also working from home.
The business community is accustomed to meeting in neutral locations such as restaurants but this doesn’t work as well when you have a lot of heavy equipment to set up or plan on making a lot of noise so it’s definitely not an option for musicians!
So I’m occasionally going alone over to the house of someone I’ve never met or maybe met once or having strangers show up at my house after a 2 minute telephone conversation in which they expressed an interest in piano lessons.
I haven’t had any bad experiences with this (beyond the occasional no-show) but naturally family and friends can become concerned as this is not the usual professional paradigm. I generally like to let people know where I’m going and when I intend to be finished although to make matters more complicated I’ve also had friends misunderstand the nature of the 7pm visit to an acquaintance’s house – obviously if they think I’m having fun they aren’t going to call the police if I don’t come home!
I wonder if any of the experienced home business people and artists have any thoughts on whether the “meet me at my house” audition or interview should be regarded as unusual or ideas about good meeting places and personal safety in Canberra.