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Hi there folks. I'm a private music teacher looking to learn about this area. I wish to determine if this would be a place where I might take a school teaching job for a year or two while I establish a studio teaching multiple musical instruments. Specifically, drums/percussion, guitar, bass and piano. I'm having a heck of a time determining whether or not the area contains enough school aged children to have a thriving studio of say 30-40 students aged 8-young adult. Things are so spread out! I have this idea in my head that people try to live and play in there prospective communities avoiding traveling much outside there local towns.
Can someone please give me a sense of total population? It seems the town of Socastee might be a generally centralized area with enough people around to be successful. To provide some comparison, I currently live in a town with a population of about 43,000 with surrounding smaller towns combining to bring that number up to about 80,000. I do quite well for myself here maintaining a studio with 30-40 students. Learning that the Conway/Myrtle Beach area has about the same number or larger would really put me at ease.
Anything you might think is useful information for my consideration as a new professional music teacher to the area with these goals in mind would be greatly appreciated.
It's hard to provide much advice to your question but I'll give it a shot. Carolina Forest is the area with the most school age kids and would be your best location. Socastee, overall, probably doesn't have as many kids and families may not have as much disposable income as Carolina Forest. The Forestbrook section of Socastee is an "in between" area that might draw from both communities.
With that said, I don't have any idea what the market is for private musical instruments lessons.
Thank you for your input. I've come to wonder how odd a question it is...I mean the area is populated enough to have it's own tv station! My common sense tells me it's plenty big. The natural geography of the place seems to spread everything out so much. I'm worried that despite it's metro status, it would be like living in a smaller town than I live now, and that simply won't do. Until I get boots on the ground all I feel I can do is ask questions, study city data data, and spend time on Google Earth.
Anyway, I thank you. You live in a beautiful place! At minimum I will want to visit. I've been searching for the city that is the best fit for me. Greenville SC is my default, but Myrtle Beach is also at the top of my list.
To be candid, for what you want to do I would recommend focusing your search on Greenville which is a growing industrial and arts community. I think the population there will be more interested in the services that you offer. And it has a real downtown area which is vibrant and wonderful.
You are correct in your observation that the MB area and population is fairly large but it is spread out over many miles of the coast. The population tends to be older than Greenville although there are lots of families living in MB as well...just not the same demographics as Greenville. Additionally, there is not a diversity of industry drawing people here...it's primarily tourist focused with smaller/mid-sized businesses mixed in. I'm certainly not criticizing MB...after all, I live here. But for your lifestyle, Greenville may be a better choice.
My parents moved to MB after we did. They moved from a city of 50,000 and they often observe how much "smaller" MB seems to be than where they came from. And it's true, the city they came from had a concentrated population around a real downtown city environment and had many city services provided. Because the MB area is not constructed that way, much of the area in outside the city and governed by a county government. County administration is performed very different than the city and the "feel" of the area is very different than a town. MB is also a fair distance from the capital city and doesn't get much attention as it's viewed as a tourist city. Greenville, on the other hand, gets lots of attention from the capital city because it a growing hub for industry.
We explored Greenville as a potential place to live prior to moving to MB. It was high on our list but was just too far from the beach for the lifestyle that we wanted. I certainly suggest that you come and visit but don't stay at the beach and don't do the touristy thnigs...stay in a hotel away from the beach and explore as if you live here...go to the grocery store, the library, the churches, the shopping areas, etc. Best of luck in your search.
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