As music teachers we face a constant challenge. How do we live for 12 months when our regular, guaranteed income is only 9 or 10 months? Unlike school teachers, we are usually independent studio teachers or work for a music school that is unlikely to spread out our income over 12 months. Summer is wonderful, don't get me wrong. But financially it can be a...
Read MoreRaise your hands… who enjoys performing? Probably very few, but we as teachers can change that impression, and the experience for our students – but making the performances & recitals interesting, fun, and memorable.
This past spring, I decided to take a bit of a risk with my studio.
I’ve taught private piano lessons for about nine years. Since having a child two-and-a-half years ago, I’ve kept my studio relatively small. I only accept twelve private lesson students, since I like to be a mostly stay-at-home mom. In March, all my private lesson spots filled up, and I began a waiting list. I have always hated turning students down both because I love my job, and let’s be honest–no one likes turning down money. But I know that being home with my little one is most important right now, and in order to make a substantial enough leap in income, I would have to take on quite a few more students which means quite a few more hours away from my little one.
So, I decided to branch out from private lessons. Before moving from Wisconsin about two years ago, a public school there had approached me about teaching piano lessons in a group setting as part of their summer school program. I was all set to begin a certification process, but ended up moving to Montana before I could see it through. The idea of teaching group piano entered my head again this spring when I thought of the way it would work out really well in allowing me to teach substantially more students at my studio without taking away the amount of time from my daughter that it would require if I was to teach each of these students privately.
So I took the plunge.
BugFix: Students and parents were able to delete invoices. This is now fixed. BugFix: Some students were randomly being removed as participants in an event. This bug has now been fixed! BugFix: Some studios were having trouble accessing the "Receive Payment" page. This has now been fixed. BugFix: Emailing directly from the People List hasn't been working for a couple days. This is now fixed. BugFix: On rare occasions...
Read More
Last spring as I made the decision to double the size of my studio, I displayed our phone number prominently on our website’s header and throughout the site. It worked wonders, because all of the sudden I was flooded with calls from prospective students and parents.
However, I continued to receive a generous amount of emails from prospective students and parents as well. And most often, those who contacted my studio via email actually followed through with registering for the waiting list and joining the studio.
Once the studio was at maximum capacity with a waiting list in the double digits, those phone calls started to become overwhelming. The emails were easy; I could simply personalize my standard email for prospective students and include a link to register for the waiting list. But with each phone call I received, I had the same conversation over and over again.