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I’m very pleased that this month we will be focussing on the business side of running your piano teaching studio.
We last studied this topic in May 2016 with articles about building early childhood music programs, running a travelling piano school, how to hire piano teachers and exploring marketing case studies from a number of my Inner Circle members.
As I’ve mentioned many times in articles and podcasts this year, if you want to be a successful teacher, who has both a good income and work-life balance, then you need to think strategically about your piano studio business.
This means taking stock of where you’re currently at, deciding where you’d like to be and plotting a course on how to get there.
Perhaps you feel that you’re not charging enough. Perhaps you feel that you never get to spend time with your family because you teach till 9pm and on weekends. Perhaps you’re so drained by your teaching that you’d really like to cut down your student numbers so that you can give more to those you teach, without affecting your income.
Unfortunately, few (if any) of us were taught about business when we were at university or when we first started our home-based studios.
In reality, the business side of our work is just as important as the teaching we’re doing.
Think about it, if the business isn’t working, it doesn’t matter how creative, engaging and inspiring our lessons are, we won’t have any students to share them with!
As society continues to redefine itself, as education (and life in general) continues to be impacted by technology, and as the dynamics of families continue to change, teachers can no longer sit back and hope that students will find them.
We all need to become more business-savvy. That’s where this month’s theme steps in.
This month, we’ll be sharing articles about:
We’ll also be releasing our long-awaited Piano Studio Online Launchpad course. This course is designed to help teachers understand the best way to set up, manage and update their website (including a hands-on live demonstration), how to get established on Facebook and get found in Google searches.
We’ll be talking WordPress, plugins, testimonials, what to put on your homepage, how to write the text on your website, optimising for conversions and how to get more students to sign-up.
On the Creative Piano Teaching Podcast, I’m interviewing some fantastic business-minded and entrepreneurial teachers including:
This is just a taste of what’s in store!
What’s the One Big Thing that you’d really like help with this month in your business?
Perhaps it’s getting your website updated (finally!) or perhaps it’s about understanding how to move to monthly billing? Maybe it’s about people finding you on Google or about how best to market your studio (do flyers and pamphlets still work?).
Whatever it is, please leave a quick comment below to let us know what you’re working on so we can help you get the best out of your business.
I look forward to helping you streamline your business this month on topmusic.co.
I will update this throughout the month with each blog post relevant to business and marketing.
Tim Topham is the founder and director of TopMusic. Tim hosts the popular TopCast show, blogs regularly at topmusic.co and speaks at local and international conferences on topics such as pedagogy, business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Tim has been featured in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher Magazine, California Music Teacher and EPTA Piano Professional. Tim holds an MBA in Educational Leadership, BMus, DipEd and AMusA.
