Piano Studio Business and Marketing

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.

The Reality of Business Education for Piano Teachers

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.

Piano Studio Business Topics & Courses

This month, we’ll be sharing articles about:

• How to market and grow your studio
• Understanding and building your online presence, both through websites and Facebook
• How to understand your numbers – what they mean and what you need to know
• How to charge the right amount for your teaching
• The best ways to create more income without teaching more students or longer hours
• How to add group teaching if this is of interest in your studio
• How to set up automated recurring monthly billing
• Streamlining your productivity and processes with software and automation

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.

Podcasts and Guests

On the Creative Piano Teaching Podcast, I’m interviewing some fantastic business-minded and entrepreneurial teachers including:

• Daniel Patterson from growyourmusicstudio.com who not only shares a wealth of simple ideas to boost your marketing, but also provides a comprehensive free download reference to use in your business…
• Chantelle Bruinsma Duffield from studioexpansion.com will blow you away with her passionate view and simple tactics for nurturing your parents and students with some clever technology, and
• Rosemarie Penner from mustlovemusic.ca, one of my Inner Circle Members, enjoys a live coaching call with me all about improving her blog and online business through conversions, email funnels and SEO. This is a great high-level discussion suited to those who already have an online presence but really want to take it to the next level.

This is just a taste of what’s in store!

What’s Your “One Big Thing”?

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.

This Month’s Resources

I will update this throughout the month with each blog post relevant to business and marketing.

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