Phavian Phipat is an experienced piano teacher who trains young beginners aged 10 and under. But when he decided to focus on growing his music teaching business, the task was more difficult than he expected.
Phavian used TopMusicPro’s tools and training to improve his students’ learning enjoyment and success, and to promote and grow his music teaching studio.
Phavian went from having only a few students to a full roster of 30 in a year-and-a-half. He also grew his teaching business revenue by 10-times. He’s now looking to hire a teacher and move his studio to new premises. Today, he has more time in his schedule, stronger financial results, and his music teaching business is thriving.
“A year-and-a-half ago I had four students’ and now I have 30! And my revenue has grown more than 10 times.”
Melbourne’s Phavian Phipat teaches the piano to beginner students. The qualified teacher has played a big role in kick-starting the music journeys of many youngsters.
“One of my students is a 67-year-old retiree and another’s currently studying at uni,” he says, “But more than 90 percent of my students are under the age of ten.”
Phavian started his music teaching journey in 2014 after finishing his own university studies. And when he packed up to live in London, he found teaching music worked for him.
“I was doing some classroom teaching there and when I returned to Australia in 2018 I started getting into instrumental work; I really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t earning much.”
Phavian only had a few of students on his roster, something he found harder to build once the COVID-19 pandemic started.
He needed to grow his business, but how?
“I was doing stuff out of method books and making things up as I went.”
“I knew I could do some things better but I wasn’t sure how to, and I wasn’t confident I could. In the meantime, there was still the need to earn a living.
“I had to start working for another agency and they placed me in a school to teach piano to students. Their cut was about half so the income was low.
“It was a lot of work and not much fun. I felt like I was doing all the hard yards and other people were getting the benefits.”
During this time Phavian kept battling away trying to attract more students to his own studio. And there came a time when he had to make a big decision.
“I started to think I either go into music teaching head-first and fully commit, or I’ll have to do something else.
“I seriously considered changing careers but I quickly realised I needed to properly pursue the one thing I loved and was good at: music.
Phavian started with the most obvious marketing tool every business needs: a website.
“I built my own Squarespace site,” he says. “I really didn’t know what I was doing. What words should I use? What do parents want to see before they’d sign up their kids for lessons? I just didn’t know.
“In the end the result was OK at best, but I knew I needed help getting more students.”
He found it one day scrolling through Facebook.
“I came across an ad for TopMusic and I was struck by the value of the free info Tim Topham offered.
“I looked into his TopMusicPro program and wondered if I could commit the funds.
“But then I quickly realised this:
“If I get just one student from TopMusicPro, then the cost would be covered. So I thought “OK, I’ll do it.”
Also driving Phavian was a rare limited-time offer from TopMusicPro. But before he clicked the JOIN button, he had a moment of doubt:
“I hesitated for a second, probably due to money. But then I sampled a free offering of Tim’s and I instantly thought “This is fun!”, which made me think “If this stuff is great, his advice must be good, too.”
That’s all Phavian needed.
“Everything inside TopMusicPro is nicely laid out, it’s simple to use, and there’s always new content.”
And the wins came quickly for this piano teacher!
“I started with The No Book Beginner’s Framework. And this was a big breakthrough.
“Tim’s thinking with beginner pianists is ‘let them play straight away’, which means kids get a fun feeling of ‘I made these sounds!’ when they’re allowed to investigate and experiment from the start of their learning; it’s a positive effect they can carry with them from the start.
“And parents see their kids enjoying the process from the beginning, which gives them immediate confidence.
“It’s a far cry from the method book teaching style that can overwhelm kids from the start,” he says.
And then there was getting his marketing right so he could attract more students, starting with his website.
“I used the tools from TopMusicPro to build my new website,” Phavian says.
“The website course really helped me.
“And now that my website’s set up properly, I’ve got a constant trickling-in of new student enquiries.”
But Phavian’s biggest win with TopMusicPro is one he still enjoys.
“I started seeing more positive reactions from my students ’ they began enjoying my teaching so much more,” he says, smiling. “And the same positive reaction was evident with their parents, too.”
His new successes began to compound, culminating in his biggest achievement to-date.
“In 2021 I had the goal of reaching 20 students in my roster. I ended up reaching 18.
“So for 2022 I set a target of 30 students’ and by March I achieved it!
“A year-and-a-half ago I had four students ’ and now I have 30! And my revenue has grown more than 10 times.”
Hitting these milestones has opened the door to even further growth for Phavian’s music teaching business.
“I’m now thinking about hiring a music teacher and expanding my studio.
Today, life’s quite different for Phavian and his music teaching business.
“Besides the results from my business’ growth, I now have more time. I’ve chosen to have Mondays and Fridays to myself and I teach only in the afternoons on these days.
“It’s given me a lot more time for studying and planning.”
So, after that original hesitation about joining, what does Phavian now think about being a member of TopMusicPro?
“Do it!” he says.
“Have an optimistic outlook. Trust it and try the many different things TopMusicPro offers.”
“Push yourself to grow and perhaps try things you might not initially be comfortable with.”
And as for Phavian’s future plans, they’re best described as exciting.
“I’m thinking about moving my studio into new premises,” he says. “I currently enjoy working from my parents’ place, but thanks to the growth I’ve enjoyed, I can now look at expanding with a teacher and finding a new location.”
TopMusicPro showed this piano teacher, Phavian Phipat, how to grow from only a handful of students into a busy teaching studio with a full roster of 30, and a successful business with revenue growth more than 10 times his starting figures, all in a year-and-a-half. It’s freed him to spend time on study and planning and given him the option to hire a teacher and move to a larger teaching studio.
TopMusicPro can guide you the same way.
