When Hugh Sung went paperless and started creating page turning pedals, the iPad was a long way off from being invented. Through Airturn, Hugh discovered the art of business, and learned to love this part of his work. Hugh used this business attitude to build up his online teaching, and now reaches hundreds of students a week.

As musicians, we’re often reluctant to charge for what we do. We love doing it so much, that we almost feel guilty charging any money at all. Many piano teachers are not charging what their worth, working long hours, and feeling like they’re not making an impact. To change this you need to think about the art of business, and we need to get creative.

If you feel like you’re in a rut with your studio, Hugh recommends setting aside a dream day or a dream hour. Use this dream hour to brainstorm how you would like to move forward, and set aside some time each week to change your situation.

Hugh Sung has such a unique insight into the business side of teaching, and I’m so excited to have him back on the podcast for business month.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How the business side of piano teaching can be creative
• Why you shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions and share with other teachers
• Why relationships should always come before product
• How to invest in yourself
• Why you should set aside a dream hour every so often
• What ‘A Musical Life Mastermind’ is for and why Hugh started it
• Why if you don’t have a website you need to get one now
• How to start optimising your website once you have one

This Month’s Sponsors:

Yes, this month I’m sponsoring my own podcast!

The Inner Circle is my private community of the best piano teachers from all across the globe who are committed to creative teaching, progressive piano pedagogy and creating the best learning opportunities for their students.

As a member of the Inner Circle, you get access to all of my resources including my top-rated PianoFlix 8-part video course all about teaching pop music, videos of me teaching my students, tech-training videos to help you see how to use apps in your teaching, recordings of all my live workshops and keynote speeches and much more.

You’ll get to hang out with me and all the other members on our Monthly Member Masterminds and you get free access to all my downloads, PDFs, lesson plans and resources. You may also like to accept one of our regular member challenges designed to get you trying new things, pushing your comfort zone and improving your teaching.

Connect with expert teachers from all over the world including the likes of Bradley Sowash, Hugh Sung, Paul Myatt, Leila Viss, Daniel McFarlane, Nick Ambrosino and many more. Access exclusive member bonuses including discounts on courses and sheet music that are simply not available anywhere else.

Best of all, you’re membership gives you access to our members’ forum where you can ask any questions you want, share ideas, upload resources and generally hang-out with the most dedicated, creative, fun and friendly teachers from all over the world.

Keen to try it out? Click the button below to learn more.

Forte School of Music has been a success story in Australia and around 4,000 students with music schools in all major capital cities and in New Zealand and the UK. Many of you will know Gillian & Paul from Episode 33. Paul Myatt is one of my Expert Teachers in the Inner Circle.

Gillian and Paul are looking for entrepreneurial music teachers who are interested in building successful businesses in Australia and other countries along with the opportunity to be the master franchisor for a territory. Forte schools can build to the size you’re able to manage, some schools are small with just a couple of hundred students while other have nearly 1,000 students and a million dollar turnover.

Having been in business for 22 years the keys to success are simple, quality courses with a pedagogically sound curriculum, business system, current marketing strategies and a positive attitude for success. Some of the backgrounds of the school owners are: AMEB Examiners, Piano Teachers, Opera Singers and Guitarists. Check out the website to meet the other Forte Business Partners to download a Forte Prospectus.

Items mentioned in this podcast:

• Airturn
• Artist Works
• A Musical Life podcast
• A Musical Life Mastermind
• Classical Classroom podcast
• Thou Shalt Prosper
• TTTV013: Is this the future of piano teaching?

Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Being a full-time teacher myself, I know how busy teachers are and how much time, effort and passion we put into our students. Sometimes, the last thing we want to do in our time off is listen to more piano teaching stuff! So, well done for using this time for self-improvement.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run. Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons.

If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons on the left of the page.

Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes. Reviews are extremely helpful when it comes to show’s ranking and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally.

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live.

Do you see the art in business?

Do you find the business side of your studio dull and uninspiring? Or do you see the creativity in marketing that Hugh sees?

What’s one unique thing about the way you run your business?

I’m really interested to read your creative business ideas in the comments!