Jenna Michael

Before I branched out on my own and started a violin studio, I remember looking on Pinterest, Google, Facebook, Instagram… anything I could think of for tips and advice! A lot of the stuff I read was helpful, but after a year of doing this on my own, I had my own tips to share. Here’s what I wish I knew before I started my own music studio. 

Policies

If you’re anything like me, confrontation and the idea of policing rules probably feels really yucky. Navigating how to safely give lessons during a pandemic only exacerbated this feeling. Don’t make the mistake of not setting boundaries. If you are a music teacher, you likely are a giver. You’ve probably heard it before, but givers need boundaries because takers don’t have any! It’s not a matter of if you will be taken advantage of, it’s when, unfortunately. As a business owner, you should expect some losses, and it’s important to always be providing the best service possible. However this should not come at the cost of your sanity or the ability to pay your bills. 

1. Bill Monthly

Whether you charge by the lesson or charge a monthly tuition rate, you should be getting paid the first week of each month. The parents of your students should be responsible for letting you know of any conflicts coming up before they pay for their invoice. If you charge your students for each lesson as they occur, you are going to be taken advantage of, because your time is money! Billing monthly will protect you in the long run. 

2. Have a Make-Up Policy from the Start

Having a make-up policy works very well in tandem with billing monthly. Let all of your parents know before their first lesson what your make-up policy is. Have it in writing, either in paperwork that you give to parents to sign or an email so that you can refer back to it. Something really helpful that I learned at my old office job is that if it isn’t in writing, it didn’t happen. 

I recommend having a 3-24 hour cancellation policy. Then, you can decide how flexible you want to be with it. Did Suzy come home from school with a runny nose and pass out on the couch an hour before her 4:30 lesson? That would be a good time to exercise some flexibility if you are able. Has Wanda’s mom texted you 30 minutes before her lesson that “it just won’t work today” once a month for the past 90 days? Time to remind her of your make-up policy. Remember how I said billing monthly protects you? This is why. When someone takes advantage of your time by cancelling lessons on a whim, you need to keep the payment for that lesson. I know especially when you are first starting that this can be scary; you don’t want to make parents angry and risk losing a student. Consider it this way: what is worse, not knowing what you will make from that student from month to month, or finding a new student that will routinely come to each lesson? It may take some time, but eventually you will have a full studio with students who follow your policies. Don’t discredit yourself now, because it will be extremely hard to rein it back in later. 

3. Keep Records of Your Students

It’s so fun to keep track of everyone’s birthdays, and each student will be thrilled if you remember them on their day. It’s also great for you to keep notes of each lesson and what you worked on. I have a binder with a tab for each student that lists their birthday, and some bullet points from each lesson. You just won’t remember what each student is up to in their lessons once you’re up to 20 students.

I’ve seen some teachers have the students keep notes and bring a notebook to their lessons, but that leaves a lot of room for error. If they forget their book, now you look silly because you don’t know what they were working on. Even worse, if something happens to their notebook, you lose your notes for that student. Having a record for your students is also helpful in keeping track of how many lessons they are missing, or how many you have needed to reschedule on your end. 

4. You Don’t Need to Respond Immediately to Angry Emails or Messages

First, I want to mention that I have found that treating each person with kindness and respect will greatly minimize the chance of angry or frustrated messages. But it doesn’t eliminate it, because there will always be someone who can’t respect boundaries or think that they could do your job better. Whatever it is that one of your parents challenges you on, don’t respond right away. It’s hard not to, because it might make you defensive, or sad, or even angry yourself… but you’ll be glad you waited. I always find that I am able to be much more diplomatic when I give myself some space to breathe and bounce some ideas off of my husband or friends on how to respond. By giving yourself time, you may even be able to be open to changing to meet someone with a compromise. However, remember that you are the teacher; you’re the one who went to school for this, you went to all those $700 a piece teacher trainings and you’re the one who has been playing for longer than this student has been alive. It’s ok to stand your ground, too. 

*Bonus Tip: If you can tell that a parent is exceptionally upset, talk to them either on the phone or over coffee. If you aren’t ready to have the conversation when you receive the text or email, ask them if they would be willing to set up a time to talk or meet you for coffee to discuss. It’s hard to have someone challenge you in real time by talking to them either face to face or over the phone, but it’s also a lot harder for them to be nasty. You also won’t need to worry about how your tone is being interpreted. 

Financial Tips

All of that stress of college, the nights without sleep, the muscle soreness from practicing your fingers raw, and you have maybe one class that mentioned a tiny bit about how to market yourself and manage your money. If you are in college right now and reading this, take a business class, and maybe get a business minor! They don’t teach enough of this stuff to music students, and our artsy minds have a hard time grasping it anyway.

5. Hire a CPA

Sure you could try to do your taxes on your own and figure out how to accurately file for a sole proprietorship or LLC. Especially if you don’t have a large studio yet and are not in a financial position to afford a CPA, perhaps this is the best option for you. However in my mind, a couple hundred dollars a year for my peace of mind in knowing I reported my income correctly and was able to claim everything I absolutely could was worth it. 

6. On that Note, Claim Everything!!

Do you drive to a studio to teach? Calculate your miles, even if it’s 3 miles down the road. Did you take teacher training? Did you have to buy sheet music for the weddings you played in? Did you rent a space to have a recital? Do you pay for internet so you can respond to leads? All of this is stuff you can claim as an expense for your business and you should, because that is money out of your pocket that needs to be accounted for. This will really lighten the blow of that first tax bill. 

7. Save for February!!

This is really something I wish I would have hammered into my head before I let myself get so tight before March. Even working in restaurants and salons, I knew that the late winter months sucked for income, but you don’t understand it until you experience it firsthand. First, February is the shortest month, meaning if you charge by the lesson, you’ll have the fewest lessons this month. Your holiday money will be gone, and you’ll be chugging through flu (and now covid) season. Between flu season, covid, vacations, and holidays, I have not had a full week of lessons since early November. And they are valid reasons for canceled lessons. Next year I will be making sure that I have extra money saved for February! 

*Bonus Tip: Don’t ever plan on having every student to show up for every lesson in a month. Give your budget a little bit of wiggle room, because we’re all living chaotic lives and it just doesn’t work to make it to every lesson!

Advertising Tips

This is what I spent all my time looking for when I first started. So you have the policies, you know how much you gotta save, you’ve taken training… well, now you need to get paid, so how do you get students? 

8. Contact Schools

A quick look on Google Maps will show you which schools are close to your studio. Make a list of the schools you would like to contact, and then visit each school’s website and email one of the administrative assistants. Keep in mind that schools are short staffed right now, so if you don’t hear back for a few days, that’s normal! You can ask the admin assistants if they would be willing to put you in touch with their music teacher or if they could pass along your information. You can also ask them if they keep a list of private lessons instructors on hand and what you could do to get on the list. Most of the time, they will just put you on it without you needing to do anything extra. I’ve gotten quite a few students this way!

9. Use Social Media

I don’t love Facebook, but it is a very effective way to get your name out there. Create a page for yourself or your studio (even if it makes you feel super self-conscious at first like it did for me), and start posting about what you do. Pinterest has great ideas for making content, and you can schedule out posts months in advance! 

Another way to use media is to create a website for yourself. If you do create a website, write a blog! You can post weekly, monthly, or whatever, but the more you post on your blog about relevant issues, the better it will be for your website’s SEO.

10. Play in local areas to promote yourself

Last summer, I decided to contact a few local farmers markets and ask them if I could come play some fiddle music. They were excited to have me, and it was a super enjoyable experience. I made a sign that showed how to contact me and advertised that I gave violin lessons and did weddings. I got so many inquiries from people who saw me playing! In the summer, parents are more likely to have their children with them during the day as well. When the kids become fascinated with what you’re doing, the parents will start thinking about violin lessons.  

*Bonus tip: Do you have friends in the area who teach? Ask them if they would consider referring their overflow to you. I’ve referred students to friends when I didn’t have time in my schedule and I’ve had friends do the same for me as well. Just moved? A quick google search will put you in contact with some of the local private lessons teachers.