Private Music Lessons Practicing Incentives

Do you struggle getting your students to practice? The best way to help your students want to practice is through incentivizing. Give them a challenge and see what they do with it. Kids love to be challenged and when you make the reward SWEET they are more than likely going to do whatever they can to practice.

In my studio we have the 75 Days of Practicing Challenge in the spring. It really is a way ensure that they practice their recital songs. But really, everyone should reach the 75 days of practicing. The challenge is when they practice for more that 75 days.

75 Days Of Practicing Rules:

• 15 week challenge (kids are already required to practice 5 days a week anyways)

• At least 10 min practicing a day for it to count for a sticker

• Reward for practicing 75 days (5 days a week for 15 weeks): Studio T-shirt (your student becomes a walking advertiser for your studio!)

• Reward for practicing 90 days (6 days a week for 15 weeks): Studio T-shirt, candy bar of choice

• Reward for practicing 103 days ( 7 days a week for 15 weeks): Studio T-shirt, candy bar of choice, bag of candy

• Entire studio reaches 100 Days of practicing: Pizza party at Spring Recital

• Entire Studio reaches 103 Days of Practicing: Pizza party and Ice Cream Party at Spring Recital!

There are plenty of other challenges or practicing programs you can do for your students but for us this has been the way to go! Comment below what practicing challenges that you have thought about or done in your studio!

Happy Teaching!

xo, Becky

New School Year Means New Students Ready To Start Private Lessons | BEST Tips For Budget Friendly Advertising

I LOVE the new school year! It’s that time of year where parents want the best, and enroll their kids in ALL the after school activities. Especially music lessons!

If you are thinking about starting your own studio RIGHT NOW IS THE TIME TO ADVERTISE that you are open / will be open for business this school year.

Then get to the presses and start making posters you can display or hand out to interested potential families.

BEST TIPS FOR BUDGET FRIENDLY ADVERTISING:

UTILIZE FREE ADVERTISING BULLETIN BOARDS! There are lots of places you can find a bulletin board. Make sure though that it’s open to anyone to post on first because some bulletins only allow non profit or have requirements to be able to post. Speak with the store manager first. Panera Bread has a bulletin board along with many grocery stores!

UTILIZE LOCAL BUSINESSES! You can also ask local shops or stores if you can display business cards or a poster in their shop. This becomes All FREE to advertise!

FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM ARE YOUR PERSONAL STORE FRONTS! You can make a post on your personal feed or business page and ask your local friends to share your post. And to make sure you stand out in local searches make sure to tag your city so that will show up on the search bar and in local friends posts.

BE THE ONE ALL THE MOMS WANT! Have you joined the local Facebook mom group? MOPS or often times there is just a local mommy group. Moms are ALWAYS asking for recommendations for a music teachers. Be the one that posts and also if you post in there enough, they will start to tag you as, “so and so is a teacher!'' My babysitter is super active on those pages and whenever she sees someone asking she always recommends me so that’s super helpful too! WORD OF MOUTH!

NEIGHBORHOOD ADVERTISING! Gone are the days of putting advertisements in the mailbox, you can still do that but another great idea to advertise, subdivision newsletters or the Facebook Neighborhood Page. Scope out your area and nearby neighborhoods and contact the HOA to see if you can be included in the next neighborhood newsletter or on their group page. There might be a fee, but with a newsletter that has 600 residences or more it might be a worthy investment. Most HOA’s newsletters, are reasonable.

WHAT TO USE FOR ADVERTISING POSTERS: You don’t have to spend major bucks to get your name out there, you just have to be consistent with posting flyers, telling people that you teach lessons while you are at church, or with the groups you are part of or even when you are out and about at the grocery store. Flyers that you post don’t have to be fancy either about your advertisement. Don’t go spend money on a thick poster board or pamphlet at Staples. While they look nice, they cost a pretty penny to make, it’s not really that necessary. Check out my typical poster I’ve used and had great success with when I have to advertise. I love using the little tear away strips, that you pre cut, because you get more use out of your flyer and you can continue to check in on it and see how much interest there is. Check back in a week and if only 1 tab is missing might be time to relocate it. If all the tabs are missing, PUT UP A NEW FLYER!

The best advice is to make your advertising, keeping it simple for you to make over and over again, efficient and to the point and easy for your prospect families to use so that you get your email box filled with prospect students wanting more info and the phones ringing!

Next step is to be prepared for what they are going to be asking you when they call to check your availability.

STARTING YOUR STUDIO SOON? You need to have a studio policy! Once a parent says, “YES! We’d love to start with you!” You need to have a policy in place as a way to protect you and your business and help answer all the questions before they happen. GET YOUR CUSTOMIZABLE PRE-MADE TEMPLATE HERE that covers Tuition Fees, What happens during snow days, Termination Policy, Studio schedule and more!

Be on the lookout! Get more in depth info and strategies like these in my upcoming COMPLETE 12 week course releasing this fall to help you START your studio, BUILD your students, RUN all the internal stuff easily, and MAINTAIN a THRIVING and SUCCESSFUL Private music studio! Be the first to know more by SUBSCRIBING TO OUR LAUNCH EMAIL LIST! Hours and hours have been put into the course and I know it will help make your life easier in setting up your studio and helping it run more efficiently!

Happy Teaching,

xo Becky

How To Become A Private Music Teacher And Start Teaching Lessons At Home In Your Own Business

Looking for a way to supplement your income or a way to work from home? Teaching private music lessons is a great way! You get to set your schedule, and often times it’s minimal hours per week, but can still produce a good income.

Can You Be A Teacher?

Not anyone can teach. You don’t have to have a degree in music but you do have to have knowledge and a basic understanding of music. If you’re here you probably already have experience playing an instrument or singing.

• You must be able to have a competent understanding of note reading, dynamics, rhythm and counting.

• If teaching beginning lessons you can build on your abilities over time as you continue teaching others. General rule of thumb is that you should only teach to your own level of playing. If you only learned up to early advance, then that should be as far as you teach unless you continue your own education and feel confident teaching higher level music.

• If teaching string instruments you should be able to tune the instrument, proper bowing techniques, fingering and maintenance of the instrument.

• Wind instruments you need to be able to teach the basic fundamentals of holding the instrument, blowing and producing a good tone and maintenance of the instrument.

• Vocal instructors must be able to teach proper singing techniques.

How To Get Started

Determine how many hours you can teach in a week, and that will determine how many students you can have. Beginning lessons are generally 30 minutes long. Intermediate are 45-60 minutes and advanced is 60 minute or more.

Decide much you will charge for tuition per lesson. You will have to compare other rates in your town so that you are at a reasonable rate but not undercutting other teachers just to get more students into your studio.

Locate a place where you will teach your lessons. If teaching in your home, You must have a clear space in your home, with easy access to a restroom for any emergencies just in case. Plus I ask my students to wash their hands before they begin playing. If you don’t have space in your home you can contact a music store to see if they are accepting new teachers. They will ask for credentials though. You can also look into places of worship, schools or the local community college or university to see if you can use a room.

Organize your business for bills and receiving bills. For tax purposes you must have record of all income received so you do have to be organized with that.

Plus side, you don’t have to go this alone! Get your IRONCLAD Studio Policy that will protect you and your new business HERE! And soon to be released is our 12 week online course Successful Music Studio Strategies. Video tutorials and access to all my templates and tools to help you Start, build and maintain a successful and THRIVING private music lessons studio.

Happy Teaching,

xo Becky

Successful Private Music Studio Performances and Recital Strategies

It’s recital season! But it’s also the end of the year and very busy schedules for your families! I’ve worked hard to have short and to the point recitals. The last thing I ever wanted was for the families of my students to spend too much time at my recitals. I’ve been there, part of over hour long recitals. It’s hard to sit through and with young kids waiting to play, it’s hard for them to stay focused.

My biggest recital featured over 20 students performing 2 songs each and the recital was less than 30 minutes. Recitals that last over an hour is hard to sit through especially for young kids with short attention spans. Continue reading to learn a few of my strategies for simplified but amazing and short recitals!

Strategies to have a smooth recital

• Work with your students starting a few weeks BEFORE the actual recital about what to expect. Including, where they will be sitting (having the students sit in recital order is helping in knowing when they go next) How to get on and off the stage or to the area where they perform. What they should do with their music before and after they play and what direction they will be bowing to/ helping them understand where the audience will be. Practice it in your studio space before multiple times for at least 2 weeks before your recital date.

• It’s okay to have multiple recital days to keep recitals short or if space is limited at your recital location. This is best for combined studio recitals of multiple teachers or if you have more than 40 students performing or multiple groups. Have your parents sign up for whichever day works best for them. It’s best to have a mix of beginning, intermediate and advanced at each recital though. While it might be more inconvenient for you, to arrange multiple recital days, think about the attendees and how long they will have to wait if you have a long recital.

• Don’t feel obligated to talk a lot. Less is more with recitals sometimes especially if you have a lot of students performing. A simple introduction of each student and their song is enough since you provided a program. It’s so easy to talk about how amazing each student is, but that is something that can be done after with the parents. Create a showcase for the recital, for students that have hit milestones. Like 3, 5 and 10 years of lessons with you, or the students who practiced the most on your practicing challenge.

• Do, have something for everyone, like a single flower, and invite each student to collect it from you at the end. Bonus: it sets up the opportunity for a studio photo that you can use on your social media to promote your studio.

• Do ask for help from the parents in setting up or cleaning up after the recital. Many hands makes for little work.

In the end, the parents will thank you for a shorter performances especially if there are younger siblings in the audience. Mine always have and it gave more time for our potluck reception that follows every recital.

Happy Teaching!

xo, Becky

Music Studio Business Strategy: Maximizing Your Schedule

The great thing about having your own business, is that you get to pick your own schedule! You don’t have to work 9-5 if you don’t want to. Most of my teaching happens between 3:30-6:30pm. And it doesn’t have to be every single day either. Making it something super simple you can add into your life like a side hustle before you make the big jump to having private music teaching becoming your everyday, or every few days job.

Maximizing Your Schedule: If you are just starting and want to add in a few lessons in the week, take time to look at your calendar and see where you can teach. AIM for back to back lessons. You could fit 4 students in a 2 hour block teaching 30 minute lessons.

Make it a goal to have __ amount of students by __. And get your name out there. When potential students inquire, you already have your lesson times scheduled and then it’s a first come first serve. As you fill up you can apply the same strategy to fill up another day, then another day and so forth.

Now that you have students, The next step would be to start putting together your Music Studio Policy Contract! Not sure where to start? Check out our Private Music Lesson and Studio Policy Template with a step by step tutorial video on customizing it to fit your studio’s needs!

Happy Teaching!

xo, Becky

Start Your New Music Studio As A Beginning Level Music Teacher

Have you had dreams of working for yourself? Maybe from home? Did you play piano or violin, or any other instrument when you were younger? Have you thought about teaching beginning level private music lessons? I get it, the idea of teaching lessons when it’s been forever since you picked yours up seems a little intimidating but, why not? If you have a basic level of music, you can teach it. And it’s something that you can pick back up very quickly, especially when you turn it around and think about it in a teaching way.

A degree in music, (performance, education or therapy,) is not necessary when teaching private lessons. A good teacher who wants their students to be successful is. And while you are teaching others, you’re going to start practicing and developing your skills back up too.

My first piano teacher, was only and still is only a beginning level music teacher. She won’t teach beyond that point. And she doesn’t have to. There’s no rules out there that say you have to teach a student from Beginning level to Advanced collegiate entry level. You can teach any level you decide. Choose to teach beginning to early intermediate, or just advanced. It’s your business. You choose how you are going to run it. There will always be a need for beginning teachers who can teaching the fundamentals of music on any instrument!

If you are ready to start your own business and be your own boss with teaching private music lessons in your own studio but not sure how to get started? GET YOUR COPY of my Successful Private Music Studio Policy Templates. Let me make it easy for you! I am giving you the exact same template I use with my wording, and you can customize it to fit your needs! Easy to use with an included video tutorial to help you get it ready to go and get started sooner!

Writing Your Piano Studio Policy: The 5 Sections You NEED To Include

Are you looking to write your New Private Music Studio Policy? Check out the Top 5 things you NEED to have in your studio policy! Remember, your studio policy is your Terms and Agreement between you and your new student.

1) Number of lessons per month and year

Take your lessons from inconsistent to regular with this 1 step! Your students need to know what they are paying for and when they know exactly how many lessons they get each month and how many it equates to a year, then it becomes a commitment for them. It’s the First paragraph in my studio policy.

2) Pricing

Goes right along with how many lessons your students get, now they need to know how much it’s going to cost them. And remember, you are the expert in your field by offering to teach others. That means you should price yourself at a rate that you are comfortable with and that’s also reasonable in your area. The last thing you want to do (speaking from experience here) is undercut yourself and then increase your rates every year to get back up to what you deserve. It doesn’t feel good getting underpaid for what you deserve and it’s a hard thing to increase rates, every year.

3) Missed lessons policy

Missed lessons happen. But they should not be happening all the time. “Missed lessons are not the responsibility of the teacher. Lessons should be a priority for the parent and student.” Excerpt Successful Private Music Lesson Studio Policy Template. Making up lessons not only cuts into your time but also can be difficult especially if you have a family other other obligations. Create a rule on how many missed lessons can happen in the span of 4 months.

4) Terminating lessons

You are running a business, and it’s a business that can be reliably consistent. But, what changes that is when a student quits unexpectedly. You need to create a termination policy that allows enough time for you to fill the slot before that student leaves. Your goal is to decide what your max studio limit is, build your studio to where you have a waiting list, so that when you need to fill a spot, you call your waiting list and offer the new spot starting immediately after the final lesson for the previous student. When you get this timed just right it’s not going to cut into your monthly income.

5) Sign and Date From The Student

And at the end of every policy, have the student and parent sign and date the policy. This way you have a signed copy (contract) with that student and parent that they understand everything before you ever teach the first lesson to the student.

In the end, your studio studio policy should be direct and to the point, so that it leaves nothing to question.

Ready to start building your studio policy? Let me help make it easier for you! Use my Successful Private Music Studio Policy Templates that is already formatted with all 5 of these sections plus more to make sure all your bases are covered! Use the given texts or customize it to fit your needs! Your policy template includes a tutorial video to help you get it filled quickly and ready to hand out!

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Why You Need A Music Studio Policy

Are you ready to take your teaching to the next level and get the respect you deserve? I’ve seen it time and time again, private music teachers with a handful of students but not making a consistent income month to month and the stress of not being respected as a teacher with students canceling lessons last minute, and not valuing their time.

If you are teaching private lessons. YOU HAVE A BUSINESS. You are being requested to do something that you specialize in, and are getting paid for it, but why aren’t you getting the respect of anyone else doing a trade job.

You have to set yourself up as a professional and serious business owner from the start and that comes from having a Private Music Lesson and Studio Policy. It sets the expectations. It sets the tone. It sets the rules that you take your business seriously and that the student should too.

The studio policy is the first item in every “welcome packet” email I send out. Plus I have them print off 2 copies and bring it with them to their very first lesson where I collect a signed copy and file it away in my records and they keep the other.

“But I’ve been teaching lessons already, how do I give a new studio policy to my current students?” Even if you have been teaching for awhile you can still hand out a new studio policy. Let your student know that you have updated the policy and wanted them to go through it. And just like any contract, they need to sign it and you keep one signed copy and they keep the other. You just upped your professionalism.

Lessons should be a priority to you and the students. You are worth it to have the respect you deserve and to be taking seriously and not advantage of. Ready to get your BRAND NEW and Customizable Studio Policy? CLICK HERE to get your copy. I go step by step through your policy in my tutorial video to help you customize it to fit your needs and get it out to your students!