Level Up Your Private Teaching Business

It’s probably safe to assume that if you clicked on this post, you have at least some interest in learning about business strategies. I also know as well as anyone that overcoming the inertia of our own status quo can take real intention sometimes. So before we dive all the way into the nitty-gritty details, here are a few reminders to help motivate us to level up our teaching businesses:

• Adaptable businesses survive uncertain times. The ability to pivot, stay relevant and keep the community engaged is arguably any small business’ biggest asset.
• Good branding attracts ideal clientele. Whatever your specialization as a teacher, we all know that when we’ve got a student who is a good fit, lessons are more rewarding for everyone.
• More time to enjoy your career. When we make the administrative end of our businesses more effective, we have more time and energy that we can use to teach, to plan, to learn and to dream.
• Be perceived as a professional. Being valued and respected for what we offer is a truly wonderful feeling that helps keep the burnout at bay.
• E levate our industry. A career in the arts is often born from a place of passion or creativity, and at the same time we need a fair wage and reasonable benefits in exchange for what we offer our clients and communities. When more of us are running our businesses to that standard, our industry as a whole will garner more respect.

And now that we remember why it really is worthwhile to level up our business game from time to time, here are my two rules to remember when considering new business strategies.

Entrepreneur Rule No. 1 - Keep it Simple

Entrepreneur Rule No. 2 - Outsource Effectively

And now, we dive in!

Build a Basic Branding Kit

The trick for any successful business is getting the right clientele through the door. We all know the value of word-of-mouth advertising, and in independent music teaching it’s still one of the best modes of getting new students. But in addition to that, having an established and visible presence builds trust and reaffirms value for both current and potential clientele.

Most of us are aware of the value of a good logo and a solid mission statement. But if you don’t already have those, start there. Create or commission a simple graphic to represent your teaching business, and then sum up your mission in one or two sentences. Keep it Simple. Once you’ve got these two basic branding elements, repeat those themes to build a larger story - almost in the same way music uses motifs to develop larger melodies:

• Take design cues like shape and color from a logo to use on a website, business cards or studio swag.
• Use a mission statement on websites, social media pages, and even on flyers or mailers if you utilize those.
• Think about the story you want to tell, the clients you want to attract, and then be consistent with that public facing story.

Optimize Online Spaces

Once we have a basic branding kit, our next job is to make them more visible so we can build trust and reaffirm value. Here are some ways we can make sure we’re building the right kind of presence for the clients we want to find us:

• Manage your business information on Google. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need a Google Business Profile. Add your logo, mission statement, and some contact details.
• Consider a website. At its most basic level, a website is a space where people who have heard about you can get more information about what you can do for them. This will deepen the social proof begun by word-of-mouth or a google search.
• Create an engaging Social Media space. In addition to helping with visibility, social media can also be an amazing way to foster community. However, if we’re not using it effectively, it will just become a place where we spin our wheels without much result. Here are a few tips to being effective with your business’ social media:
  • Go where your clients are. Don’t worry about trying to do every single new social media platform. Figure out which ones you can actually reach your audience on, and then learn how to do those well.
  • Focus on creating engaging content. Too many sales pitches or following of trends can actually push down engagement. Stay focused on the story that your brand is building. Posts like student success stories, photos or videos from lessons, fun facts and musical quotes, etc, will drive up genuine engagement.
  • Collect reviews and testimonials. When you get a lovely message from a student, ask if it’s ok to share part of it. Or just add a request for reviews to the end of a newsletter once in a while!

If any of these strategies just aren’t in your personal wheelhouse, but you’d still like your business to have the benefit of them, remember you can always Outsource Effectively.

• A web designer can build and maintain a website.
• A graphic designer can do your logo.
• A virtual assistant can manage & schedule social media in just a couple hours a month.
• A business coach or mastermind group can help you dig deeper into optimizing your business.

And if the budget for outsourcing is small, don’t be afraid to pursue some creative solutions. Maybe you can arrange a work trade with a tech savvy student or studio parent, or maybe a local college’s design program has a way to connect with budding artists or designers. The real trick is to focus on doing the parts of your business that you enjoy doing yourself, and put good systems or staff in place to run the rest.

If You Hate It, Automate It

Once you’re visible, and have got clients in the door, you want to have more time to focus on teaching. Automation is a great tool for taking care of some of a teaching studio's busy work. Here are some of the best areas to automate:

• Billing & Payments. I have never met a single music teacher who enjoyed chasing payments, and with automation, we don’t have to anymore. Setting up an autopay system, or even just automatic invoicing, can really cut down on your monthly administrative time and late payment headaches.
• Scheduling. An automatic scheduling service will populate your calendar as clients reserve their spots. Some services will even collect payment information to set up autopay right when the client books their lesson!
• Social Media. Put content into a scheduler that will automatically post at the designated time. This will ensure that you have steady content, and you can always add in a fun story or spontaneous photo from lessons in between the scheduled posts. If you have multiple social media platforms, try to find a scheduler that can post to as many of them as possible.
• Then get the most you can out of the work you’re putting in. This is where you get to be creative, find what’s out there, and see what you can put to work for you. One of my personal favorite examples is an Instagram widget for a website that connects to a chosen hashtag. Whatever is posted with the designated hashtag will automatically show up on the website. Since we’ve spent time creating great content, we want to find all the ways we can to optimize it.

A Little Resource Round-Up

A lot of general ideas have been shared in this post. If you’re wanting a specific resource for some of the things mentioned, here are a few. While I am acquainted with some of the individuals linked below, I am not affiliated with any of them. Also bear in mind that this is by no means an exhaustive list. I’d invite you to do some research, ask other teachers for recommendations, and shop around to find what’s going to be the best solution for your needs.

• For Web designers who specialize in websites for music teachers, try WebMaestra and StudioRocketWebDesign
• For Automatic Scheduling and Payments on a platform founded by a music teacher for industries just like ours, try Fons . The Fons Family group on Facebook is also a great place to stop in for a supportive business mastermind.
• For Business Coaching from piano teachers who have leveled up their own businesses and have the tools and industry specific knowledge to help you do it too, try the Savvy Music Studio or MusicGro Consulting & Coaching .
• For scheduling social media content shop for your needs. If you have several different channels to manage it might be worth it subscribing to a 3rd party service like Planoly . On the other hand if you’re primarily on Facebook and Instagram, maybe try starting with the complimentary Meta Business Suite .
• For widgets to connect other content to your website check if there is already an option within your website service. If not, you can try something like LightWidget that charges a one-time fee to create the code that can be copy-and-pasted into the code on your website.

And as you drum up the energy to try something new in your teaching business, remember that when individual music teachers implement sound business strategies and improve our professional practices, we reduce our stress, increase our own enjoyment in our career, and help to elevate the professionalism of the music teaching industry as a whole.