If I Had to Start My Piano Teaching Business From Scratch

Piano Teacher Life: Then vs Now

After nearly 20 years as a piano teacher, here are the five things I would do differently if I were starting my piano teaching business in 2024.

I’ve grown so much in the last two decades–as a musician, as a piano teacher, as a business owner, as a person.  I’ve watched how others do things, and I’ve also forged my own paths.  I’ve seen many successes, and survived some mistakes as well.

This post is going to bring to light five Piano Teaching Business tips that I wish I would have known when I started.

I Would Do These Five Things as a New Piano Teaching

Set Your Prices High

As a new piano teacher, it is tempting to start at a very low rate.  After all, you don’t yet have the experience, the online reviews, the happy customers, to prove your worth.

My experience has taught me that setting your rates too low can cost your business in the long-run based on these observations:

• It is not easy to raise prices once they are set.  I hate sending out that email to let my customers know that a price increase is coming.  I personally find it awkward, sometimes there is push-back from parents, and there’s the fear that someone may decide to quit.
• There are many ways for a new teacher to discount fees while keeping advertised rates on the higher side.  Rather than starting out by advertising a 30-minute private piano lesson for $15, new teachers can set a rate of, say, $30 per 30-minute lesson and then advertise a pay-in-full one-time discount or a free trial lesson or free month of lessons or free lesson every quarter for the first year or free books or other incentive.  With this strategy, newcomers understand your rate is $30 but that they are receiving a limited-time offer.
• If you charge it, they will come.  This may vary by location and competition, but I have found in my own studio that if you are a good teacher, no matter what you charge someone will want lessons from you enough to pay your rate.  So, you could take the approach of establishing a niche of expertise as a new teacher (rather than touting years of teaching expertise).  For example, you could be the only voice-piano teacher in town, or you could be the go-to composition instructor.  If you can get families in your community to know, like, and trust you, you can charge more and still fill up your schedule.

Pay Myself First

In the book Profit First, Mike Michalowicz suggests we flip the age-old accounting formula

“Sales – Expenses = Profits” 

to read 

“Sales – Profit = Expenses.”  

In this model, a business owner pays themself first and then sees what is left over to spend on expenses.

It really does pay to start your business endeavor with a clear financial plan.  I would expand on Michalowicz’s philosophy by suggesting these planning steps:

1. Figure out how much you’d like to (or need to) make.  This is your personal take-home income, not the businesses total profits.
2. Figure out how much the business will have to bring in to pay you your desired income.
3. Factor in taxes.  Gotta pay ‘em.  Might as well calculate them in right away.
4. What’s left for expenses?  

Ready to start calculating?  I have a worksheet for that!  Check out my freebie: The Piano Teacher Income Worksheet

Instead of just spending money on all.the.things, and then seeing what was left over.  I wish I would have taken a more intentional approach to handling my finances from the very beginning.

For more advice on setting financial goals and writing a financial plan, check out my blog post: Setting Financial Goals For Your Piano Teaching Business.

Schedule Breaks

I started out my Piano Teaching career teaching part-time at a local music store.  Lessons were all private, 30-minute lessons.  They were scheduled back-to-back.  The store had a lesson coordinator who would record the earliest you could start and the latest you could stay, and then they would fill up every half-hour time slot they could.

When I first started my independent piano lesson studio, I kept the same efficient scheduling for a while.  But at one point, my Saturdays included 15 back-to-back students with no break!  Talk about exhausted on a Saturday evening!

Was it efficient?  Yes.  Was it good for my physical and mental health?  No.

Fast forward to today, I still teach on Saturdays.  But I typically do three or four student in a row and then give myself a 30- to 60-minute break before seeing the next block of students.

Although my overall teaching day is extended, I’m refreshed by the breaks and I’m a much better teacher than those days of 8-hour non-stop teaching days.

Diversify

Teaching piano is lucrative in and of itself.  And I wouldn’t recommend that a brand new piano teacher try to do all the things. 

But looking back, I wish I would have followed my other music passions earlier in my piano teaching career.  

I love composing and arranging, for example.  I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.  But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I started selling my sheet music online.  I was doing it, but I just wasn’t selling it yet.  

That side hustle could have been a more established stream of income by now if I would have started sooner.

Is there another stream of income that you have in mind?  Could you make progress towards your goals in small increments from week to week?

Interested in other streams of income, but no ideas?  I have a blog post coming out soon that highlights some side hustle ideas for piano teachers!  Join my email list to stay in the loop on the latest posts.

Big-Picture Plan

Sometimes it seems I was just thinking one lesson at a time when I first started teaching piano.  I didn’t consider it a business for many years.  I didn’t dream big.  I didn’t write out my goals or plans to grow the business into something more profitable.  I didn’t think about raising my prices or offering group lessons.

It wasn’t until my mindset changed several years ago that I opened my mind to see all of the possibilities of myself and my piano teaching business.  Mindset is everything.  It is the start of growth.  

First of all, think of your business as a business from day one.  Investing strategically in your business, before the profits are there, will get you started on the right path.

Second of all, set goals and look ahead to the future you want.  This does not mean it’s wrong to be content with where you are.  In fact, seeing the big picture will help you appreciate where you are on the journey.

And thirdly, see ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ as part of a long-term growth plan.  Whatever you do, don’t give up when numbers are down, or a plan fails.  Most wildly successful CEOs have a story about how they lost everything just before they had their biggest upturn.  Step back and see how far you’ve come, and far you will go.

Conclusion

Congratulations on starting this rewarding journey!  I hope I can be the helpful mentor I wish I would have had when I began.

If you’re ready to get your studio started, consider joining my 30-Day Start Your Studio Challenge.  It’s totally free and will give you twelve very actionable steps to get started on the right foot with your business.

And if you’re curious to read more fails from my past, check out my blog post: Mistakes to Avoid As a New Piano Teacher.