I have the pleasure of dipping my feet into two different worlds of music on a daily basis:  The world of teaching, and the world of performing & recording.

It is within the latter, the world of performing and recording, where I have the opportunity to meet many other artists in the entertainment business who do the same thing as I:  Compose music, record it, distribute it, and perform it.

You might be very surprised to hear though, how great the percentage is of performing artists out there who a) have never had any formal music training, and b) do not read music.

This is where you come in as an educated music teacher.

The selling of original sheet music is a nice source of income for recording artists – both independent and record label alike.  Though, for non-music-reading independent musicians who do not have someone to automatically transcribe for them (as most record label artists have), they end up hiring a transcriptionist to produce their sheet music. More…

With recession drawing to a slow close, many small business owners and individual contractors withvariable incomes are asking “How can I get better control of my business finances so that a future recession doesn’t unhinge my income?” Here are some great tips to help you control your business’ income and expenditures, and ways to plan for looming expenses in the future.

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With the onset of fall studio enrollment upon us, this is the perfect time to check in with your students to make sure the studio is excelling their expectations. This is also the perfect time to get feedback on what needs to be improved, and to implement strategies to progress the studio’s service.

Depending on the type of studio you are, either a one-man show out of your home, or a 20 person staff in a community conservatory, your questions are going to be specific to what you offer. However, here is a list of components to a typical studio’s service, and some sample questions you might ask to determine your level of service in each component.

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Trying something new…

I’ve been working on promoting and building my studio for the past month.  I got MANY great ideas at the Classical Singer Convention in Chicago at the end of May, thanks to Cynthia Vaughn at Magnolia Music Studio in Fort Collins, CO.  Cynthia has SO many amazing ideas and she worked with several other voice teachers to try to get as many as possible so that we could benefit from all this experience.

Several points were made:

• Attract & Retain students

• Show progress with

• quantifiable advances

• awards/competitions

• roles/solos – community based

• technical goals achieved

• Have a Student Achievement Page on the studio website

• Relevance – non-quantifiable advances in:

• enjoyment

• validation

• feedback/applause – studio class BEFORE a recital!

• Added Value:

• Options in scheduling and payment (check/credit card)

• bonuses – register early, get 10% off, register for summer & get free lesson

• performance opportunities – find out who has space you can use!

• Gain New Students
  • Word of mouth through different circles
  • teach styles OTHER than Classical/Musical Theater
• Marketing:
  • Bold, creative, SELECTIVE (no mass emails!)
  • Distinctive logo (see my new logo here!) & business cards

• www.vistaprint.com

• www.imagemedia.com

• Online Business Links

• Facebook, LinkedIn

• www.getlessonsnow.com ($49/yr)

• www.teachstreet.com (free listing)

• GOOGLE yourself & find out where you are listed – you might be surprised at what’s there AND what’s not! (I have an OLD listing that I’m trying to modify – the web address leads nowhere) More…

In a perfect world, teachers are as organized as they are knowledgeable. They recall information on a whim, and memorize every appointment. Their work spaces are immaculate, their shoes impeccably shined, and composure is written all over their face even under the most stressful of days.

But here in the real world, we teachers are usually not as organizationally refined. I’m even willing to go out on a limb and say that music teachers, at least the honest ones, are naturally faulted in this and predisposed to a free-spirited chaotic side.

Let’s face it: We’re artists. We’re creative, we’re passionate, and detail management is not exactly our forte. I will be the first to admit that I am the epitome of disorganization.

Allow me paint you a mental picture of my teaching studio, as it was 4 months ago… More…

Thanks to Michelle Payne and Ed Pearlman for starting the dialogue about taxes in their recent blog posts. I am going to expound further on Ed and Michelle’s blogs. They showed you what you can deduct, I’m going to offer suggestions on how keep all of your records organized so they are easy to deal with at tax time.  I can’t say this will definitely work for you, but I know this system works for me.  Staying organized and doing minor tax prep tasks year round will make tax time less stressful.

I own a fanfold file folder and several plastic file boxes. The fanfold folder is setup in this manner: More…

Many thanks to Michelle for her recent helpful and readable post about tax deductions.  I can see by the comments that (no surprise) there’s some confusion as to how to interpret things.

I’ve personally found it a little confusing, even if I know what to deduct.  Which category of deduction do I put Music Teachers Helper in, for example?  See below.  What I’ve done here is to reproduce some examples from IRS publications for you.  The IRS even specifies some expenses that are suitable for musicians.

Consulting an accountant is usually a good idea because these are only examples and there may be specific situations that you will need clarification on.  My preference, instead of paying an accountant, has been for many years to use a good accounting software because it takes you through all the steps, asks all the questions, incorporates all the latest changes, and makes sure that you have everything right, and explains things if you’re not sure.  I’ve found that TurboTax has done a great job for me–here is a link to getting TurboTax if you’re interested.  It includes your state forms and efile as well. (It’s deductible, too, of course!)

Business deductions are relevant to musicians who use Schedule C on their taxes, which you need to do unless all your income is from wages on W2 forms.  The deductions below are broken into these categories:  Mileage, Home Office, Meals and Entertainment, Advertising, Supplies, Office, Dues & Fees.  Remember that you need receipts for everything, to back up your claims.
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