Increasing the Efficiency of Your Studio
Weekly Teaching Tip – Dec. 26, 2011
One of the things that many voice teachers are not very good at is running and managing the business side of being a voice teacher. Teachers often are musicians and entertainers, talented and creative and as such tend to be more creative and at times a little less organized or business-like. Often times they are great singers and even strong teachers, but possibly not as strong with the business aspects of running a studio. You might be the greatest teacher around, but unless you can get the word out and operate an efficient studio it may be tough to be successful. It’s kind of like the world right now in general, particularly in the music business; it is not necessarily the most talented that are successful in the music and entertainment business, but those that are the best at branding and marketing themselves. I know that many of us don’t really care about this part of being a voice teacher, and definitely don’t enjoy it, but unfortunately it is quite necessary. If people don’t know about you how can they find you, even if you are the best.
Becoming at least knowledgeable about marketing and business is very helpful and being at least familiar with technology is a must. And if the business part of running your studio isn’t something you want to do you need to at least get the help of someone who is knowledgeable and does enjoy that part of things.
There are many resources that can help you in creating a good studio. There is a websote called Music Teacher Helper. https://www.musicteachershelper.com/ You can “hire” them to take care of managing your studio, or you can at least browse their website to give you ideas about how you can become more efficient so that you can be more successful and spend more time teaching and less time managing. Also, if you haven’t had a chance yet, watch the Ustream presentation that Daniel Hayes did for IVTOM about using the internet for marketing and advertising. Even if you decide to go a different direction than what he has done, it will still get you thinking about how you can raise your visibility in the community and get more students if this is your desire. (Go to https://ivtom.org/members/training/video-sessions/ Scroll down to Sep 2011 to view.)
The most important thing to is to be a good and knowledgeable teacher that cares about helping others, however it is equally important that people find out about you and you keep them as students by being effective and efficient.
