Andrea, Author at Music Studio Startup

76 posts, 1

Andrea is a piano teacher, website developer and the founder of Music Studio Startup.

Creating a Personal Budget + Worksheet!

April 23, 2018

budgeting, debt-free, finance, personal finance, retirement, saving money, taxes

The first step to building a sustainable studio is to know how much you need to earn to keep yourself (and your family, if you have one) alive! The way to do that is to create a budget! Armed with this information, you can feel confident you’re taking this next step in your music career…

Startup Checklist for Music Teachers

April 20, 2018

college, entrepreneurship, focus, goals, increasing income, music majors, organization, starting, studio management, time management

As the school year winds down, it’s a natural time to think about “what’s next?” for our studios. Maybe you’re graduating and preparing to start your career as a full-time, independent music teacher. Or maybe you’ve been teaching for a while, but you’re getting ready to make a big investment in your studio by moving…

7 Smart Ways to Use a Tax Refund

April 9, 2018

budgeting, finance, goals, personal finance, taxes

If you have a tax refund coming your way, take a minute to read this before you spend it all on a spontaneous weekend getaway to Mexico. (Even if that does sound delightful right now…) Spending the money on something fun might be good, but also consider putting part (or all!) of that refund toward…

Computer Backup the Easy Way

March 26, 2018

automation, insurance, organization, productivity, studio management, systems

A while back, I shared my Tech Disaster Preparedness Checklist. This list covered all the things I do to protect my tech from all the typical disasters: power surges, stolen devices, failed hard drives (all of which I have personally experienced!) and more. Now, it’s time to get real. Did you tell yourself, after reading…

Lowering Taxes with Business Expenses

March 19, 2018

accounting, organization, personal finance, taxes

In my first years as a music teacher, I didn’t know anything about taxes. I knew I had to pay them, but I didn’t know that if I was smart about tracking my business expenses during the year I could minimize my tax bill. It wasn’t until I filed taxes for the first time that…

Tax Calculator for Self-Employed Music Teachers

March 16, 2018

taxes

3 Ways to Track Your Mileage for Tax Purposes

March 12, 2018

personal finance, systems, taxes

I’ve mentioned before that being a self-employed music teacher allows you to take advantage of some pretty valuable tax perks that our employed counterparts don’t get. One of these is the mileage deduction. Here’s how it works: For every mile you drive for business (driving to lessons if you’re a travel teacher, teacher meetups, conferences,…

Four Music Teacher Tax Myths

March 5, 2018

finance, personal finance, taxes

Taxes for the self-employed can be confusing and frustrating. It’s also one of the biggest areas of fear for my coaching clients. I’m not an accountant or tax preparer, but I’ve been a nerd about understanding my own taxes for long enough to address some common music teacher tax myths! Myth #1 “If I was…

WordPress Websites for Music Teachers

March 1, 2018

Studio Photos Checklist: Make Your Website Come Alive

February 19, 2018

branding, marketing, website

As a freelance web developer, I’ve set up a lot of websites for clients and the images and content always seem to be an afterthought. Eager to get started, the clients often want me to create the whole website and leave empty boxes for them to fill in later with their own studio photos. I…

Three Questions You MUST Answer Before Designing (or Redesigning) Your Studio Website

February 12, 2018

branding, focus, marketing, new students, website

There are two kinds of “bad” studio websites: the ones that are bad because of poor decisions (color scheme, typography, font size, etc.) and the ones that are bad because of indecision. The first is becoming less common since we have website builders and templates that take a lot of the guesswork out of the…

Five Cool WordPress Features You Probably Don’t Know About

February 5, 2018

blogging, website, WordPress

A more accurate title for this post would “Five Cool WordPress Features You Probably Don’t Know About (and One You Might Have Forgotten About).” Even if you’ve been using a WordPress website for years, you might not know about these often-missed and super-cool features of the platform! Some are new (just released in November) and…