Episode 005 – Emilee-Mae Feely
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Summary Emilee-Mae is an entrepreneur and piano teacher. We could have talked for hours about all of the music-related businesses she runs, but we limited our discussion to her travel piano school, Plume Piano. She’s only been running the business for a…
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Music Studio Branding Lessons from Magnolia Market
Full disclosure: I have never seen an episode of Fixer Upper and couldn’t tell you much about Chip and Joanna Gaines beyond their names. My sister, however, is a huge fan. When she heard I would be in Waco, TX last week to speak at the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention she insisted I go…
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Episode 004 – Shannah Compton Game
Summary If you’re in the first few years of your career, money can be a complicated topic. You may be trying to balance bills and student loan payments while still investing in your business. On top of that, if you’re self-employed, you have to figure it out all on your own! In today’s show, you’ll…
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Episode 003 – Regina Ngo on Teacher Development and Accelerated Learning Programs
Apologies for the scratchy mic noises in this episode! (Still getting the hang of this podcasting thing. 🙂 ) Summary Regina Ngo is the owner of Regina’s Music Studio in South Pasadena, California. In our interview, Regina shares how she went from teaching at a music school to travel teaching to teaching from her home,…
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Increasing Income Through Other Business Ventures
We’ve been focused on the music studio startup phase, but now I want to fast forward to when your studio is at full capacity. What’s next for the motivated music teacher? At this point, most teachers I coach are looking for ways to increase their income through other business opportunities. The Natural Next Step? Many…
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Episode 002 – Heather Aiolupotea on Health Insurance for Self-Employed Music Teachers
Summary In this episode, licensed health insurance agent, Heather Aiolupotea, explains what we need to know about health insurance as self-employed music teachers. She explains open enrollment, how to think about what insurance we need, how to evaluate plans, how to find out if you’re eligible for a subsidy, and more. Heather is so knowledgeable…
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Episode 001 – Tasha Locke on Starting a Studio with No Personal Network
Summary When Tasha Locke moved from California to Virginia in 2016, she had to start her studio from scratch with no personal or professional network. A daunting undertaking! In this interview, Tasha tells us how she used Google AdWords promote her website and get her first student in only one week and how, less than…
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Episode 000: Welcome and Intro
The Music Studio Startup podcast is all about the business of teaching music. Here’s what you can expect from future episodes! Music teachers sharing the lessons they learned while launching and growing their studios Stories of teachers who are doing interesting entrepreneurial things Interviews with experts (like accountants, financial planners, laywers) who will clarify…
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Six Lessons for More Effective Studio Promotion
This post isn’t so much a list of marketing ideas (although there are some of those) as it is a list of studio promotion principals or lessons I’ve learned over the years of promoting my own music studios and other small businesses. If you can’t figure out why your marketing hasn’t gotten any traction or…
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Systems for Music Studio Owners
I feel I need to be upfront here: I probably have an unhealthy relationship with systems. I get really annoyed when I have to expend creative energy on repetitive tasks. REALLY annoyed. (If you want to hear a rant, ask me how I feel about picking out fresh clothes to wear every. single. morning.) It…
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Interview on Finance for Musicians
This week I had the honor of being interviewed by Scott Stratton for his blog, Finance for Musicians. Scott is a Certified Financial Planner and the founder of Good Life Wealth Management. He gets what it means to be a musician, though, because he’s also a freelance trombonist in Dallas! I’ve learned a lot from…
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