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 successful private studio owners open multi-teacher studios. While this is a great path for some, I don’t think it’s the “natural next step” for every teacher and situation.

If you have a gift for administration and managing people, this may be an exciting goal for you. If not, it’s OK to pick a different goal even (or especially) if everyone else seems to be doing one thing.

Live your life, not someone else’s. 🙂

Your Next Steps

When thinking about your next steps, consider your gifts and interests. What are you already really good at? What do you already enjoy doing?

Also think about the lifestyle you have or aspire to. Maybe you have a spouse in the military or in another occupation that is notorious for moving around a lot. In this case, expanding your business locally may not make sense, but something location-independent or online could be a solution!

The Case for Passive Income

If you already have a full studio, adding even more hourly work to your schedule will just leave you exhausted. I encourage teachers to think about passive income opportunities to increase income.

Think about projects you can do once and maintain with only periodic or minimal ongoing involvement.

Passive Income-Generating Ideas for Music Teachers

These are just a few ideas, based on different skills:

• Administrators – start a virtual agency to hire out wedding musicians in your city or beyond
• Artists – design awesome studio wall art or music classroom bulletin board designs
• Composers – self-publish your own compositions or work with a publisher to bring them to market
• Fitness Gurus – develop workout routines for practice room potatoes
• Game Junkies – design fun board or card games for musicians
• Historians – create engaging music history resources
• Inventors – develop and bring a brand new product to market!
• Motivators – write a book of motivation strategies for teachers to use with students
• Pedagogues – construct curriculum for an under-served part of the music lesson market
• Tech Addicts – develop an app for music students or teachers (No coding skills? Hire or partner with a developer to help!)
• Homeowners – it’s completely outside the world of music, but renting spare bedrooms and an entire property has been a good source of passive income for me!

Taking the Next Steps to Increase Income

As you can see, there are a ton of ways music teachers can increase income that capitalize on their skills and interests. Only you can decide what route you should take!

Don’t fall into the FOMO traps of trying to do what everyone else is doing or trying to do ALL the things.

Pick one goal and go all in.

Want to talk about what might be next for your studio?

Schedule a complimentary mini coaching session!