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21 Mar

Practicing Integrity

by admin
in Policies and Procedures, Program Development
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Integrity definition Spring has definitely sprung! Soon your phone will be ringing (or your inbox will by chiming!) with parents of prospective students. How do you handle a transfer from a different teacher? If handled poorly, you lose respect among your colleagues. I have experienced both sides of the transfer student dilemma. When faced with this circumstance, one must practice integrity. Webster’s defines integrity as “a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.”

The Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) provides a Code ot Ethics that addresses this issue in its Commitment to Colleagues section:

    The teacher shall maintain a professional attitude and shall act with integrity in regard to colleagues in the profession.

Furthermore, the last two bullets in the Commitment to Colleagues section speak to the ethics involved in transfer situations among students, parents and teachers:

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09 Feb

Why You Should Join Your Local Teaching Organization

by cconrad
in Marketing, Program Development
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blogOwning your own studio can be a bit lonely.  Especially if your studio is small, and you don’t have other employees and aides with whom you interact regularly.  But being a studio owner doesn’t need to be isolating.  There are many professional organizations out there that can provide opportunities for comraderie and collaboration and the reasons to join them are many.

Networking

When I first knew our family would be moving, I contacted the president of the local music teachers organization from the area where we were relocating.  When I got to town, I had coffee with her and discussed ways to get started with students.  She was incredibly helpful in helping me understand the market in my new town, and since her studio was full, she referred three students my way.  Through word of mouth, these three students grew to twelve students in a few short months.  Another teacher in our organization gave my name out to a local school, where I also picked up several students.  I have done my best to pay it forward; now that I have a waiting list, I have sent students to new teachers in our group and I know that they, too, have been grateful for the referrals.  It is my experience that teachers in these groups want to support one another and help each other grow their studios whenever possible.

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09 Dec

Using the Internet: Part 2-Communicating with your Clients

by cconrad
in Marketing
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E_mailA few months ago I wrote a blog post about ways to communicate with your customers.  I will now focus on specific ways the Internet alone makes contact with our clients simple and effective.  I firmly believe that keeping the lines of communication with our business contacts open not only results in a long-term relationship with our customers but also a more pleasant and effective relationship for all involved.

The Internet makes it simple to keep customers up-to-date on everything happening in your studio–events, continuing education, performance opportunities.  Using the Internet to frequently communicate information lets customers know that you are an active and involved teacher.

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23 Sep

Building a Business Plan – Part 2

by admin
in Finances, Program Development
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Business plan 2 Feeling overwhelmed with your business planning?

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Don’t hesitate to enlist help! Being an independent teacher, I am fiercely independent, self-sufficient, and sometimes stubborn! However, when I become willing to ask for help, it seems the teachers magically appear.

Everyone needs a little help every now and then. Many of us have not had the business training that running a successful busines requires – I am the first to admit that I am lacking in these essential skills. This month I will feature the newly formed Piano Teacher School founded by Kathleen Theisen and Kristin Yost. Kathleen Theisen is an assistant professor at Western State Connecticut University and Kristin Yost is the founder and director of The Centre for Musical Minds in Frisco, Texas. Both of these enthusiastic teachers are not only very successful in their music careers but are also thriving entrepeneurs. And now they are here to help! They have developed practical courses to help independent teachers with the myriad of different activities involved in the daily tasks of teaching.

Piano Teacher School offers affordable online courses in four areas: Business Planning, Organization Strategies, Image and Branding, and Technology. Their goal is to “maximize the efficiency and productivity of your music studio.” Each class offers videos on private links and includes personalized one-on-one coaching. There are detailed descriptions of the classes on their website at pianoteacherschool.com – each sound fabulous and I would like to take them all, if only I could find the time! Courses are also accepted by the Music Teachers National Association for recertification.

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