How To Make Money with Your Musical Talent: Teach Music Lessons

If you play a musical instrument and need money to pay off some bills, are a college student who is unable to work a full-time job, or just have a desire to share your musical talent with others, you should consider teaching private music lessons! My friend and I teach piano and guitar lessons respectively and have found that this is an excellent way to make at least $20 per hour and do something you enjoy! So, designate a room to teach in, pick out a book to teach from, and follow these simple steps to set up your music lesson business!

Step 1: Getting Students
First of all, before you can start teaching, you must have students! You also must decide what type of people you would like to teach - adults, college students, children, etc. I decided that my personality would best fit teaching kids approximately grades 3 - 8 rather than adults.

After deciding what age group to teach, you must advertise. No matter who you teach, your marketing strategy must appear professional. After all, if you are teaching children, their parents will most likely be reading it. You want to avoid looking as if you are sloppy and unorganized. Choose a font that is eye-catching but not gaudy. Pick clipart that is simple rather than detailed. A picture of the instrument you are teaching would be sufficient. This clipart could be easily applied to all advertisements as future information you may need to send home.

Advertise in places where the most eyes can see it or somewhere that your target audience would be. For example, what I have done is post an ad in the children's hallway of my church. This is available for all students and their parents to see. Also, look for other bulletin boards within your community. These can usually be found in local supermarkets or laundry mats. Unfortunately, music stores usually do not allow you to post because you would be competing with the lessons they offer.

A final aspect of your advertising is what information you put on your flyers. Be sure to not put long paragraphs, but bullet points stating basic information. Remember, after the prospective student contacts you, they can get all the details they need. You should also be careful about what contact information you place on the flyer. You do not want some weirdo knowing your name, number, and where you live. What I did for my community advertisements is simply put my phone number and what city I lived in. When students contacted me, I than gave them my name and directions. On the other hand, the flyers I put up in my church included my name and several telephone numbers. This way, parents would already know who was giving the lessons and could come talk to me Sunday mornings.

Word of mouth is also an excellent advertisement. Once you have a few students who love taking lessons from you, they will tell their friends and word will spread like wildfire!

Step 2: Getting Organized
Alright, after you do all your advertising and get some students, you must, I repeat, MUST be organized! Neither students nor parents will appreciate your lessons if you are scrambling for what to teach or do not know what information to give them.

My advice is to get a binder or folder specifically for your music lessons. Within this folder, have a schedule of students per week and a section for each individual student. The schedule is self-explanatory; it will be good to have lesson times as well as phone numbers in a central location in case you need to cancel or postpone due to an emergency, etc.

For each student, I recommend making them fill out an information sheet with contact information, parents' names, and some fun details such as music style preference, birthday, and why they want to take lessons. This can be used for future knowledge. Maybe you could give them a lesson for free on their birthday or if their favorite musical group is The Fray, let them play a song by them. After all, learning should be fun!

Finally, for each student, you should journal after every lesson or at the end of each day's worth of lessons. Simply bullet-point what you taught them that day, how they did, and what you need to work on the next week. This will allow you to keep all of your students organized in your mind. Students will learn differently and be on differing levels of talent. You must make sure you are teaching at the speed that they will learn the most easily.

Step 3: Getting Paid
Yeah! You have reached the final step! Once you have students and are organized, you can start getting paid! Add a section in your binder for each student to record their payments. Some will decide to pay per month or week to week. Simply write the date they paid and for how many or which lesson. This will guarantee you get paid rather than risk someone skipping a payment without your knowledge.

The amount you charge per lesson should accommodate the knowledge you have of your respective instrument, as well as make the lessons worth your time. I have been charging $10 per half hour because I have not been teaching for an extremely long time, but I have taken guitar and music theory courses in college. As time goes on, and you have established your credibility, you could raise your prices to $15 per hour, but you do not want to charge an outrageous price because than you will not have any students!

So, if you have a musical talent, use it! Teach others your gift, and do it with excellence and organization! By following these steps, you will obtain students and keep them! Best of luck in your new business!