About Business
SHM After Discontinuing Lessons
I have a question about the SHM. I talked to my boss at the studio the other day and she was concerned about students possibly discontinuing lessons with me and then proceeding to use the videos and purchasing additional levels to learn the songs. She…
Payment & Money Transfers
Has anyone used Zelle for payment/money transfers? I’ve heard it’s free, easy, and the transactions are made by phone number verification so parents don’t have to enter a lot of personal information to use it. Many of my families use this to do transfers for…
Parent Requests Tax ID
I have a parent of a student doing their taxes, and they asked me if I have a tax number. I don’t think so? Then they asked if Simply Music has a tax number. Why do you need a tax number for piano lessons? Maybe…
Studio Setup
My husband said, “What do you want in this room for your piano studio?” Where do I start? In this day and age, also lots of electrical outlets. And a whiteboard – easel style or one that can be mounted onto a wall (or even…
Requirement Success
Sharing a requirement-based success story. I had a family recently whose two children never practiced consistently since they started. I told parents and children consistently the past week before spring break and week following that it wasn’t a problem, but that it wasn’t going to…
Sharing Materials
How would you handle this situation: neighbor (parent 2) of a current student (parent 1) was interested in SM; current student parent 1 shares account info just to give the parent 2 neighbor an idea of what the digital materials are like etc. parent 2…
Studio Name
Has anyone had issues with choosing a studio name? I just did a Google search for my chosen name, and there’s nothing by that name coming up. Someone has a studio several hours drive away with that name, and there’s also at least one in…
Video Student Advice
You know how you talk yourself blue in the face sometimes to your students about basic best practices and it seems to go in one ear and out the other? Well, I decided to let the STUDENTS speak – video tape them – and share…
Internal Motivation
Has anyone heard of school teachers saying children should use their own ‘internal motivation’ rather than pushing them to do something? We were discussing reward for completing tasks. Poor Mum is confused, I am telling her she needs to guide her children, manage their activities and…
Income Tax
Has anyone discovered any way to (legally!) pay less taxes on piano teaching income? Deduct everything you possibly can. Keep your income in a tax bracket you’re more happy to live with. Have a company put you on payroll. Though that last really doesn’t work…