How I Designed My Music Studio

How I Designed My Music Studio

I didn’t think my studio would be in this position.

• My current roster is full at 38 students
• I teach 23 hours per week
• I have a waitlist of 17 students
• My studio is hybrid with at least 26 online person lessons each week

My biggest concern used to be how to get clients.

Now my biggest problem is figuring out how to service the people on my waitlist who don't want to be referred elsewhere. I spend almost no time on marketing or administrative work, and all of my energy goes towards supporting the goals of my students. Their success has increased as I've grown more confident in running my studio. Above all, I feel fulfilled in my teaching and in my playing. Things are better than I ever thought they would be, but it wasn’t always like this. When we moved back to Wisconsin in August of 2019 I was starting my studio again from scratch. After two months I only had 5 students. I was trying to make teaching my full-time work as soon as possible, and it was frustrating and exhausting. Other teachers told me "word of mouth is the best advertising".... but how do you rely on word of mouth when no one knows you exist? Convinced I had tried everything, it was confusing. Paid ads weren't working. Teachers and band directors weren't answering my emails. My Facebook posts only found 2 students. Parents would object to my price and then ghost me.

The worst part was...

watching my colleagues build huge studios and have success while I felt completely stuck. Honestly, it was embarrassing. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. The main thing that allowed me to change that trajectory and grow my studio was learning how to create a predictable source of students. A predictable source meant leveraging strategic referral partnerships - people in my community that would do outreach with me. It felt less like I was screaming into a void. Referral partners gave me direct access to my ideal student, recommended me to parents, and gave credibility that meant my lesson package was no longer an obstacle.

It feels so easy and consistent.

Once I was able to do this...

I was able to have referral partners sending me clients on a consistent basis, I knew exactly where my income was going to come from. With a predictable source of students my studio went from 5 students to 40 in just 2.5 months, and I was able to select only the students that I knew I would enjoy working with. Now I help others do the same. If you want some help to grow your private studio, send me a message or book a call with me.