3 Steps To Start Music Teaching Business

You must have three things if you want to start an online music teaching business.

In this post, I want to talk about the essentials for starting to teach music online, and it’s not about the gear or software.

Without these building blocks of your future music teaching business, you’ll have limited options to reach students and make an impact.

Let’s see what you need to have to get going:

A Website for Your Music Teaching Business

If you want to start your online music teaching business, you need to have a website.

If you’ve been teaching music offline for years, one thing you need to have when transitioning to becoming an online music teacher is a nice-looking, functional website.

I know that you can just set up an Instagram account, or Facebook on or even TikTok, and it might feel easier to do so.

It IS easier. But hear me out why you don’t want to do that.

You simply need to have a website to cut through the noise and build a solid foundation for your future online music teaching business.

A website will be the hub and a place to facilitate your online teaching activity and presence.

Another important reason is that you want to own your business infrastructure – social networks come and go and operate on their own terms. Something which is not ideal if you’re planning to build a business.

But I’m just a music teacher. I don’t know how to make a website?

The good news is that there are ways to make a website that doesn’t require you to know how to code.

Check out platforms like Wix.com that enable you to create and design a website without any experience.

You’ll just need to drag and drop elements to create website pages, add functionality, important information, etc.

If you want to take it to the next level, use WordPress.com (Beginner-friendly option) or WordPress.org (Best option, but advanced and techy) to build your website. If you go for building your own WordPress site, I recommend using the Divi Theme that allows you to build a website with drag n drop visual builder – it’s super-easy!

You can learn how to build a WordPress website with the help of tutorials on Youtube or Skillshare.

At this point, I do want to stress out that you should start learning about building simple websites sooner than later – as this skill will prove to be highly valuable to you as you grow your online music teaching business.

Either way, look into getting your website online as soon as possible! 🚀

The next thing we’ll talk about will be at the core of your success.

An Offer for Music Teaching Business Services

Okay, so let’s say you decided to move your teaching online to get more opportunities.

You have the website presentation up and running.

There’s info about you on the website and the usual stuff like bio and ways to contact you.

What you now need is an offer.

At this stage, you should think about and decide what you’re going to offer to your potential new students.

What it is that you’re going to sell via your website.

Let’s say you’re offering 1-on-1 online guitar lessons. This is just a starting point in defining your offer.

You need to provide more details about your offer.

Think about answering these questions:

1. What is it exactly?
2. How does it work?
3. Who is it for?
4. How much does it cost?

Now your offer is shaping up.

Provide even more details, like:

1. How to book lessons?
2. What kind of equipment do students need to attend the lesson?
3. Cancellation policy

You see when it comes to the offer – it needs to be a good one if you want to attract students.

Try not to be too broad or generic about it, like saying:

Learn piano online (jazz, blues, classical, pop, rock, funk, children’schildren’s songs, etc.) click here to book me.

…as that never works out.

For starters, my advice is to do the same thing you’re doing offline that works for you to get new students.

Keep in mind that you can have multiple offers. You can include here other services you provide online as a music teacher.

As soon as your website and an offer are ready, it’s time to promote it.

Promotion Of Your Music Teaching Business

Getting a website online and publishing an offer is an essential first step in starting your online music teaching business.

To sell what you offer, you need to have potential students visiting your site and reading your offer.

If you’re a music teacher looking to start or move your existing teaching business online, you just need to get used to the idea of (self) promotion and online marketing.

To get new students, you need the traffic to your website.

Simply: you need an audience.

This audience will be the pool of people you serve, and some of them will become your students.

Most of them won’t, but that’s fine.

I won’t get in deep about online marketing and promotion in this post as I want to give you an overview of what’s ahead for you.

Building an audience and promoting your offer will not simply mean shouting all over Facebook:

Want guitar lessons? Click here to contact me.

That is another thing that NEVER WORKS.

Getting a following and reaching the right people (=your potential customers) is a long-term kind of thing that needs to be done with a bit of strategy.

As was the case with learning how to build a website and also coming up with an offer that works, attracting an audience will also prove to be not so easy.

My advice is to always think about the long game.

Starting an online music teaching is not something that you can just flip the switch on for and expect quick results.

It’s a consistent effort that can lead to wonderful things.

Things like reaching students you couldn’t have possibly imagined helping when you were still teaching music locally.

It means possibly changing your life, making new opportunities.

My experience with this is that the journey is not easy.

If it was, everyone would be doing it.

It’s actually HARD.

But, it’s so much worth it in the end.

Are You Ready?

If all this talk about learning how to build websites, publishing offers, and putting yourself out there didn’t scare you – then good!

I know many musicians that have literally transformed their lives by moving on to teaching music online.

These were the 3 things you need as an online music teacher in order to get going.

It’s not about the equipment or teaching, rather about getting the foundations down right and prepping for what’s ahead.

Hope you’ll find this post helpful.

If you want to stay in touch, leave your contact details below so that I can send you emails when I publish new content and useful tips for online music teachers.

Cheers,

Bogdan Radovic

Founder, MusicTeachingBiz.com

 

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only include links for products I personally use and recommend.