Can You Start a Music Teaching Business as a Side Hustle?

Introduction: The Power of a Side Hustle

Let’s first define what’s a side hustle.

This is something that’s super-popular now in 2023.

Clips with various side-hustle ideas are literally plastered all over Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram.

A side hustle is a secondary job or business that you operate outside of your full-time employment.

The best thing about starting a side hustle as a music teacher is that it can provide you with an additional income stream.

But more than that, a side hustle will allow you to pursue your passions and interests, that might not be fulfilled with your current job.

A know a lot of musicians and music teachers who work in a completely different industry for their employment.

But even if your full-time job is teaching, maybe you don’t have an opportunity to teach something you are really passionate about.

Like acoustic blues guitar or boogie-woogie piano?

So starting an online business in the niche you are passionate about as your side hustle can be a great move, not only mentally fulfilling but also possibly quite financially successful in the long run.

Why You Should Start Teaching Music Online as a Side Hustle

The online music education market is pretty much set to soar in the years to come.

“Global online music education market is estimated to generate a revenue of US$ 829.15 million by the end of the year 2031 from US$ 180.05 million in 2022 at a CAGR of 18.4% during the forecast period (2023-2031).” – Source: Astute Analytica

The market has been steadily growing for years, with a huge boost during the pandemic for all online education businesses.

I started teaching music online way back in 2007.

The technology we have today makes the whole experience for students much more convenient, immersive, and effective – so these forecasts don’t really surprise me.

There are just too many benefits and opportunities to start an online music education business right now, and it’s perfectly fine to do it as a side hustle to make the whole thing risk-free.

Many of today’s big-name online music instruction businesses started as a side hustle by the way.

I just want to mention that I’m referring here to those solopreneour online music lessons businesses, that are operated by individuals or small remote teams.

The potential impact on your career and personal life can be significant.

Imagine that your side hustle online business takes off over time, it doesn’t even need to be teaching music, it can be the side hustle for guitarists like transcribing tabs.

It can literally replace your demanding full-time job, unlock new opportunities for you, and create the potential to have more freedom when planning your work week.

Not to mention the potential to enable you to impact way more students, regardless of where you live.

How Much Time Do I Need to Start an Online Business?

This is a fair question, and something many people might use as an excuse not to even try setting up a side hustle.

Chances are you don’t have much free time available, with your full-time job, family, and other commitments.

The truth is that it takes a lot of effort and considerable time investment to launch and grow an online business.

But, it doesn’t take much time to just start building it. Not at all!

Get in a mindset that you’re just starting a side hustle (at least for now!).

It’s important to start small and grow over time.

Make a plan for starting an online music teaching business, break it down into small chunks, and then further down to individual tasks that are manageable.

Factors influencing how much time is required to launch your new side hustle are:

• What type of online business you’re starting
• Your niche
• Marketing needed to attract the right audience
• How Skilled You Are When It Comes To Online Tech and Tools

Even though it would not be fair for me to give you any time-frame estimates, what I can offer you is assurance that it’s perfectly doable for anyone to start a side hustle and work on it step by step.

Start by dedicating a few hours each week to work on your side hustle and see where it takes you.

You’d be surprised how much you can achieve if you’re dedicated and consistent.

Why Start Now?

When it comes to my journey as an online entrepreneur, my only regrets ever are related to why I didn’t launch the things I wanted to do, earlier.

I don’t have any regrets about side hustles that didn’t work out.

For businesses that just failed to find their market and audience.

But, sometimes I should have just been more determined and jumped on the wagon earlier, before someone else did it.

So if you have an idea for a side hustle, start working on it right now!

Don’t wait for the market to change, for new competitors to come out with their offers.

Believe in your thing and see it through.

The huge benefit of starting an online music teaching business in a form of a side hustle, while you still have a day job is that it completely removes all the risk and anxiety really.

If it works out – wonderful.

If it doesn’t – well you tried, and you still have your full-time day job!

The only potential drawbacks are that you might invest your limited free time into something that eventually doesn’t work out to be a success.

But look at it like this:

Even when a business idea fails, it will be a valuable learning experience for you, so that you can do better next time!

Is It Possible to Run an Online Business with a Day Job?

As I mentioned earlier, it is quite possible to run an online business while keeping a day job.

So many solopreneurs start out like this.

Some of you might just prefer to keep your day job that you have a carrier in and love.

That’s okay, but please keep in mind that there will be some challenges you’ll face balancing your day job with a side hustle.

It is important to be well organized and set your goals properly.

For example, if you know that you only have a few hours each week to dedicate to your music teaching side hustle, then you need to design your offer (the thing you’re selling) with that in mind.

If it’s a music lessons membership, design the monthly deliverables and amount of support you offer to students in such a way that you know you’ll be able to manage it considering your availability.

Whenever possible, use only tools to organize all your side hustle activities.

You can use tools for work planning and tasks management such as:

• Google Calendar
• Asana
• Trello
• Google Tasks

These tools are great for personal productivity as well as managing possible collaboration with outsourced workers if you’re hiring freelancers to help you with your side hustle.

Whenever you feel tired and discouraged, just think about the benefits of music teaching online side hustle business:

Financial security, an additional source of income, learning opportunities, etc.

Advantage: Adding Another Income Source as a Music Teacher

This is a biggie.

I don’t think any entrepreneur should keep all their eggs in one basket.

Whenever possible, it’s a good idea to diversify your income.

This is because if one income stream stops generating income for whatever reason, you’ll have other options.

We tend to regard our full-time employment as permanent, but the truth is that there’s no such thing.

This was exposed completely during the pandemic when so many lost their jobs in industries that were considered rock solid. It’s just that unforeseen happened

So to be better prepared, it’s a good idea to invest your time into adding another income source as a music teacher.

Another idea is to set up your music teaching side hustle in such a way that it produces passive income.

This way, once the thing you’ll be selling is created and out there – it doesn’t require any further input for you and it keeps generating income in years to come.

The benefits of diversifying your income streams make it worth investing your time, getting training, and working on launching your side hustle business.

Making the Full-Time Transition (or not!) to Your Side Hustle

Many online entrepreneurs are running their businesses essentially as a side hustle.
They still keep their full-time job.

They love their day job, status, and everything about it.

You might be teaching in a school or university (or doing something completely different!), and not feel the urge to quit your day job to pursue this “online thing”.

That’s fine, even better for you!

There are benefits and also drawbacks to making the full-time transition to your Side Hustle.

The benefits are that you become your own boss, which enables you to balance your work-life in a way that works for you.

If the side hustle is successful and you’re now thinking of transitioning to it full-time, then it might be worth it, because if you can keep growing it – you might hit new milestones.

But it’s important to consider your personal goals and circumstances.

You might want to keep your day job and keep the side-hustle business operating at a lower capacity.

There are drawbacks to running your side-hustle full time.

For one, when you are fully dedicated to it – you, your family, and any freelancers or contractors depend on you delivering and making it work.

It’s just an added level of pressure and expectations.

Then if you don’t manage it right, you might get overwhelmed and hit a burnout stage if you’re not careful.

In the end, you’ll just know when the time is right (or not!) to fully transition to your side-hustle full time.

Conclusion

In summary, starting an online music teaching business side hustle is an exciting new thing you can try out.

There are low risks involved, and the benefits outweigh all the drawbacks.

If the side hustle works out, you’ll have a new income source to add to your portfolio.

You might even end up with a passive income source, or better you have an online business that fully replaces your day job and enables you to make a more significant impact on music students all around the world.

If you’re thinking about it, my advice is to just go for it!

You’ve got nothing to lose really.

My advice is to keep it simple, organized, and manageable.

Get your offer out there are start building your online music teaching business.

You’ll need a website, you’ll need to attract the right audience, and come up with an offer.

All these things take time, so starting NOW is necessary.

Don’t expect overnight results, but be prepared to be surprised at what you can achieve on your own, working after hours on your side hustle online business.

I encourage you to try it out and see where it leads.

If you need ideas on how to go about organizing all this, you can get my free guide with all the info you’ll need to get started, fill in the action items to have an overview of what you want to do:

 

I hope this article will inspire you to think about possible business ideas you can launch as a music teacher.

What’s the one thing stopping your right now, from starting your side hustle as a music teacher?

Post in the comments below.

All the best,

Bogdan

Founder, MusicTeachingBiz.com