Got (enough) Money?

Got (enough) Piano Teaching Money?

This is a guest post in our new series Dollars and Sense, a series helping piano teachers deal with financial concerns.  Kristin K. Yost is our guest and will be writing more articles for this series in the weeks to come.   Visit the Centre for Musical Minds site for more information about Kristin and the music school she directs.  You may also be interested to read her last post, “Keeping Student Numbers Up in a Down Economy” and may also recognize her name as the presenter of “How I Made $100,000 My First Year as a Piano Teacher” at the 2010 MTNA conference.

Got (enough) Piano Teaching Money?

from massdistraction’s flickr photostream

How much is “enough” money anyway? According to various reports on the internet, jobs.Aol.com in particular reported that the average salary increase in 2010 in the United States was 2.5% and the projection for 2011 is 3%. According to my math, for every $100 you earn as a piano teacher, that means the raise you should be giving yourself this year is $3. It doesn’t seem like a lot but let’s do the math and base our numbers on 30 private students. The average cost of lesson tuition for the year is$1,500 per student, not including enrollment fees, music or miscellaneous fees. That is a $45 increase per student from last year, totaling $1,350. That’s a good chunk of change! You can look at that as an extra mortgage payment, a vacation, or you could re- invest it in your studio by purchasing a new computer, a new gadget (or 3), painting your teaching space, purchasing that filing cabinet you’ve been wanting or make a donation to a charity that desperately needs your help.

For those of us who pay our own bills, plan for retirement and call what we do a ‘career’,I feel like there is a lack of information on the numerical side of our profession. For so many of us, we are not hobbyists, we are not part-time workers (though sometimes we may feel a bit “seasonal”) and we do deserve raises! In all of my college classes (seven years spent in higher education), we never really discussed numbers except for the occasional “how much to charge” in pedagogy classes and tidbits of tax information.By far, the biggest hurdle I have encountered in my post academic life has been dealing with hard, practical numbers that it takes to to allow me to be a full time piano teacher.The reality is that as a piano teacher, you are the CEO, CFO and IT department in addition to being a music teacher. Of course you are probably the cleaning staff, HR department and parent-therapist too, but that’s for another article. There are days when I enjoy wearing my accounting hat more than others, but ultimately I need to know as much about money in and out, as I do about piano repertoire if I want to continue teaching piano as a career.

So why exactly, do college music classes (pedagogy classes and professors in particular) not prepare their students to be self-employed, when that is more often than not, our reality? According to simplyHired.com, the average salary for music professor jobs is $39,000 – seems low doesn’t it? I doubled checked and according to ToMySalary.com (which is no longer a working URL), the average nationwide salary for an associate professor of music in December 2010 is $60,992. Let’s split the difference and go with $50,000. This statistic makes me wonder though, is the lack of financial information given in classes and at piano teacher workshops because our professors have resigned themselves to a$50,000 annual salary where they receive bi-weekly paychecks, have their retirement ready planned for them and have their summers off so they really have no idea how to budget for a real-life independent music studio? Or is it because we as piano teachers have the “I don’t care because I love what I do” attitude? Maybe for some professors this is the case, and maybe for some teachers that is their reality. For the sake of being forever hopeful, let’s give everyone the benefit of doubt and assume the avoidance is primarily to do with lack of time available for classes and that teachers truly do love.

That said, let’s think practically here. As a piano teacher, you’re most likely not in the highest of tax brackets (unless you are married to a high-earner) but as piano teachers, given the right tools, we can certainly hold our own; plan for retirement, go out to eat, take vacations, save and pay our bills. Let’s look at some numbers that it would take to run your home studio:

  • Internet access: $35Mobile phone/separate line: $65
  • Mortgage or rent: $1,000
  • Electric bill: $130
  • Instrument payment: $200
  • Cleaning supplies: $5
  • Business Insurance: $100
  • Studio management software: $50
  • Accounting software (Quickbooks Online): $30
  • Writing/ink/office supplies: $50
  • Accountant: $300 per return (if you are lucky)
    Total: $1,695

Now let’s take a look at some other numbers, say if you had a commercial space.

  • Internet access: $50
  • Phone line: $65
  • Rent: $2,000
  • Electric bill: $130
  • Instrument payment: $300
  • Bottled water service: $30
  • Cleaning supplies/bathroom supplies: $10
  • Insurance: $100
  • Studio management software: $50 (average)
  • Accounting software (Quickbooks Online): $30
  • Payroll fees: $25Writing/ink/office supplies: $100
  • Additional property and school district taxes: $500
  • Accountant: $300 per return (if you are lucky)
    Total: $3,690

And here are recurring monthly life expenses that I can think of (some will be duplicated):

  • Mortgage/rent: $1,400
  • Electric bill: $130
  • Gas: $50
  • City fees: $40
  • Internet access: $50
  • TV/Cable/Movie Subscriptions (average): $40
  • Gas: $75
  • Car payment: $375
  • Car Insurance: $75
  • Food: $400
  • Credit card payments: $200
  • Health Insurance: $200 (for one person)
  • Prescriptions: $50
  • Personal hygiene products: $20
  • Miscellaneous expenses: $250
    Total: $3,355

These numbers will vary according to situation but the principal remains the same: it costs a lot more money than we think it does to make ends meet! There are ways to cut down on a some expenses of course but some of you may have additional financial responsibilities as well. So…these are averages based on the best of my ability to reach a larger cross-section of piano teachers and their individual situations.

Basic math will tell us that at a minimum, we need to be making more than just the salary of a part-time job, and if we want to go out to dinner once in a while, have medical insurance, plan for our retirement (which really should be part of the budget!), have a savings account and take a vacation, our base salary needs to be more than the bare minimum budget. Then, take into consideration you may have children,grandchildren, pets and other variables that take up additional expenses. Phew, this is actually like a full-time job!

How are you going to make this money, and is it sustainable? What happens when thekids are not in school and parents prefer not to double up on the expense of childcare AND music lessons during the summer?

First and foremost, your billable tuition should include additional administrative hours,bookkeeping hours, and incorporate learning opportunities such as being a subscriber to Clavier Companion (ClavierCompanion.com), be an attendee at National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, or Music Teachers National Association annual conference and participate in professional development that happens locally. Don’t like what you see on those conferences? Be sure you contact them and let them know what it is you are interested in. I know for a fact they listen and make adjustments according to feedback.

Regardless of what parents think lessons cost, it is so important for you to incorporate the hours you spend away from the student into the cost of “tuition” and invoice accordingly. Just because you can divide a semester up into 16 weeks and there are 4 equal monthly installments doesn’t mean you charge $60 an hour – until we as a collective body of professionals instill this in our families, we are going to be fighting a very difficult battle to be paid what our time, instruments, materials, education,certification, passion and creativity is worth. [See “Where Does My Tuition Go?” brochure to help explain this to your families.]

Over the next several weeks I will be writing articles that have to do with the business side of teaching piano as a profession and how what we do is really entrepreneurship.I will be addressing tuition, studio handbook policies, costs of starting up, costs of operating and most importantly, how to set and collect 12 months of revenue so that you can maximize your income and not have to be financially stressed.

There are plenty of independent piano teachers that rely on a second income, but it doesn’t need to be that way. We as piano teachers should be able to earn a living wage and be treated (paid) like the professionals we are. I would like to challenge each of you to review your tuition policies before our summer term begins, review or in many cases,create an annual budget based on monthly expenses, financial goals, projections and include your “wish list” for your studio. Imagine the possibilities!

Stay tuned for next week’s article: “Modern Piano Teacher as Entrepreneur.”

7 thoughts on “Got (enough) Money?”

  1. Hi Wendy,

    While we private teachers have the same household expenses as everybody else, many people inquiring about music lessons are ignorant about the costs of running a business, or simply don’t care–they just want the cheapest lessons available.

    Few people here will pay $200-$300/month for lessons, especially for a beginner. And then many teachers do not have, whether by choice or limited demand, to run a full-time music teaching studio. Many music teachers, especially other than piano, supplement their income by performing, such as accompanying students on other instruments for auditions, exams, and competitions, playing in pit orchestras, or doing concerts every few months. I, and a number of musicians I know, find performing much more fulfilling financially and emotionally. Or they may have a job as a music director in a church, which can be good money for the number of hours per week.

    In addition, it’s probably not a good idea for teachers to put all their eggs in one basket…

    Just some thoughts.

  2. In the newsletter from ComposeCreate, the article starts off like this….

    How much is “enough” money anyway? According to jobs.aol.com, the average salary increase in 2010 in the United States was 2.5% and the projection for 2011 is 3%. According to my math, for every $100 you earn as a piano teacher, that means the raise you should be giving yourself this year is $3. It doesn’t seem like a lot but let’s do the math and base our numbers on 30 private students. The average cost of lesson tuition for the year is…

    The it says to read the entire article by clicking the link. When I click the link it takes me to the article, but it doesn’t carry on with the thought from the newsletter. I’d like to read what happens when you give yourself a $3 raise with 30 private students and see where she was going with that. Did I miss something…?
    Thanks,
    Krista

  3. Krista,

    That was my fault entirely! Apparently, the entire first paragraph was missing from the article online. I have reposted it. Sorry about that!

    Wendy

  4. One thing I would like to discuss with other teachers is how many lesson-hours actually constitute a full time teaching job. I am unable to teach more than about 20 hours per week right now and not be cranky or exhausted. I long ago decided my students would not have a cranky teacher, an unprepared teacher, a bored teacher or a boring teacher. All this takes time and energy outside of actual paid lessons and, unlike many jobs I can think of, the time in the lesson is 100% work. No chatting with co-workers, paying the cable bill online, watching youtube, etc. I am unsure of how to charge for my time under these circumstances. I charge as much as I think I can get away with and still couldn’t support my family if I didn’t have a husband with a “real” job.

  5. Would love to see the pamphlet “Where Does My Tuition Go?” . It appears there is a link but it won’t open.
    Is it possible to view this? Such a good idea!

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