The article starts out by describing different business models that support the study of voice. It then flows into why it's important to have a business plan:
- Helps keep track of day-to-day rigors of working for yourself
- Helps make you aware of unforeseen obstacles
- Helps clearly define your teaching goals
- Helps to create benchmarks for success while on a timeline
- Helps build professional relationships
- Helps to evaluate the services you're offering
- Helps to validate yourself
Before getting to the section on the business plan itself, Vass describes some legal advice that she would recommend to those youngsters or people starting over with a private voice studio. Vass recommends that you contact the Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) and seeking out the different laws in the area you plan on teaching. Next, Vass recommends forming an LLC and LLP (Limited Liability Company and Limited Liability Partnership). She talks about the different forms of business you can start and describes the pros and cons to each of them.
Now for the plan! She formats the plans as this (and I'm going to bullet point each with just key phrases for each section):
- Statement of Purpose: This is where you write out what you hope to bring and teach students as well as how you distinguish yourself from other area instructors.
- Description of your Business: What exactly is your studio and what are you planning on teaching? What age group are you planning on teaching?
- Marketing Plan: Where are you planing on teaching: home, office, school, rented space?
- Marketplace Report: This is where you would list out who all is teaching in the area and how much they're charging. This is also where you would list out how much you're charging to make it competitive.
- Procedures and Policies: This is where you would list out what your day to day routines are. You would also list out your policies in regards to: cancellations, how you (the instructor) gets paid/how frequently you get paid, scheduling procedures, what your hours are that you're working per week, procedures for how to contact you, etc.
- Personnel: Are you planning on hiring anyone to teach in your studio besides yourself?
- Insurance: Are you going to take out Small Business Insurance? This is recommended by Vass, by the way...
- Loan Applications: Are you planning to pay out of pocket (or can you afford to)? This is where you list initial capital costs for starting your studio
- Equipment and Supply List: This is where you list out all of the materials you currently own (books, keyboard, etc.) AND what you intend to purchase to help get your studio started.
Finally, she ends with a section on budgeting and how important it is to budget for your business. It's not something we really talk about, but money is pretty important. She ties this into the law stuff a bit by discussing some IRS information with how you get paid and paying for taxes. She also talks about how to be conservative in regards to recruitment (it's better to expect less money than you might actually get, am I right?) Vass also discusses how it's important to build forecasts into the next 2-5 years. It's important to list in your business plan how you plan on growing your business and incorporating a marketing calendar so lenders and business officials can see what your thought process is.
This is great information, even just for teaching "on the side." I think a business plan would also make you more focused, consistent, and professional. What really stuck out to me was the necessity of being conservative in how many students you think you could recruit, as losing money really sucks!
ReplyDeleteSome of this reminds me of what I learned at the Arts Entrepreneurship workshop... I learned business plans are important for teaching individual lessons, and to be a quality voice teacher!
ReplyDeleteI found this really interesting. I missed the Arts Entrepreneurship workshop, so this is good information for me to know! Thanks James
ReplyDeleteI totally forgot about if you have your own studio, essentially you are running your own business. This gives great tips on how to be a professional and what you probably need to do in order to be successful!
ReplyDeleteI guess business plans are really important for teaching private lessons, especially for new teachers. It helps teachers understand their plan, and get ready.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I haven't really given a ton of thought to so this was very helpful. It makes sense that you've got to have a solid plan if you want to be successful. Something nice to refer to when starting up your own studio.
ReplyDeleteI think business plans are super important for any kind of career. It would be awesome if the bacc core at OSU required some business classes for all of us rather than some ridiculous sociology or anthropology class. As much as we all like to deny it, learning how to do taxes would have been way more helpful than reading Catcher in the Rye in high school.
ReplyDeleteWe hope to add more classes relating to business to our curriculum. Everyone from performers to school teachers needs to be somewhat business savvy. This article brings up some good starting points, and I think there are more things to consider with regard to advertising, social media, etc.
ReplyDeleteAh yes... I heard Z talking about this at Beaver Music Preview this year, when someone asked what all could be done with a music degree. He answered that all musicians are at some level teachers, performers, entrepreneurs, and administrators.
ReplyDeleteOlivia - YES.
As musicians, we spend so much time focusing on our art and how to better ourselves, and/or our students, in our vocal careers. It's so easy to forget that there is SO much more "behind the scenes" work than we sometimes realize. Their is a lot of business work that goes into being a private teacher/artist. Thank you for the reminder, and the pointers, James! =)
ReplyDeleteArtists often find planning their work from a business perspective to be overly mercenary and in direct contradiction to their ideals. I can empathize with this, but at the same time if you don't succeed financially you won't be able to continue expressing yourself artistically. These days, unless you can immediately audition into the Met chorus or something, learning about the business side of singing is a necessary evil for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wish I had time to tack on a business minor, because at some point I would assume all of us will be teaching, even performance only majors. Business planning is also important for performers.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that's a lot to do and remember. Makes me feel a whole lot more respect for people who run their own studios!
ReplyDeleteFascinating how a private teacher would have to think about all this. I wonder for the university how much of these sorts of things are paid for through salary.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting about filing taxes - you'd need different forms and everything.