We signed up to be music teachers, not office drones. But it can feel like we spend more time doing music teaching studio admin tasks than actually teaching.
⬆️ Listen to the podcast above or keep on reading, whichever fits your style. ↙️
If you’re on the administrative burnout bandwagon, I’m here to help.
There’s no magic app which will solve all your paperwork problems. But you can clear a lot of the clutter off your desk if you make some smart decisions.
The solution to your never-ending office work is not to work harder or faster.
Instead, you need to whittle down that list to the things ONLY YOU can do. Everything else should be permanently banned from your list.
For each not-for-you task on your music teaching studio admin to-do list (and, yes, I know it’s the length of a pretty substantial sonata right now!) you have 2 options to get it off your list for good:
- Automate it
- Outsource it
Which option you choose for each task will depend on what’s possible and most cost-efficient.
Money Woes
Both the solutions I’ll outline in this post will cost you some money. So, before we dive into them, let’s look the money quibbles square in the eye.
Because you might be about to tell me that you can’t possibly afford this.
If that’s the boat you’re in, I want you to play along for a moment and answer these questions:
- How much do you charge per hour?
- How long does this task take you?
- How much is it, therefore, worth to you?
If you make $30 per hour and you’re spending half an hour on invoicing every week, that’s $15 right there.
So consider that your budget when you’re looking at the automation and outsourcing options. I promise you: Virtual assistants and computers have much lower fees than music teachers.
You can find more time-saving and business-savvy info in the articles featured on my Music Studio Business page.
Automating Piano Studio Admin Tasks
There’s a sad truth I’ve come to learn…
Many music teaching studio owners are doing tasks which a few lines of code could be doing for them.
This trend towards automation and computer programs taking jobs is worrying in many industries. It may even sound like a dystopian sci-fi novel to you.
But for us, it’s a good thing.
Here are some things that software could be doing for you right now:
- Emailing invoices on-time, every time
- Sending out birthday messages to kiddos
- Providing scheduling options to families
- Taking payments without you going to the bank
- Sharing files with your students when they need them
If you’re doing any of these things manually – please stop.
Unless you genuinely love generating and emailing invoices, you should not be doing it. If you don’t relish the prospect of a trip to your local bank, you do not need to go.
By the way, My Music Staff is a great option if you’re looking for a central place to manage invoices and take payments. We have a review of My Music Staff here if you’re curious about my experience with it.
Outsourcing Your Piano Studio Admin Work
If you can’t automate something – or if the software solutions out there are super expensive – you’ll probably be able to outsource it.
Outsourcing or hiring out means, quite simply, getting someone else to do that job.
You don’t need to hire employees to do basic music teaching studio admin work. You can hire contractors to do regular or even one-off tasks with services like UpWork.
In the Productivity Power-Up course, I do a full walk-through of the process of hiring someone on UpWork. Members can watch that walk-through video to get my tips and tricks for finding truly great people through online platforms like this.
If you’re not a Vibrant Music Teaching member yet, you can sign up here to get instant access to the course and seriously power up your productivity!
What music teaching office task do you loathe?
Tell us your biggest gripe or head-furrower in the comments below, and if you’re considering automating or outsourcing it.