I have the honor and joy to mentor several fab music colleagues in my 6 week program that helps artists create a solid, simple structure for offering lessons as a way to support their life as a musician.

Often, the scariest part for us is considering raising our prices, especially with our existing students.

Here are a few of the thoughts that can often live rent-free in our brains:

• Music teachers are a dime a dozen. Why would anyone want to hire me?
• I don't have a teaching degree.
• If I raise my prices, everyone will think I'm a bad person and no one will hire me.

Can you relate?

Here's the thing: my degree is in psychology and, although I've played and studied music my whole life, I had zero plans to become a music teacher.  In fact, as a young woman, it wouldn't have occurred to me to major in music or even apply to a music school like Berklee because I had very little confidence in myself.

But starting in the 1980s, people started asking me to apply for music teacher jobs.  In fact, most of the jobs I've had over the decades teaching music, with one exception, I was asked to apply for.  Kind of like it's my path LOL.

More importantly though, most people don't care if you have a degree or not.  They mostly care whether you'll be able to help them achieve the results they want.

And that's what inspires people to pay you.

Considering that Boston is one of the musiciest cities in the country, musicians and music teachers are a dime a dozen.  But my roster is always full and turnover is very low.

Also, when I first created a semester package of lessons back in 2013, I charged a third of what I charge now and received exactly the same number of complaints about my rates as I do now.

And what was it costing me to charge so little back then? In order to earn a living wage, I had to teach 6 days a week, 3 of them lasting from 8 am to 9 pm.

I was exhausted and hadn't written a song in two years.

Then my first business mentor said to me, "You're not serving the people you serve if you're exhausted all the time." which hit me between the eyes.

Take a moment and try the following:

• How much money would you like to earn in a year? How much would make it possible for you to pay your bills and have some left to save, to have fun, to take a nice vacation?  Let yourself stretch a bit here by naming an amount, even if it scares you a bit.
• Write it down
• Write down how much money you earn now
• Subtract your current rate from your dream rate
• The result is what undercharging is costing you.

So what you can do about it?

Implementing changes can be scary, but they don't have to be complicated.

Start with offering lessons as a package vs. charging by the hour. Have people pay you in advance for the whole package. Limit the number of make-ups and don't allow make-ups to extend semesters (I used to lose between $1,000 to $2,000 a year this way).

Just that will begin to make your income more consistent.  Also, when you limit the number of makeups people get in a semester, and people pay you in advance, they cancel less often and the no-shows disappear. 

Let's say you're charging $500 for a 10 lesson semester, and you have 5 students. That adds up to $10,000 a year in income.  What if you raised the price to $750? You'd be giving yourself a $5,000 a year raise, and how cool would that be?

Or what if you took a huge leap of faith and doubled your price? I did that 10 years ago, and it scared the shit out of me.  At the time, in addition to the schools and camps I taught at, I had 11 private students.  When I doubled my prices, I lost 5 of them.  The result is that I was earning the same amount of money for half the hours.

If you're a touring artist, would raising your prices give you the bandwidth to be able to stay in a decent hotel from time to time after a gig, instead of having to sleep on a twin bed with Little Mermaid sheets, in the home of a kind, well-meaning fan?

These days, I earn a living wage teaching 4 evenings a week, and the best part is that I'm able to support my students at a level that's blowing my mind.

Amazing what can happen when I'm not exhausted all the time!

Peace, Janet

p.s. Check out some very kind words from my supervisor at the last PreK through 8th grade school I taught at: