Tag Archives: freelance

David Cutler’s Savvy Music Teacher

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Fellow music teachers, have you ever wished there was someone you could approach for specific advice on maximizing the earnings and efficiency of the niche market of private lesson teaching? Look no further! I give you your new career guide: David Cutler’s The Savvy Music Teacher.

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Having just finished this book, I was extremely impressed with the author’s ability to relate and expound upon the daily struggles of private teaching combined with the provision of various strategies for financial and personal improvement. At times I found myself turning pages with the excitement of a Harry Potter novel!

The book outlines a clear goal: Become the most impactful music teacher possible while earning a yearly salary of $50,000 to $100,000. Is this really possible for us private teachers? I can say, without hesitation, that if you were to aggressively implement David Cutler’s strategies into your financial model of music teaching, you would be well within this figure.

How many unorganized or un-savvy music teachers do you know living week to week, with no concept of their financial future, or present earnings? This sad situation can even sometimes lead to musicians leaving the music field entirely. If this describes you or a teacher you know, this book will be a lifeline for changing your views on earning and managing money, as well maximizing impact on your students.

Even if you consider yourself a highly organized teacher without any more room for financial expansion, this book will outline additional financial avenues you may have not considered, or overlooked, that will enhance your current earnings.

The book is divided into two halves. Part one outlines seven distinct streams of income available to private music teachers. It then outlines detailed steps on how to integrate these into your life, or how to expound upon them. These numerous streams include:

Private teaching
Group classes
Camps
Events
Technology
Products
Additional (miscellaneous services)

If you believe you are already implementing these elements into your small business of music teaching, you will be surprised by the many avenues available you may not have considered in each chapter. Specifically for me, I always see a significant drop in earnings during the summer months. I’m teaching as many students as I can, but it is never enough. This book proposes a detailed process on establishing summer camps, and clearly outlines the large financial benefits this type of event can have on your summer earnings.

If you feel many of these categories are not realistic to you, you may be surprised at how easily you will be able to generate extra income from the author’s suggestions. True, not every teacher may be able to integrate every stream into his or her lifestyle, but even getting just a few streams of music income going besides private teaching can really have a positive effect on your bottom line earnings.

 

 

The second half of the book is dedicated to setting up your studio, filling your studio, time/life management, winning the money game, your financial picture, and career blueprint. In a field that can easily be isolating, these chapters are gold. How often can one receive free financial advice specific to the private lesson field? These chapters are even more valuable than the first half because they help motivate music teachers to plan for the future of their business, and not live in the now of lesson check to lesson check.

 This book is completely inspiring and a must read for lesson teachers in any capacity. Whether you are teaching one night a week or full time, you will be inspired to teach better, smarter, and create higher earnings after completing this book. Personally, I have been planning many, many expansions to my studio from reading this book and am confident my earnings will rise as a direct result of reading this book. To purchase a copy click here

Tracking down end of the year payments

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The end of the school year is upon us.  If you are like me, you have a few students who don’t pay on time.  They always do pay you eventually, but frequently it occurs one or two weeks into the next month, rather than in the month lessons actually occurred.  My normal motto for this type of situation is to kill them with kindness, and persistence.  Each Friday I send a Bcc email to all my students still owing for the current month, asking kindly if they could please bring a check the following week.  Most of the time I am fine with this strategy and my number of outstanding accounts drops each month until everyone is current.

 

However, at the end of the year if you are not paid by the last day of school, it becomes much harder to track down payments.  You are no longer seeing the student each week, school is out of session, and you are unable to roll the money over in to the next month’s bill.  In this case I try several strategies until I am able to collect the check.

 

First, I use a direct email, rather than my Bcc technique above, explaining school is over and everyone needs to get their accounts current.   I then ask for a response in the message verifying funds will be brought the coming week.  If I do not hear back this way, I try a phone call.  This is a bit more direct, but sometimes works better.  If no one answers the phone I try a text.  If this doesn’t work I speak directly to the student about it, and will even text the student a reminder the day before to bring payment.

 

Your last card to play is band director intervention.  Frequently band directors wield larger influence than the private lesson teacher.  So, you can try telling your student if they cannot bring funds you will be forced to tell band director.  This may scare them into paying you, or you may actually ask if the band director will contact student’s parent/guardian.  If all else fails school band budgets will sometimes compensate you for one month of unpaid lessons on a school by school basis.

Persistence will pay off in this matter.  There have been times where I wasn’t able to collect a check by then end of school and could not get in touch with parent suddenly.  I just kept emailing weekly, daily, until suddenly a check appeared in my mailbox.

Maximizing Musician Tax Deductions

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Because of the self-employment tax faced by many musicians, it is critical to deduct as large of a portion of your income as possible. This way you are paying taxes only on the portion of your income that cannot be written off. If you are new to self-employed taxation, please see my earlier post on the basics.

My primary piece of advice on beginning this process is to get a good certified public accountant. Your degrees are in music, not tax law. Your CPA can help ensure all your forms are filled correctly and you are paying the correct amount in taxes. A tax return signed by a CPA looks better to tax officers than one filled out by an individual trying to take numerous deductions.

 

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Your role as a musician is to communicate all the items you would like to deduct to your CPA. Propose as many as you can, and your CPA will tell you what will fly and what will not. Keep in mind he or she is not a musician and is most likely unaware of the numerous expenses you have.

So, what can the musician deduct? Things you have purchased in the last year to do your job can be deducted. Some of the common ones are:

Standard deduction- Everyone gets this! It was $6,200 in 2014. This is a nice start to lowering your taxable income.

Self-employment tax- Using the  Schedule SE form you can determine your grand total of self-employment tax and then use the formula to determine the large portion of self-employment tax that can be deducted, about half.

Health insurance-If you are over 26 and self-employed, there is a good chance you are buying your own health insurance. The grand total of your monthly premium payments can be written off.

Retirement- Regardless of your age, it is important to set up a retirement account. If you open a traditional IRA, you can deduct these contributions, up to the maximum allowed, for the year.

Educational credits-If you are still in school, either enrolled undergraduate or a graduate degree program, you can write off the tuition paid. Your university can provide you with the needed form.

Student loan interest-Speaking of school, you may have completed your degree but are still paying loans. You may be eligible to deduct all the interest you have paid for the year on this loan, which can add up, especially in the beginning of your repayment period. Note, you cannot do this if you are married and file separate tax returns.

Insurance- this can be insurance on your instruments, your car you drive to work, liability insurance, or renters/home insurance if you have a home office.

Depreciation- You can depreciate the value of your instruments needed for your job over time. You can choose to either write off the entire value if you buy it in the current tax year, or depreciate it partially over a period of years. Either way, you must get an appraisal to verify the declared value.

Repairs-any repairs or maintenance on your instruments can be deducted.

Legal and professional services-you can use this column to deduct anything you paid for you tax return preparation for the previous year.

Car-If you use your car for your job, the government offers a standard rate for each mile driven for work. For 2015 it will be 57.5 cents per mile. If you drive a lot this really adds up. You must keep track of exact miles driven. Additionally, tolls and car maintenance can be written off too.

Supplies- You can use line 22 of your Schedule C to account for all necessary musician supplies. This includes sheet music, mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds, necks, strings, bows, instrument/music stands, and any other gadgets like iPads, computers, recorders etc. This category has a lot of potential so look back through your purchases to make sure you are not missing anything.

Travel-if you traveled for a conference, audition, or performance you were playing you can write this off, along with the cost of food for these trips.

“Other expenses” -Line 48 of your Schedule C allows for any other expenses that are not covered earlier in the tax return. This is a key area for musicians, because we frequently have unique expenses. Some to consider here are:
Facility use fees paid to lesson teaching locations
Fees to collaborative artists such as piano accompanists
Any lessons you take from others as professional development
Domain names for personal websites
Postage
PayPal fees if you use this for your students to pay you
Conference registration fees

Home office-People are sometimes scared to take this deduction, but if you have a room in your house or apartment dedicated to your profession you should go for it. This cannot be your living room with a computer in the corner, but rather a single room, with a door, used for work only. Not sleeping, eating, or partying. For this deduction you must know the square footage of the room and house and you can deduct a portion of your rent/mortgage. Also, add up all your utility bills and a portion of this can also be deducted with the home office.

All these things add up and help reduce your income to a more manageable, level for taxation. You must keep receipts for these items in case the value needs to be verified for up to 5 years after the return. I use a filing cabinet to keep receipts during the year. Then on Jan 1 I total everything up in a document and send it to my CPA. Good luck and happy deducting.

*Disclaimer-Please seek professional assistance in filing your taxes. Musicstudioteacher.com  takes no legal responsibility for results from this post.

Tax tips for the private lesson teacher Part 1-the basics

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Tax time is here. This can be an inconvenience for everyone, especially self employed musicians. Wheather this is your first year filing taxes as a self employed musician, or you are a veteran of the process, below I will offer some explanation of the challenges self employed musicians face and how to get yourself in the best situation possible when it comes to limiting your payments. Below is part one of my posts on this topic. It outlines the basis concept of self employed taxation. Look for my upcoming part 2 post on maximizing your deductions next week.

If you are doing a lot of teaching or performing it is likely taxes are not being withheld from your pay checks. Besides the federal income tax all individuals pay, the self employed must also pay what is known as self employment tax. This goes toward things such as social security and Medicare. If you are employed on a payroll, your employer covers half this and the other half is deducted from your paycheck each month.

Self employed individuals must pay this tax along with federal tax, so it can often times be a much higher tax bill. There is a deduction on this that can be taken to help offset the cost, but it is good practice to know what you are paying as a musician and why.

To prevent you from oweing a huge tax bill on April 15, musicians should submit quarterly tax payments using from 1040ES. To make this a successful procedure estimate your total tax for the year and divide it in 4. On these days: 4/15, 6/15, 9/15, and 1/15 you must mail this form in with a check to the United States treasury and your SSN number on the memo line.

Tax years are not calendar years. They begin and end on April 15. So, if you are new to this procedure you can get a fresh start on the 15th for the 2015 tax year. Obviously, this circumstance requires planning a head and saving. If you are not sure how much to pay, just submit some type of payment and begin planning a savings strategy for June 15.

The ultimate kicker of this procedure is often times teaching or performing can be seasonal, with things winding down in May. The June payment is still looming and  a savings account is key to making these payments. It is very easy to be unaware that money you are receiving has yet to be taxed so save frequently, and over time you will develop an idea of how much you will need to save toward taxes.