Thinking about how to start a teacher business can be a bit confusing and overwhelming. Whether you’re thinking about starting a side hustle or want to start a business, you’ll learn the steps to take in this blog post (and on episode 166 of The Elementary Music Teacher podcast).
Know your why
Before you think about starting a business, it’s important to know your why. Your why is what will drive you and keep you going at each stage of your business. Why do you want to start a business? What is the driving force behind doing this? Why are you passionate about this particular idea? Once you’ve considered the “why” questions, you’re ready to move onto the next step.
Identify who you want to serve
Identifying who you want to serve goes hand in hand with knowing your why. When people think about how to start a teacher business, a lot of times they skip over the ‘why” and the “who do I want to serve” steps. Building the foundation is important, so you’re ready to build a solid structure. So, who do you want to serve?
It’s important to niche down. This means to focus on a particular person or an ideal customer you’re wanting to support. For example, in my business, I serve elementary music teachers. Notice I didn’t say I serve all music teachers, including private studio teachers, band, choir, orchestra, general music, etc. No, I serve elementary music teachers. Then, getting even more specific, I serve elementary music teachers wanting to find balance in their work and home lives. The more you narrow in on who you want to serve, the better. This will help you with speaking to your audience in a clear and concise way.
Offer free value
Offering free value sounds counterintuitive, but it’s not. When you offer free value, you’re gaining your audience’s trust and helping them get to know you and what you’re all about. What is free value exactly? This is the content you choose to put into the world that’s completely free to consume.
Maybe your audience hangs out on Instagram? Or, maybe you like to blog? Or, maybe you like communicating through email (which is my favorite method by the way). Whatever it is, the key is to be consistent with it. Of course there’s a lot of strategy in choosing how to put content out, making sure it’s SEO friendly, and getting the right audience to read it. But, the first step is to just start with what you’re comfortable with and showing up with confidence.
Think about what you’ll offer
Remember when I mentioned that building a business is like building a structure? You lay the foundation (or concrete) with identifying who you’re going to serve, start putting the frame on the house up by offering free value and building an audience, then you begin putting on the bricks by actually offering a product or service.
There are a lot of different ways to make money in your teacher business. In this blog post, we explore 5 ways you can make extra money as a teacher. It’s important to think about what aligns with you and your goals and what resonates with your audience. Think about what you want to offer. Also, consider what topics your course, membership, workshop, or TPT product will be about. What is your audience searching for on Google? Are there common questions you hear being asked in Facebook groups? What is something that you find easy to do that others struggle with?
Invest in programs or coaching
There are so many amazing blogs and podcasts that offer free value. To be honest, I’ve consumed so much content and learned a lot that helped me get going in my own business years ago. But, when you invest in a course, program, or coaching, it will help you to gain clarity quicker than if you just tried to figure out things on your own.
Investing financially is truly what helped move the needle for me and my business. I offer business coaching and have already helped many teachers start or grow their side hustle. If you want to see if I’m the right fit for you, fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.
Are you wanting to start a teacher business? Tell me about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post. I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it too.
