In case you haven't heard, I retired from piano teaching in December. My retirement has a lot to do with the fact that I was beginning to carve out a name for myself as a weekend performing artist. But the main impetus for my departure from teaching was my desire to be a better mom. You see, the after-school and evening hours required to teach school children conflicted with my own kids' schedules. They spent the day in school, and then spent the next 6 hours without their mother -- while I was teaching everyone else's kids. Their father tucked them into bed, and I was still out teaching. I tried everything to avoid closing the business. I tried cutting back my hours, consolidating the students so I only worked a couple of weekdays, and delegating some of my duties to other employees. But the other aspects of running a studio only continued to steal me away from my kids. The problem was not just the after-school hours, but the all-consuming nature of running a studio, a feat I liken to running the military. Some of the other hats private music teachers/ studio owners have to wear include:
- receptionist (answer phones)
- bookkeeper
- invoicing 40 - 50 clients monthly (ok, some of you I know have 100 clients)
- collecting payments from 40 - 50 clients monthly and quarterly
- paying bills
- managing 2 - 3 employees
- managing student schedule for 40-50 students
- managing teacher schedules
- cleaning and maintaining studio and studio equipment
- planning recitals and annual calendar
- organizing Guild auditions and 20-ish individualized Guild programs
- interviewing new students/ placing new students with teachers
- writing and re-writing policies
- calculating rates and rate increases
- enforcing policies with sometimes difficult clients
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. At some point, I realized I just didn't want the headache of running a business anymore, even though it was successful through a major recession. Dealing with the occasional financial dispute or argument with a client, while infrequent, caused a very unhealthy level of stress -- stress that I didn't need. I am in the season of being a mom, and I needed something more relaxing and fun. Despite my success, I was willing to let go and make room for something new. I was committed to making more room for my kids in my life. And now, I have that. I am just going to be a weekend musician. Weekdays will be for my kids. I get them on the school bus in the morning and meet them at the bus stop in the afternoon. We have family dinners 4 nights a week, instead of 1 or 2. I spend more time with my kids that I ever used to. Not only has this changed my life, but it's changed their lives -- all for the better!
I will continue to blog, but I have changed the name of this blog to describe it better.
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