227: Online Music Studio scheduling that ACTUALLY works!

As we approach the back half of the year, it’s so vital to schedule our income generating activities along with all other facets of our business (particularly the growth aspects) so that we reach our goals without stress and sacrifice by the end of the year. Connect with me: https://callwithjaime.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jaimeslutzky/ https://m.me/jaimeslutzky/ Let’s get to it! I like to work backwards and from goals rather than moving forward from a planning perspective. Oftentimes there are a lot of dates that just don't work in the back half of the year ~ such as holidays, vacations, birthdays and days you just don't want to work. Those are immediately blocked off the calendar, go do it now. Then it’s time to map out our initiatives (like a course!) and our established income sources (hello lessons). Get specific on your calendar – know your course launch date and mark it. Know the hours that you’re going to work with students - mark those days and times on your calendar, even if you don’t yet know which student is going to fit into which slot. Once you know your new initiatives, backtrack into those launch dates. Courses will take anywhere from 3 days to 16 - 18 weeks…. This is depending on your level of experience with creating a course and your topic and everything else that goes into it. Think about where you are right now and figure out how long you believe it's going to take you to create that course and then put time on your schedule every week to work on that course. And then insert some buffer time in! We always think we're going to get things done faster or they're going to be easier or that distractions aren't going to happen. So if you're thinking okay for 12 weeks, I'm going to spend four hours a week on this course, maybe you should factor in five hours a week. Or maybe it would be more in line with your style to increase your hours during certain specific weeks to make sure that you hit that goal. When we know when something has to be done, we can back into this. I know that you can do this because you have most likely taken your students to examinations or to recitals or to competitions or to auditions and you have learned how to back them into that goal. By creating a schedule that says I'm free and I'm busy, it allows us the capacity to see what else we can add and to see what systems and processes we need to fix. It also allows us to see kind of where our income generation is. When we do this, we're able to see what else we can add. If you add in all of your students' spots and you realize that you don't have that 4-5 hours every single week to work on your course in order to hit that timeline then what? Are you moving the timeline? Are you adding more hours of work time? How are you going to make that course a reality? It's a serious question. There is so much to do when you are running an online studio and truthfully, there are so many opportunities! Regretfully, I see amazing music teachers, bouncing from this to that to something else. It is not feasible to try and pack your schedule with income generating activities alone. We also want to include on our schedule initiatives to streamlining our systems and processes. And admin time and marketing time and collaboration time and creative time and oh, you know that first thing that we started with time off! (We want to make sure that that doesn't get eroded.) Start with the “regular schedule” of September - December, then figure out how you’re going to tackle summer. Think about when you want income generating activities, marketing activities, systems and processes during the summer… how do you want to get it all in so that you have your goals clearly outlined and available to attain? It is way too easy to sit down at the computer or pick up the phone and just kind of keep on working, creating boundaries, finding boundaries, enforcing boundaries. That's what your schedule also allows you to do. To recap… your schedule is going to be filled in this order: Non-negotiables Existing obligations (student/income generating activities) Business operations & marketing White space New initiatives The other thing about the back half of the year is because summertime is here, It allows us to make sure that we are on track to hit our income goals. If you determine from your existing obligations that you’re $1000 short for each of September through December in order to reach your income goal, the new initiatives and unscheduled time will be spent to build a new revenue stream to bridge (and exceed!) that gap. You have so much flexibility and so much opportunity to experiment in the summer. When the days are longer, people might sign up for something that's earlier in the day, later in the day or at a different time of day than they normally would be able to. Getting creative is the key to success! I want to make sure that you're as successful as you desire – all this by saying yes to scheduling! It allows for everything NEW to take shape. I would love nothing more than to help you bring that product to market. I work with my clients on courses, membership sites, workshops, streamlining their tech, envisioning what’s next and so much more… so book a call with me https://callwithjaime.com and we will determine the right way to create the online successes you crave! It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.