Good luck to all of the incoming freshman college students for next fall!  If  your child is about to enter high school, it’s not too early to start planning for college entrance to make sure you have all of the bases covered when senior year comes around!

Piano Teachers…It’s that time of the year…time to complete your taxes as a small business owner!  Being self-employed can be a double-edged sword for most of us.  On one hand, we have the freedom and flexibility to run our studio as we wish, accepting as many or as few students as we want, and working the hours we want to work.  On the other hand, most music teachers do not have a MBA, business experience, or experience in working in a business environment.  First and foremost, we are teachers.  We have the heart of teachers, but we need to have the practicality and good sense of a small business owner also.

These are the best tax tips that I’ve picked up from being self-employed for the past 18 years:

-Use good accounting software to keep track of your business: I prefer Quickbooks for Mac by Intuit. There’s even a discount right now.

The best things about Quickbooks are:

-Email invoicing-Say goodbye to buying stamps to snail-mail your invoices:  I create recurring monthly invoices on Quickbooks and send out the whole group with a click of one button!

-Keep up-to-Date balances for each piano student:  I can pull up a “Customer  Balance Summery” report with one click and see who has a balance that can include monthly tuition, event fees,  late fees, etc.

-Online banking setup: Years ago, I used to go through my bank accounts and enter each item.  With online banking, I can download the monthly bank statements for my bank accounts and credit cards in the Quickbooks .QBO format and easily enter each item with it’s category.  What a time-saver!

-Built-in tax reports: I started out using Quicken for my personal accounting, but soon felt that my business needs outgrew it.  I used Quicken for many years to keep all of my personal accounts separate from my business accounts.  It’s a but of double-duty in dividing up the entries of each account in separate software.  Also, Quickin is phasing out their Mac updates.  However, if you do this throughout the year, it’s a snap to complete your taxes come tax-time.

-Unfortunately, Quickbooks mobile doesn’t work with the Quickbooks for Mac at this time.

-Must-have reports to print out for tax time:

-Profit and Loss report for that tax year end

-Income by Customer Summary

-Income by Customer Detail

-Expenses by Vendor Summary

-Expenses by Vendor Detail.

-Income Tax Summary

-Income Tax Detail

-Keep all of your receipts organized: Each year, I print out labels that I set up for each tax category for my piano studio.  Every month, I file the receipts into each file folder.  Also include your utility statements and bank statements, business licenses, and business liability insurance for that year.  I like to keep my tax records for each year for 8 years.

-Budget and Receipts tracker for iphone: Keep on budget and enter your purchasing as you stand in the check-out line the You Need a Budget app for iphone.  I have been using YNAB  keep on budget and it’s especially helpful in logging cash purchases.  I’m using this app instead of my Quicken account for my personal expenses.

-Easy Mileage Tracker: I always saved figuring out business for last because it was so time consuming.  I found a great new program called Milebug for iphone that I use  keep track of mileage that requires no writing! Just click on the saved preset destinations and click on the current mileage.  Milebug will automatically put in the date and time.   I maintain two piano studios and can deduct the driving mileage to and from these piano studios and also to music teachers meetings, competitions, and events. Sync Milebug with your computer and you can also email reports to yourself as a backup.

-Contributions: Don’t forget to include your contributions to charitable organizations!  You will need to itemize each item and attach it to the receipt from the organization.  You can find valuation guides for Salvation Army and Goodwill.

-Exclusive teaching/storage space: Piano teachers are allowed to deduct a portion of our home that is exclusively used for teaching piano students or storing piano supplies.  This square footage is calculated as a percentage of the total square footage of your home.

-Utilities: The percentage of your studio use is used can be used to calculate utilities that are used for your business at home also, such as electricity, phone, internet, etc.

-Music/teaching equipment: Did you update your studio with a new piano  or new computer this year?  You can depreciate its value over its useful life.

Hire a qualified tax attorney to help with all of your tax needs. I think it’s worth the investment to hire a qualified tax attorney, preferable one with a masters in tax law and is also an attorney who could represent you in court, should you get audited and need to go to court.  The expense of hiring a professional is tax deductible for the next year,  you will have a specialist to ask tax questions throughout the year, and will sleep better knowing your taxes have been properly filed!

-Start a SEP or ROTH IRA retire account! Most piano teachers that teach from home don’t have a built-in retirement account, as you would have from your employer.  It’s important to think about the future and set one up for yourself!  ROTH IRAS are great because you pay taxes before you fund the account, but you won’t have to pay taxes on the account when you withdraw it at retirement!  SEP IRAS are great because your contributions are generally tax deductible.

Time is ticking…April 15th is just around the corner!  Hope that 2011 was a successful and profitable year for everyone!

**The information provided by this web site is only intended to be general summary of information to the public and is not intended to take the place of either the written law or regulations. Before using any of the information supplied on this site, please consult your professional tax adviser.

Tis The Season…for Homemade Holiday Music Ornaments!
The holiday season has approached faster than a student can play the Alla Turca, and the thought of heading to the mall or ordering music gifts online with express shipping would bring out the “Bag Humbug” in any piano teacher!  If you can spare a short trip to your local drug store, an hour to spin your creative artistic web, you can have a unique holiday gift for each student in less time than it takes to spell fortississimo.

Last Year’s Student Gifts…
In previous years, I would get an ice cream gift certificate for each student, which used to cost about $2 per students.  Last year, I found that it’s now difficult to get an ice cream, or a gift certificate for less than $5 per student, since most of the gift cards come prepaid.  If you have a large piano studio of over 30 students, $5 per student may just break your monthly studio budget!  There’s also the issue of all of students from my two piano studios being able to find the same ice cream store nearby.

This Year’s Student Gifts’ Inspiration
This year, as I was decorating our Christmas tree with my family, I was reminiscing about my special collection of piano ornaments that students had given me over my past 18 years of teaching.  There is the collection of the very cool White House ornaments that are fun to learn about, various pianos (one is the size of a thimble, up to larger ceramic grand pianos,) and notes, and instruments of every style and color.   I came up with the idea of making my own music ornaments that the students could bring out yearly, remembering their piano lessons with me long after they were off to college.

Create your Own Music Ornaments!

So let’s get on with it before that mistletoe wilts!

Supplies:  (I found these at Rite Aid Pharmacy)

* Glitter Ornaments (I found them on sale for just $1 for a set of 8 different colors!

* Ornament Hangers Pack of 20 for $1

* Glitter pen  (Around $5.  I like the ones that dry and look puffy.  Get the largest size pens as possible, with the smallest tip for writing)

Just lay out newspaper to protect your table surface, and decorate the ornaments with your favorite music motifs!  I think that the ornaments with a treble clef on one side and an 8th note on the other turned out the best.  Use contrasting colors!  These ornaments can even be given to student that celebrate Hanukkah…just use the light blue balls and gold writing.  Some of my students are hanging them on the rear view mirror to their car to drive around with that musical holiday spirit!

Happy Holidays from Wenjen Piano Studios!

www.wenjenpiano.com

Plan a Holiday Workshop

Every year my piano studio takes a brief diversion from the Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms and everyone chooses a non-classical solo or duet piece for the annual Holiday Workshop.  Students play Christmas pieces, Hanukkah pieces, or rock and roll pieces for our December workshop.  I am always surprised that most of my younger piano students recognize only three or four holiday pieces:   Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Deck the Halls, and of course, Jingle Bells.  Public schools are now so worried about offending anyone from the various religions, that most school holiday programs now feature music and themes that don’t include Christmas or Hanukkah music!  This makes my Holiday Workshop as important as any of my classical piano workshops!

Get everyone involved, including the parents!

During the year, I usually provide two monthly performance workshops a month, with about 25 kids up through middle school into the earlier one, and about 8 high school and adult students into the later one.   I bring my entire studio together for the holiday workshop and encourage students to play shorter pieces for this  75 minute program.  Students  can play solo or duet pieces and if the students or parents play an instrument other than the piano, they can perform on that instrument also!  This is a great time to get the musically inclined parents involved in the fun!  I’ve had entire family ensembles, with some parents playing the triangle or sleigh bells!  This year, one of the parents is going to bring in his mandolin, and my niece that sings like an angel will sing some Les Miserable and Sound of Music songs.

Food Brings Everyone Together

To celebrate the diversity of our piano studio, each family brings a dessert or appetizer from their ethnic background.  We are also going to try something new this year with all of the students:  A three-piano, 5-hands-ensemble of Heart and Soul, with the students rotating from the secondo to primo part, and rotating to the different pianos, in the style of Victor Borge.  It may turn into musical mayhem, but I know that we will get a smile and a laugh from every student and parent as we celebrate the joy of making music together.

Sneak in the Sight Reading

The day after the workshop, the students return to the serious business of preparing for their Certificate of Merit theory, technique, and performance exams.  They probably won’t even realize that they’ve all just worked on two weeks of sight reading with their holiday pieces!

Take the time to help the students celebrate the holidays by learning Christmas or Hanukkah pieces, or even Linus and Lucy!  Pass on the tradition of Christmas Carols and Hanukkah songs so that the younger generations associate the joy of music with the spirit of the holidays.

Here is a link to some of our favorite holiday piano pieces from Wenjen Piano Studios

Enjoy and Happy Holidays from Wenjen Piano Studios!

Info:  http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873337

RSVP:  http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/visionsandvoices/RSVP/reserveGeneral_Multi.php?RSVPEvtCode=132

It’s difficult to get the very young students, from ages 3 to 7, to sit correctly at the piano. While adjudicating, I’ve found that most students sit too close to the piano, too far back on the bench (they should be sitting on the front half of the bench,) are used to having their feet dangling off of the bench(although I’ve seen some pretty creative foot stools created out of phone books,) and are slightly leaning backwards instead of forwards. The students’ posture must begin with their feet being flat on the ground or a flat surface, with the help of a piano foot stool. I’ve always kept a number of foot stools at my disposal while teaching, from a higher, padded foot stool, to a low plastic foot stool that I got a for a few dollar at Ikea. However, the best one that I have found that has withstood time and countless adjustments, is the one from http://www.cpsimports.com/foot_pedal_stool.html I like that students can use both the damper pedal and the una corda pedal correctly with this box.  My students get an early start on the damper pedal with my Musical Journeys piano method and also with the Faber Piano Adventure series.  They love being able to push down their own pedals without having to stand up while playing (which is how most smaller students without foot pedal stools use the damper pedal) or ask their parents to help out!

The older version had a double-latch system, and it looks like the newer one has a roller system that is probably easier for the students to adjust. The other problem with the old foot stool was that there was only one thin strip of padding behind the box, so my piano would get scratched about the pedals. I fixed this by sticking small pads to the back of each metal pedal on the box. It looks like the newer pedal box is now padded on this area.   The sale price is $129.99, way down from the $259.99, which is what I probably paid many years ago!  While $129.99 is still kind of a steep musical investment, rivaling the cost of the best sounding wood metronomes, it has been a tradition for my piano students to either resell or gift their foot stool to another smaller and younger member of my piano studio, when their own toes can finally touch ground.