Micro Biz Idea:Piano lessons

One great micro business idea is giving piano lessons.

My daughter, Emily taught piano for three years while in high school. She had up to 8 students at one time and was turning away more students, as I write about in my book Starting a Micro Business. She charged $8 for a half-hour lessons. That’s about half what other piano teachers charged, but double what she could make working at the mall!

Emily could have benefited from this book, Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business by Marcia Washburn.

Here’s my review of the book,

I read Marcia’s book with interest because my daughter gave piano lessons when she was a teenager and, as a CPA, I advise small business owners in running a successful business. In Talent to Treasure Marcia covers the technical aspects of teaching piano, such as practicing techniques, sight reading, and recitals.

Additionally, she also covers many business aspects including how to find students and how much to charge. She includes a series of questions which I consider to be a business plan. By answering questions such as ‘when will you teach?’ and ‘how will you handle childcare?’ Marcia helps a potential teacher avoid pitfalls and problems. Marcia generously shares her experiences in many areas so the reader can learn from her and launch a successful business teaching piano.

The book is well done, enjoyable to read and full of helpful information. I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to start a business teaching piano.

Marcia shared a digital copy of Talent to Treasure with me, but I received no other payments or commissions for reviewing this book.

If you are considering starting a micro business offering piano lessons (or any music lessons), you’ll find Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business very helpful.

Starting a Micro Business can help you to millions

A recent review of  Starting a Micro Business:


When my son started his teen business—which he eventually sold in a million dollar deal—he had little knowledge about how to structure it and handle the tax side.

It was Carol Topp who helped him learn how to set up his business, keep records, plan for future growth, and put money away for retirement. Starting a Micro Business is thorough and easy to understand.

It should be required reading for all high school entrepreneur and business classes, as well as for young adults thinking about starting their own business.

Chris Santoro
Madeira, Ohio

Chris’s son, Phil, was one of my inspirations to write the Micro Business for Teens book series. While you may never get a million dollar offer for your business like Phil did, you can still call yourself an entrepreneur!

See what Chris is talking about. Order the book Starting a Micro Business today.

Print $9.95

Ebook (immediate download as a pdf) $9.95

Chik-Fil-A Owner: Keeping Priorities Straight

Have you heard  Chik-Fil-A owner’s Truett Cathy’s success story?  It’s very inspirational, especially to a teenage micro business.  Mr Cathy closes his business on Sundays in order to keep his priorities in place. You too may need to place the demands of your micro business aside in order to keep your other priorities like homework, family, faith and friends straight.

“I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my  principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to   close on Sunday.  Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and  of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business.”

Chick-fil-A is the only major fast-food restaurant chain to be closed on Sundays, one of the busiest days of the week in the restaurant business. Despite being closed on Sundays, Truett Cathy has led Chick-fil-A on an unparalleled record of 38 consecutive years of sales increases, with its core free-standing restaurants achieving higher sales per unit in six days (with shorter operating hours) than most major chains in the industry.

Read more about Mr Cathy’s business principles here:

Five Step Recipe for Business for Success

If he could do it, then you can do it too!

Don’t sacrifice the important things like faith and family just to make a buck!

Really Cool Business Cards

Most teenage micro businesses need a business card to hand out to potential customers.

One of the best sources for cheap (or even free if you use of of their stock designs and don’t mind their ad on the back of the card) business cards is Vistaprint.com. They are an on-line printer and can put your name and logo on anything. I’ve used them for my business cards, letterhead, banners and more. I’ve been 100% satisfied with Vistaprint.com

I also found a designer that has some gorgeous designs for business cards. She designed a really cool card for babysitters.

She has an entire teen entrepreneur series of business cards.

Go to the Greek Cookie’s website to see her other  business card designs.

Free ebook on creating a business plan

Beginning this Friday, October 1, 2010, my book, Starting a Micro Business will be featured on Homeschool Freebie of the day.

I am offering a free ebook which is a chapter excerpt from my book Starting a Micro Business on writing a business plan. The ebook is titled Creating a Business Plan.

Free ebook available starting  Friday Oct 1, 2010
Does your teenager (or you, their parent) want to earn some money by starting a micro business? Start by creating a business plan. A business plan will help you anticipate anything that might go wrong. By thinking through issues like who will buy your product and how to reach them, you will save time and money as well as avoid frustration.
This ebook, Starting a Micro Business: Creating a Business Plan, is an excerpt from the Micro Business for Teen book series. It will help you put your thoughts on paper and covers the important issues in starting a micro business such as marketing, your potential customers, your competition, start up costs, pricing and sales.
This is a business plan for a micro business, so you won’t get bogged down in tons of details or fancy financial projections. It is designed for the teenage micro business owner, although it can be helpful to anyone.

“I wish I had seen the systematic business plan template thatyou have in the book when I started my businesses in the past”
-Noah W., homeschool graduate and micro business owner.

How can you get this free ebook? Visit Homeschool Freebie of the Day on Friday October 1, 2010. The offer will be left up all weekend, but not forever, so download your copy as soon as possible!

How to make a website for your business

My friend Nick Tart over at JuniorBiz.com can tell you how to make your own website. He’s offering a free 10 step guide.

With simple strategies and step-by-step videos, we’ll show you how to build your website into a place where you can launch a product, strengthen your service, share your ideas, or even start an online business from the ground up.

Have an Idea1. Have an Idea

Small, big, or kooky.

Purchase Domain and Hosting2. Purchase Domain and Hosting

Where, how, and with coupons.

Get WordPress for Free3. Get WordPress for Free

Set it up right.

Grab a Design4. Grab a Design

Cool site – no coding necessary.

Organize your Site5. Organize your Site

A checklist for settings and structure.

Optimize your Site6. Optimize your Site

With plugins and analytics.

Think Strategy7. Think Strategy

Create the content that your visitors want.

Strike it Big8. Strike it Big

With social media and search engines.

Keep your Visitors9. Keep your Visitors

Capture their info and keep them coming back.

Strike it Rich10. Strike it Rich

The four fool-proof ways to make money online.

I learned how to build my own website, just like Nick did, but rather than tell you how to do it, I’ll just send you to Nick’s site JuniorBiz.com and you can learn from him!

Tax Jujitsu. Would it help business owners?

Robert Reich

Robert Reich, who is now a professor at UC Berkeley used to be Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, has an idea he calls Tax Jujitsu or the Peoples Tax Cut.

Jujitsu: a method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by using the strength and weight of an adversary to disable him.
Here’s the idea:
Democrats should propose eliminating payroll taxes on the first $20,000 of income, and making up the revenue loss by applying payroll taxes to incomes above $250,000. Read all about it here:
I actually like some things about this idea, but here’s my question:

Would that apply to teenagers who own a micro business? In other words, would business owners benefit too, or only people working for an employer?

Business owners (including teenagers) have to pay 15.3% of their profits to Social Security and Medicare (it’s called self-employment tax. Read more about it at TeensAndTaxes.com).

Wouldn’t it be great if a teenager could start a micro business and know it would be self-employment-tax free up to $20,000!

Wow! Now, THAT would stimulate the economy! We’d find kids starting businesses like crazy. Maybe their parents would start a business too! Maybe these businesses would grow and hire employees, putting more people to work.

Or better yet, maybe these businesses would hire owners of other people who own their own business like webmasters, freelancers and independent contractors. This would spread like wildfire and really get the economy back to health!

I can dream can’t I?

Mobile Dance Academy

What a great idea and a great teenage micro business!

Amiya Alexander was only 10 years old when she started a dance studio in a pink school bus!

The Amiya Mobile Dance Academy’s (AMDA) mission is to further the art of dance in an extended cultural community which will provide dance training and community programs for all youth.

Watch her story:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

http://www.amiyasdancebus.com/newsandevents.htm

If she can do this, you could so something like it too! Offer dance lessons from your house or go to a neighbors house and teach what you know!

My book Starting an Micro Business will get you started!

Ten Tech Teenagers & Their Micro Businesses

Need some inspiration? Here are ten teenagers that had brilliant ideas for their micro businesses:

Ten Teen Entrepreneurs To Watch

Kids these days. It seems like they’re writing HTML before they learn how to talk. And a lot of them are starting companies before they graduate from high school.

Here’s a list of some of our favorite teen entrepreneurs.

Jessica Mah, 19, is currently the CEO and Co-Founder behind Indinero, a Mint.com for small businesses. Mah started her first startup at 13. Last year, she founded internshipIN.com, a site to help high school and college kids find internships in their area. Now, at 19, Mah is finishing up her Computer Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as being the CEO of Indinero.

Ashley Qualls, 19, started WhateverLife when she was 14, a site designed to give MySpace users free Myspace layouts and HTML tutorials. She employs both her mom, and her friends who do graphics for her. Qualls started WhateverLife in 2004 as a hobby, and now has turned into a business, with her site getting anywhere from 150,000 to 360,000 daily page views.

(more…)

Don’t feel intimidated by their stories. Remember, you don’t have to invent something new or even launch a website to have a successful micro business.  All you need is to see a need and meet it. That can be as simple as caring for children or as complex as the micro businesses mentioned in the story.

Micro Tips for Micro Businesses:Smile!

Micro Tips for Micro Businesses

Today’s tip: Service with a smile

There are hundreds of books written about customer service and many of them offer tips and “secrets” to serving customers. The only secret is to treat your customers with respect and give them what they paid for. That’s pretty simple, so why are their hundreds of books written about customer service? Because there are hundreds of ways to show respect and to serve a customer.

  • Smile! A smile can really make you seem friendly, warm and caring. Friendly people attract people.
  • Shake hands. Offer your hand when first meeting a potential customer. This might make you feel uncomfortable because teenagers don’t usually shake hands, but watch adults in the business world. They frequently offer their hand when being introduced. Practice on friends or your family if you need to get comfortable shaking hands.
  • Look them in the eye. Making eye contact shows confidence if even you don’t feel confident! Looking directly at someone also is a sign of respect (if you’re not staring!).

I was giving a workshop on teenagers and micro businesses at a homeschool convention when a 12 year old boy came up to me after the program, extended his hand and said, “Hello, I’m Jack. I really liked your presentation.” I was immediately impressed by Jack because he offered his hand to me.  Although he was young and very small in stature, I knew in an instant that this young man would be good at whatever he set his mind.  Adults are very impressed by a handshake and a smile.

Carol Topp, CPA

http://MicroBusinessForTeens.com

Find Micro Business for Teens on Facebook!