Tannersville 'paint and sip' studio joins popular trend

Artistry is just part of the experience, although a big part, at Merlot ’n’ Picasso in Tannersville.The painting and wine sipping destination opened at 246 Stadden Road, Peddlers Village off Route 611 in mid June of last year and has helped aspiring artists create their own works in a unique, relaxing setting.Co-owners, Naira Kasparian and Veronica Simpson, met when interviewing for the same position a while back.“We both had [...]

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Deeds done

Deeds done

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Pocono Home & Outdoor Living Show coming to Kalahari

The Pocono Builders Association's Greater Pocono Home & Outdoor Living Show continues to grow in its more than 20 years and this year, the show to accommodate 132 vendor booths will take place March 19 and 20 at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Mount Pocono. If you are looking to retire in place and update your home, do a whole house remodel to accommodate a growing family, or build the custom home of your dreams, the largest home show in the northeast [...]

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Giant Food Store rolling out 'Free from' organic line

Giant Food Stores, with a location in Bartonsville, and Martin's Food Markets are launching Nature’s Promise “Free from” products.The Giant store in Bartonsville in recent months enlarged its organic foods section in response to customer demand. Since being introduced in 2004, Nature’s Promise products have been a familiar, affordable favorite of Giant and Martin's customers, especially the USDA certified organic products. As part of a brand [...]

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New 'paint and sip' studio joins popular trend

Artistry is just part of the experience, although a big part, at Merlot ’n’ Picasso in Tannersville.The painting and wine sipping destination opened at 246 Stadden Road, Peddlers Village off Route 611 in mid June of last year and has helped aspiring artists create their own works in a unique, relaxing setting.Co-owners, Naira Kasparian and Veronica Simpson, met when interviewing for the same position a while back.“We both had [...]

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Under Pressure: The Optimal 50 Strategy

In a given week, the only real “unstructured” time that I have is the hour or two that I set aside for “family time” each day. It’s simply a block of time that I set aside most days – usually from about 3:30 PM to about 5:00 PM on weekdays and a longer block on weekends – where I can largely do whatever I want, provided that I’m spending it with my family.

Most of those days, I spend that time doing something with the children. If they have homework, I help them with it; if it’s sustained silent reading, I’ll usually crack a book and read with them at the same time. If there’s nothing going on, we’ll find something to do. In recent days, we played Minecraft together on a few different computers, played a board game called Pandemic, painted some miniatures, wrote short stories, had an hour’s worth of “read aloud” time that caused me to start sounding hoarse by the end of it, and made smoothies. Today, actually, we’re going to make soft pretzels together.

Most of the rest of the time in my life is pretty structured. I spend most of the day prior to about 3:30 PM working, and that’s typically pretty focused time. I do sometimes “wander” a bit when I’m trying to brainstorm some ideas or when I’m suffering from a touch of writer’s block, but most of my workday is spent researching, writing, editing, or dealing with social media or emails (the latter of which I try my best to minimize, though I do love reading them). I devote an hour each day to focused reading as well.

After 5:00, most days involve evening activities for the family. Everyone but me is in a variety of taekwondo classes for various levels, so I’m seemingly taking someone to taekwondo practice or watching a young child while someone else goes to taekwondo practice virtually every night. There are also some seasonal sports that our children are into – mostly soccer.

I’m also involved in a few community groups myself. Some of them meet weekly. Other ones meet on a monthly basis. This eats up quite a few evenings.

There’s meal prep, basic housecleaning, bedtime routines, laundry, and other chores that seem to fill in most of the remaining gaps. These, along with special events that seem to happen every other week at least, fill in the time on the weekends.

The end result of all of this is that I don’t have a whole lot of unstructured time in my life. My unstructured time is basically a block of “family time,” which is largely spent with the children, and I usually spend some time with my wife just before bed when we’re both pretty tired from a very long day.

This is a pretty common story for people my age. I am far from alone in feeling this way, judging by the stories and life situations of many of my friends who are close to me in age.

The real problem is that this kind of life situation creates a kind of “pressure” after a while, a sense of life unfulfilled and many things left undone. I absolutely feel it from time to time. I have so many things I want to be doing with my time and yet I often feel like I never have nearly enough time to do it.

There are many different ways of dealing with this pressure. I’ve come to believe that the way many adults in the “sandwich generation” (those with elderly parents, children, and a burgeoning career) deal with this pressure is deeply connected to the kind of success that they’ll have throughout the rest of their lives.

Let’s walk through some of the ways of dealing with this kind of pressure.

One common way of dealing with this pressure is through buying luxury goods that serve to make the routine slightly more enjoyable. A luxury car makes the commute nicer. A luxury home makes the hours spent at home a little more pleasant. Beautiful home decor adds more visual appeal to a room.

There are two key problems with this approach. One, it’s effectively like putting paint on a rotten cabinet. You make it look more appealing, but it’s still the same old situation. It’s still unstable – in fact, it might even be a bit more unstable behind the veneer. It might change the surface a little, but it doesn’t change the key problems underneath.

Two, this is a very expensive paint. Doing this sets back all of your long-term life goals. It also can add stress to your day-to-day life, especially if you’re also carrying significant debt. You can begin to feel very handcuffed to your job, leaving you feeling like you’re constantly walking a professional tightrope without a net.

Another way is through “escape.” Many people adopt the “working for the weekend” perspective at work, which results in simply “suffering” through the week and making the weekend or the vacation time the focus of everything you do.

The problem here is that it becomes very hard to financially get ahead when you don’t put at least some focus on your career. If you spend your hours at work daydreaming about the weekend and making plans for all of the fun stuff you’re going to do, you’re not focusing on the task at hand and you’re letting other people overtake you at work.

Another problem presented by the “escape” strategy is that it can often be pretty expensive. Most (though not all) avenues of “escape” come with some level of significant cost. This ties into the challenge expressed above, in that you’re left in a situation where you’re spending most (if not all) of what you earn and not building for the future, leaving you handcuffed to your job and likely feeling some additional stress and resentment as a result.

Yet another way is through career obsession. Some people do the opposite of “working for the weekend” and instead focus almost all of their spare energy and time on their career. This often ends up gobbling up most (if not all) of their spare time. Their social network is career-oriented, their hobbies are career-oriented… their life is career-oriented.

While this is better than some of the other options if you truly love your career, it creates a pretty empty life if you ever hit the end of the road in that career path. Your hobbies and much of your social network vanishes along with that career, putting you in a pretty rough place. I’ve watched many people who were very career-focused reach a point of retirement (whether by choice or by force) and then simply have nothing with which to fill their days.

My preferred strategy is what I call the “optimal 50″ strategy. It’s right in line with the theme of financial independence that I’ve long talked about on The Simple Dollar.

My goal is to simply walk away from working for a living somewhere around age 50, perhaps a few years before then. At that time, most of the pressures in my day to day life will have gone away. My parents, sadly, will have likely passed on by then. My children will be out of the house by then, too.

For the first time in a long time, I’ll have a truly blank slate to do with what I want. I want my 50s and 60s (and hopefully beyond) to be the best decades of my life, one where I can follow whatever interest or passion that I wish without worry of time or money or health. I want to have a healthy pool of friends to associate with and a strong relationship with my children and (eventually) any grandchildren that appear. I want to have a strong standing in many community groups and the opportunity to take on leadership positions in some of them, like perhaps becoming a city councilman or even a mayor or the president of a charity. I want to have the clarity and the time to write a novel or five, even if they’re not particularly commercially viable. I want to be able to load up in a camper with my wife and drive around the country for an entire summer if we feel like it.

That’s a pretty wonderful dream for me. That’s exactly what I want from my life, something that I recognize isn’t exactly possible right now, but something that could be possible in a few years.

However, it requires a few things. It requires me to have plenty of money saved up. It requires me to be in good health. It requires me to have built and sustained a lot of positive relationships – with my family, with my current friends, with new friends, with people in the community.

It requires me to work a bit harder and sacrifice a little now in order to have that wonderful life later when some of the constraints of being in the “sandwich” generation are gone.

The thing is, right now, I’m relatively young. I’m capable of handling a lot of challenges in my life. They just have to be sensible challenges, ones that obviously lead to an “optimal 50.” Here’s how I’m doing that, and how it can work for you.

Making the “Optimal 50″ Strategy Work for You

The entire “Optimal 50″ strategy is centered around doing everything I can now, while I have a lot of energy and determination, to create the best life I can after some of the life pressures fade away with time – namely, ailing parents, maturing children, and financial insecurity. For me, that “target date” is close to the age of fifty – it may be earlier than that or a bit later than that for you.

It starts with a vision.

Create an Optimistic (But Still Realistic) Vision of Your Life at 50 in Great Detail

I’ve mentioned this strategy before as a very useful technique for goal setting. It’s easy. Simply imagine your life as you would like it to be in five, ten, or twenty years, depending on the goals that you’re setting. Don’t imagine someting impossible – don’t envision yourself as a billionaire – but imagine something optimistic.

Don’t just settle on a vision all at once, either. Take your time with it. Think about the details. Who will be a part of your life? What kind of physical shape will you be in? Where will you live? What hobbies will you have? What will you have achieved?

The more details you add, the better, because it is the details that really begin to illustrate the changes you need to make between then and now.

In the end, that’s the purpose of this kind of visioning. Your real goal is to generate a list of things that need to change between your life now and the life that you want.

Address All Aspects of Your Life

Many people, when they walk through an exercise like this one, tend to overemphasize some areas of their life and overlook other areas. Usually, this is fueled by the areas that they happen to be most concerned with at the moment.

I usually point to seven different areas of life that people should seek to find success in. Many of these are deeply interrelated – success in one area will often make success in other areas easier.

Physical success is all about your personal health and fitness. Are you happy with your body shape? Is your weight in a good place? Are you getting regular medical checkups?

Mental success is all about getting your mind in the right place. Are you learning something new every day? Are you able to deal with challenges and changes without breaking down?

Social success means that you have a healthy number of social relationships that you can draw on for companionship, advice, and human connection. Do you have friends that you communicate with regularly? Do you have a small group of close friends that you talk to often? Do you have a large number of acquaintances with which you have a positive relationship? Do you have a relatively small number of people with which you have a negative relationship?

Familial success means that you have strong positive ties with your family, however you might define it. I often use “family” in a bit broader sense as the handful of people with which you have the closest ties, often including people you cohabitate with. Do you have a small group of people that you deeply trust and can reveal your inner thoughts to? Can you maintain long-term positive relationships with those people? Are you a good parent?

Professional success doesn’t mean that you dominate your profession per se, but it does mean that you’re able to maintain a job and have plans for earning more in the future. Do you build good relationships with coworkers and supervisors? Do you treat each day as an opportunity to be successful in the workplace? Do you try to build the skills you need for the next step up the ladder in your career path or in your workplace?

Spiritual success means that you have a peaceful connection between yourself and the world as a whole. You might not know the meaning of life, but you’re at peace with what you do know. Do you have a sense of your place in the world? Do you strive to understand the universe a bit better each day? Do you meditate or pray? Have you laughed today?

Financial success is often the foundation upon which much of these things reside. Do you have the money to do the things you want to do? Are you spending too much on unimportant things? Are you saving for the future?

These questions are intended to direct you to specific things you can do today that will improve your life situation tomorrow. Thinking through questions like this on a daily basis will serve you well in building toward a well-rounded life.

Constantly Ask Yourself Whether the Thing You’re About to Do Makes a Better Life for You at Age 50

While thinking about and planning for things you might actively do to make a better life is a great way to get started and a great way to push yourself to do some good things, it doesn’t always help with one’s day to day choices. For instance, you might be turning over a new leaf at work, but that doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to be flooded with new opportunities.

Most of the work of building a better life isn’t from big new initiatives, it’s from making positive conscious decisions throughout the day on the little things. Whenever you’re faced with a choice or when you’re considering doing something, simply ask yourself which option is more likely to create a better life for you down the road.

The choices are often really simple and small ones. I get a six inch sandwich at the sub shop instead of a foot long. I talk myself out of backing something on Kickstarter. I choose to drink water instead of a soft drink. I go outside and play with my kids instead of getting screen time with them. I eat one less slice of pizza. I intently listen to my child talking instead of drifting off with my own thoughts.

They’re all little choices, sure, but they add up, bit by bit. The important part is that I’m not really sacrificing anything significant to make these positive changes.

Do Something Significant Every Day to Build a Better Long-Term Life

While making those little choices is important, it’s also important to step up and do significant things. It’s not enough just to choose to not eat that piece of pizza. You need to fill your life with bigger conscious choices that play toward the long term.

A great example of this is the choice to exercise. Most of us would rather do something else than exercise. Why not curl up on the couch and watch a television show instead? That sounds much more pleasant.

Yet exercise will benefit you both in the short term and in the long term. You’ll get a better night of sleep that night and feel more energetic the next day. If you do it consistently, you’ll start to see some real health benefits from it, too. You’ll start slowly shedding weight and feel a much more consistent energy boost. In short, you’ll feel like a new person, and that will sustain as long as you keep making that choice.

There are lots of significant things you can do to improve your life each day, depending on what your personal goals are and what your vision for the future looks like. Dedicate an hour to reading something challenging each day. Do something besides watching television with your spouse. Play a few games with your kids and focus on them instead of just thinking about other things to do. Volunteer for a tricky task at work and follow through on it. Go through your possessions and sell off some things. Sign up for your 401(k) plan. Bear down on a major project at work. Stop by and visit a friend that’s struggling and be in the moment with that friend.

Do something notable each day that forms a building block for the future you want. You’ll never regret it.

What I find when I do this in my own life is that I end up feeling incredibly satisfied and happy with myself at the end of a day where I focused more on the long term. When I spend a day exercising, eating well, spending very little money, working hard at my job tasks, building relationships with people, and building skills, I feel like that day was a great day. When I spend a day goofing off, blowing money on forgettable stuff, and wasting a bunch of time, I usually go to bed feeling down on myself. This, of course, is a mix of simply making small positive choices as well as choosing bigger things to do each day.

So, for me, the reward for working for the future often shows up that very day. I go to bed feeling tired, but it’s a good tired, the kind of tired that comes at the end of a day of doing something really worthwhile. That’s actually a pretty great reward. I end up sleeping like a rock and wake up the next day feeling really refreshed.

Learn to Deal with Impatience and Jealousy

I find that there are two big enemies to this kind of life strategy. The first enemy is impatience. There are moments when I want the big changes in my life now rather than later. I feel like I should exercise a few times and be in great shape and when that doesn’t happen, I get frustrated. I feel like I should make a few good financial moves and be in great financial shape and when that doesn’t happen, I get frustrated. You get the idea.

The other enemy is jealousy. I begin to convince myself that I “deserve” some relatively meaningless pleasure, something that theoretically makes my life nicer but is honestly forgotten pretty quickly. I begin to feel jealous of the things that other people have.

How do I battle these feelings?

For impatience, I look back and see where I started, then compare that to where I’m at right now. I might not be at my goal yet, but I am definitely at a far better place than where I started. If I compare my current situation to where I was even five years ago, I’m better off in almost every aspect of my life. Am I where I want to be? No. Am I in a better place? Absolutely, and I got there because I made the everyday choices.

For jealousy, I practice social indifference. To put it simply, I make a conscious effort to expose myself less and less to what other people are doing and what they might want. The social cues delivered to me by all forms of media, from print media to television to social media, point my life in directions that I generally don’t like, so I simply make a conscious effort to scale back my use of media whenever I start to feel jealous.

Those strategies go a long way toward keeping me focused on what’s important to me without falling into the twin traps of impatience and jealousy.

Final Thoughts

This “optimal 50″ strategy has been the guiding focus of my efforts for quite a while now, with some very strong success in some areas (financial, for one) and some positive (but not as overwhelming) results in others.

Overall, however, I can see my life growing in a direction that makes me genuinely excited for the future in almost every aspect of my life. I can’t wait to see what’s coming up and I’m going to be ready for it.

The post Under Pressure: The Optimal 50 Strategy appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Earn Money as a Human Lab Rat

When I was in college, I was always on the lookout for easy ways to make money. While some of my friends showed up to school before the semester started and made a killing prepping and cleaning dorm rooms, I scoured job boards looking for less intensive activities.

But my lazy, 19-year-old self wasn’t interested in most postings. I once sunk so low as to take down the number of a company promising to pay me “5,000 per month while sitting at home all day!” It was only after I got back to my dorm, excited to start getting rich, that it dawned on me that it must be a scam. I definitely sat at home all day, but I made zero dollars. 

Thankfully, a friend tipped me off to a great way to make side income: Being a human guinea pig. I was familiar with this concept, as my brother had once received hundreds of dollars for donating bone marrow. It turns out that you don’t have to donate bodily fluids to get paid to be a part of a research project. A much less invasive option involves signing up to participate in the psychology and business school studies run by a local university or research facility.

From my experience, you can make between $15 and $40 for an hour of your time. The first step is to locate a suitable study. This is surprisingly simple. It turns out there are a lot of curious researchers out there, and they are dying to find participants for their experiments. Because I was spending 99% of my time on Harvard’s campus, it made sense for me to take part in studies run by Harvard University. 

My friend sent me the links to their Psychology Study Pool and the Harvard Business School Computer Lab for Experimental Research (both of which are currently accepting new participants). I signed up, and within minutes I was presented with options to make money by showing up and taking part in experiments.

The great thing is, you don’t have to be a student to participate. For the vast majority of the studies, the only requirements are that you be 18 years or older and know how to use a computer. However, don’t get excited thinking that you’re going to enjoy all of your experiences.

For my first study, I had to stare at a blank computer screen and click my mouse every time a green square appeared on the black background. So, I sat there for an hour as different colored squares appeared on the screen. When a green one appeared, I clicked. It was boring, and I still have no idea what they were studying, but I got paid 15 bucks to essentially play a video game for an hour. It was the worst video game of all time, but hey, I got paid. 

Photo: Al Ibrahim

Thankfully, not all of the studies were that dull. Some of them not only generated a good bit of walking around money, they also taught me important life lessons. This was definitely the case with a business school study I participated in my junior year.

The goal was to solve as many simple multiplication problems as I could in one minute. There would be several rounds of questions. I was in a group of about 30 people, and we all sat in front of computers, chomping at the bit. The more answers we got correct, the more money we were to receive at the end of the study. I’m a competitive guy by nature, so this was right up my alley.

The clock started, and the problems began appearing on my screen. I typed in the answers with lightning speed. Three times five? Seven times eight? Are you kidding? I was knocking them down like Steph Curry shooting in warmups. Twelve times eight? I can do that in my sleep.

You know that scene in any movie about a math genius? Where they fill up a white board with their equations in a semi-manic state, because the knowledge is veritably flowing out of them and can’t be contained? Turns out you can feel that way, too — when the problems you’re solving only require a third-grade education. 

After the minute was up, the program prompted us to select how well we thought we performed in relation to the rest of the participants in the room. The options were top third, middle third, or bottom third. If we correctly selected our tier, we earned bonus money for that round. You can probably guess what I put. If I wasn’t among the top third after that masterful performance, the sky wasn’t blue. 

After making the selection, the computer told me my actual result: Bottom third. I couldn’t believe it. It had to have been a mistake. Before I could properly process the injustice, the next round had started. More of the same questions, more of the same excellent performance on my part. Once again, it asked me how I did. Once again, I thought I was in the top third. Maybe the system had worked out its glitch and would properly recognize my talent.

The result? Bottom third. I stole a glance around the room. Who were these math wizards I was competing against? I half expected to see 29 mathematics majors proudly displaying their Calculus Club hats, pointing at me and snickering. Nope. Just a bunch of regular Joes, mostly around my age, staring with blank looks at their monitors.

After the next round, I hedged a little. Maybe I was actually middle tier this time. The computer spit back its dismaying result: Bottom tier. Now, not only was my ego sufficiently bruised, my potential earnings from this experiment were dwindling as well.

After three rounds, I accepted my fate. In each of the remaining rounds, I did as well as I could so I got the small bonus for answering questions correctly, but I also acknowledged that I was in the bottom tier. When I went to collect my earnings at the end of the experiment, I felt a look of pity when they paid me out. It was all anonymous, but I felt like they knew. I was the dumbest person there. 

And yet, walking away, the experience felt liberating. It made me realize that you will generally be better off if you accept that you’re not necessarily the smartest person in the room. This would equal less stress and more money in the long run, and I’ve tried to keep that in mind ever since.

Now, there’s also the chance they may have been toying with me. Often the researchers don’t tell you the true ambitions of a study to keep the data unbiased as they manipulate different variables. They could have been studying the effect of negative feedback on future performance, for example. If someone is told they’ve done poorly on a series of questions, even if they actually did well, do they get discouraged and answer fewer questions correctly afterward?

The researchers are not required — nor even allowed, in some cases — to explain the significance of your actions within a given study, even after the fact. That’s what makes the data valuable to them.

While I haven’t done any of these studies in the years since I graduated, the opportunities are there if you live near a major research university. Some quick Googling reveals paid research subject opportunities at NYU in New York City, Northwestern in Chicago, The University of Maryland outside of Washington, D.C., UCLA in Los Angeles, and Texas State in San Marcos, Texas. Craigslist can be a resource as well. A search in the Boston area for “paid research” yielded 197 results.  

Joining even one study per weekend could easily generate an extra $100 per month. To get that kind of money while also occasionally learning a little about human nature is a nice opportunity.

No, it’s not going to earn you “$5,000 a month while sitting at home all day!” But, I once earned $40 for sitting in a classroom for 30 minutes and thinking of as many non-traditional ways to use a brick as I could. There aren’t many jobs that will pay you to do something that simple, so it could be worthwhile to seek them out in your area. 

Okay, fine: You still want to make $5,000 a month for sitting around all day? Well, some more intensive studies pay participants much, much more — but require a far bigger leap of commitment.

Sleep doctors, for example, are often looking to study the sleep habits of healthy people in a controlled environment. As of this writing, Harvard Medical School is seeking healthy nonsmokers aged 18-35 to participate in a 32-day sleep study — in exchange for up to $7,500. A similar, 37-day sleep study for 55- to 70-year-olds pays up to $10,125, while some shorter, 10-day studies pay about $2,000.

Mostly these studies just involve a lot of sitting around and reading, watching movies, performing some basic tests — and, of course, sleeping. The catch? You typically have to live on-site and can’t have contact with the outside world — no phones, no email, no news. You may not even have a clock to know what time it is, since they’re trying to study the nature of our natural sleep patterns in the absence of external cues, such as time of day.

That sounds unbearable to most people, including myself. But if you’re in a pinch for cash, don’t mind unplugging for awhile, and have no job or other impending responsibilities, you could make a pretty giant dent in your student loans in one month — especially if you can sublet your apartment for a month or rent it out on Airbnb.

The post How to Earn Money as a Human Lab Rat appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How This Guy’s Guitar Helps Him Earn $400 a Month on the Side

After being a professional blues and rock player for six years, I was living the blues.

My health forced me to retire from the live circuit after my band had taken on venues like Boston Rock Lounge, Crossroads and Sinkshack.

I didn’t want to stop playing, and my family couldn’t afford to lose the income.

So I switched to teaching.

I hadn’t formally taught before, but I’d shown people some chords after a show.

During peak times, especially vacations, I was giving six to eight hour-long lessons per week — excluding the occasional twice-weekly extra lessons.

Want to do the same? Here’s how to make money giving guitar lessons.

How to Start Teaching Guitar

I started giving hour-long lessons twice a week at $25 per lesson.

Within two months of signing up my first student, I had three more.

I made $400 per month for the first couple of months! Some students returned for extra weekend lessons when they had gigs coming up or needed more help.

You don’t need thousand-dollar equipment to teach; it’s not about what you play. An acoustic or electric guitar with a small amp are more than enough to start giving lessons. If you don’t have gear, borrow some.

Or do what I did: Ask the student if you can use theirs and pass it around.

Showing a student a cool song or riff on their own guitar will make them think, “Wow, my guitar did that? Teach me how!”

If you’re like me and haven’t taught before, visit sites like YouTube and JustinGuitar.net. Study some lessons and take note of how and what they teach.

Offer a free lesson to a friend as practice. Ask them what they thought afterward — you don’t want to disappoint a paying student.

It also helps to provide students with resources. You’ll need folders to file students’ progress, lesson plans for home practice, and pens and notebooks for their own notes.

Guitar and musical theory books, digital song files, guitar picks, extra strings and a tuner also are a great help.

Before sitting down for the first lesson, protect yourself and your students with a contract. This sample will get you started.

Decide What Difficulty to Teach

Which level can you teach at?

Consider both your experience and theirs.

Beginners can be kids who just got their first guitar, old-timers who want to play again or people who just want to learn one song.

Intermediate players have learned the fundamentals and want to go over them again, or have been playing for a while and want to pick up new tricks.

Advanced players usually want to improve their skills, learn new ones or sharpen up their musical theory. Be prepared for them to level up.

For beginners, I kept lessons at hour-long sessions twice a week, but lessons for intermediate and advanced students could run over two hours.

Remember to include short, five-minute breaks during your lessons — even rock stars need a break!

Also, decide which niche or genre you cater to — metal, blues, classic rock or country.

Sometimes students want to learn specifics. They’ll want to learn how to play a certain song or improve their solos.

Students might also need help and advice picking out gear.

How to Find Guitar Students

To get people to know you, advertising is key — so start early.  

Eventually I got business from word-of-mouth, but I started out advertising everywhere.

I got my first three students from several online ads, and they started referring their friends.

Place flyers in music stores, post online ads, print business cards and build a solid web presence. Get on guitar forums, start a Facebook page and a website.

Upload a free lesson to YouTube or guest post for a guitar blog so people can see what you do.

All my advertising was virtually free. I used my existing blog, YouTube, forums and online classifieds.

A Lesson In Guitar Lessons

Decide if you’ll teach in person, via Skype or both.

Each option allows you to spend time with your students, just in different ways.

Skype removes the need for travel, opening up a world of new clients. In addition, Skype lessons let you plug a guitar and microphone directly into your computer for online “conference jams” with students.

You might also need to buy a quality webcam, microphone and a USB-to-guitar interface if you want to teach via Skype.

I always treat the first lesson as an introduction. Each student is different, so get to know them and their ability. Students want to learn, not be overwhelmed.

Tailor lessons for each student and plan ahead so you’re able to provide a progress report and they can see how they’re doing.

For my first lesson, I showed the student (an 11-year-old boy) basic chords (D, A and G) and made him connect them together to form Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising.

When I saw him a week later, he had learned the song — and come up with his own!

His parents were impressed enough to book and pay for six more lessons.

How Much Money Can You Make Teaching Guitar?

When pricing lessons, consider the various costs.

You’ll have costs for travel (distance and gas, if you’re the one traveling), gear (setting up, restringing and maintaining your guitar equipment), resources (notebooks, folders, tuners, microphones, webcams and strings) and time (lesson length, preparation and travel time).

Look at what other teachers are doing: What makes it work?

Having more experience also lets you charge more.

As a guitar teacher, you can write your own tests and get accredited with the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music (ABRSM) or Rockschool. This allows you to send your students to take graded exams.

Decide how and when you expect payment: Per lesson or per week? Remember to create invoices for your payments.

Consider last-minute cancellations as you plan your budget and schedule: Cars break dow, and students (or teachers!) get the flu. Will you charge a cancellation fee, refund or reschedule?

To hook new clients, offer a discounted or free first lesson. Offer special discounted packages like “book 12 lessons and only pay for eight!”

Earn more by selling students guitars or guitar-related items like cables, strings, winders, tuners, guitar books, music stands and cases. Some stores will give you discounts for bulk purchases, and nothing beats a student’s smile when you help match them up with their perfect guitar!

Want to Give Mobile Guitar Lessons?

Use these apps to make virtual learning and teaching easier:

• PitchLab Guitar Tuner Lite is a portable, accurate and free guitar tuner

• Song Chord Finder will help you find the chords to almost any song. Useful for when a student wants to learn a specific song

• Smart Voice Recorder can record your student’s progress

• Skype for iOS and Android makes it easy to teach on the move

• YouTube is an endless resource for music and lessons in a pinch

• Ultimate-Guitar Tabs & Chords is great for looking up tabs, songs and lessons

I still teach with Skype when I’m not writing, and I plan to offer a group class in songwriting and blues in the future, as well as start working on an album.

No more touring for me, for now, and that’s all right — I’m passing it on.

Your Turn: Will you consider teaching guitar lessons?

Alex J. Coyne is a South African author, freelance journalist and language practitioner. His work has appeared on various blogs and in national and international publications.

The post How This Guy’s Guitar Helps Him Earn $400 a Month on the Side appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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