payment policies

[m1469]

Currnetly I charge my students prepayment for an entire month.  As my policies are now, however, I do not require payment (or have never before specified otherwise) for when students themselves (and families) take trips but I am still teaching during that time.  So, if they are gone for one week out of a month (or two, or three..) that I am teaching, I get my pay cut.  

I want to change this.   This is how I want for it to be...

I take two weeks off for winter holidays, and one week off in spring.  I teach through the summer, 2 months, during which time a separate policy may apply.

I would like to state that during the regular months of service, I require payments in full for each month, except for the times that I myself plan to be "gone".  Otherwise, all students are expected to pay in full for each month whether they themselves will be here or not (on their own account).  In other words... they must still pay me for all of the time during which I consider my studio open for business, whether they are here or not.

Is this fair?

Thanks,

m1469

[bizgirl]

I don't think it is fair to charge if they notify you in advance of the lessons they will miss.  If they had to pay for two weeks of lessons they were going to miss they might just say 'We'll take the whole month off" and then you wouldn't get paid at all. This isn't good for you OR your students.

Send out a letter clearly stating your policy, basically everything you just said, and say that you must be given a week or two advance notice if a student is going to miss a lesson.  State that if you do not receive notice however many weeks in advance they will be charged for the lesson.

[aisling_7]

The way I've seen another teacher handle this is have a swap list.  They can either arrange a makeup or pay for a missed class.  This teacher refers to her fees as "tuition."

Jackie

[pianoannie]

Absolutely that's fair!  It's not like you can just put someone else in that spot while they're gone.  Each student is paying not only for their instruction from you, but also for that TIME SLOT that you reserve exclusively for him/her.  My students pay by the semester actually (much like a student at a private school would pay).  If a student misses some days of school, the parent doesn't expect to get some of the tuition back!
Teaching piano is our business, our income, and I think it is appropriate that we have a reliable, unchanging income!
BTW, to address the issue someone raised about perhaps the student would just take the whole month off and pay nothing at all-----if one of my students told me he was taking a month off, he would know that I would fill his spot with a new student, and he would return to my waiting list.
If I have time later I'll post some of the wording of my specific policy about this.

[bernhard]

Pianoannie is right onthe spot.

Here are a few more thoughts on this subject:

In my humble opinion, you are approaching this problem the wrong way. The question is not one of fairness. Fairness does not really enter the equation (partly because who are we to judge what is and what is not fair, and partly because of: fairness to whom?).

This is how I go about setting a price for my services:

I ask myself two simple questions:

1.      How many hours do I want to work per week?

2.      How much money do I need to live a comfortable and dignified existence (or if you want to word it in another way: How much money do I need in order not to be resentful with my lot in life?)

Answer these two questions honestly, and your hourly price becomes a question of simple maths.

Here is an (hypothetical) example:

1.      You want to work 20 hours per week.
2.      You will live happily on US$ 5000 per month.

Then you need to charge US$ 60 per hour. (I rounded it).

Now let us suppose that the realistic market price in your area for piano lessons is US$ 20 per hour. If you asked $60, you will be out of the market and have no students. If so, you have three choices:

1.      Reconsider how many hours you are willing to work per week. Would you prepared to work 60 hours per week instead of 20 ?

2.      Reconsider how much money per month would make you happy. Would you be happy making $1600/ month?

3.      Reconsider your professional choice: would you be happy to go into a profession with a better payment rate than piano lessons?

That is pretty much it. Fairness or unfairness does not enter the equation at all. By the way, the same reasoning applies to any paid activity.

Now for the matter of holidays, travelling and so on. This is what I do:

1.      Payment is per month, in advance, all months of the year.

2.      My policy explains very clearly that all months must be paid. I do not do lessons, I do courses. I expect commitment. If parents want to pay per lesson, that is fine, but then there are 3 consequences:
a.      I cannot guarantee a time slot, so lessons must be arranged and a slot must be reserved one month in advance (payment for the lesson must be made at the time of reservation).
b.      Rates for single lessons are 5 times the rate for a course lesson. This means that the student will be paying for one lesson more than what he pays per month.
c.      A student coming for isolated lessons does not have any of the benefits of regular students (there are a lot of benefits). The student comes, has the lesson and goes home, and that is it.

3.      Every month is paid because the total yearly cost is spread through 12 months. So it does not matter if the month has 4 or 5 weeks.

4.      The student has the right to 53 lessons in a year (the year has 52 weeks). If the student misses one or several lessons for whatever reasons, the monthly payment still stands. However I will make up any missed lessons. Likewise, if I cannot give a lesson for whatever reason, the payment still is due, and I will make up the lesson.

5.      I take one month holiday during the year. I make this holiday coincide with the student’s holidays. Payment is still due during that month. During the year every student has a compulsory one week intensive course with five daily one hour lessons. This intensive week makes up for the four lessons missed during holidays. This intensive course can be taken at any convenient week during the year. Since there is one extra lesson, this explains why there are 53 one hour lessons during the year, rather than 52.

6.      There are no cancellations. If a lesson is cancelled it must be made up.

7.      The whole point is simple: payment is due every month no matter what happens.

This is roughly how things are at the moment. I reserve myself the right to change my policy (and have done so in the past). At the moment I am very satisfied how things are working out. Perhaps the most important result of this policy was that it selected the students. There are always people prepared to take you for a ride if you will let them. You are always better of without that sort of student. They are the ones who squirm when they see this sort of policy. The nice, honest, appreciative students, never bat an eyelid. They see straightaway that there is nothing unreasonable about such a policy. These are the students you want.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[nick]

My policy is I require a week notice for a makeup, monthly fee in advance, and no makeup for major holidays. Simple.

Nick

[pianoannie]

I told you a couple days a go I would post what my policy statement says in regard to this.  Here it is:

Missed Lessons:
Enrollment in lessons is a purchase of teacher and studio time, reserved exclusively for your child.  Since the time passes whether the student uses it or not, a lesson missed is time lost.  Therefore, I do not give tuition adjustments or make-up lessons on my days off.  Occasionally I am able to reschedule a lesson during another absent student's time slot, but this cannot be guaranteed.  I do offer a "swap list" that you may use for an unavoidable conflict.  I request a phone call for all absences, as another student may be able to benefit from that available teaching time.
>>>
btw, you mentioned not charging for weeks that you take off, which makes sense.  I think the best way to handle your own scheduled days off is to plan out your entire teaching year (perhaps excluding summer if you want to handle that differently), count how many lessons will be given from, say Sept to May, then calculate a monthly payment by taking the total cost for the 9 months, divided by 9.  In other words, every payment is the same, whether there are 2 or 4 or 5 lessons that month.  You'll find that this reduces the problem of parents expecting fee adjustments for their children's missed lessons.
Better yet, offer a "discount" for yearly or semester payments.  I put "discount" in quotes, because when I started doing this, my "discounted" semester fee was actually what I wanted to earn anyway; at that point I added 15% to the monthly fee.  The first year all but 2 families chose semester payments; by the second year, all chose the semester payment.
The more you can set your fees as a tuition for ongoing instruction, and less as an hourly wage, the more professional you come across (imo) and the fewer hassles about wanting refunds.
Can you imagine school teachers thinking of their salary in terms of an "hourly wage"?  It doesn't make sense for them, nor for us, considering all the work we do outside of lesson time.

[m1469]

Thank you VERY much!  I appreciate your replies and suggestions, and I have not been ignoring your posts, but thinking about them.  I wish I could borrow the confidence you have had in setting up your policies.

I am surely taking your responses to heart, and I am going to sit down and sincerely try to write out what I want to be doing based on your help.

I will have a couple of questions, but I can't calm my thoughts down enough to write them out at the moment and I need to re-read some stuff to make sure I am fully grasping.

Thank you very much,

m1469

[pianoannie]

 I wish I could borrow the confidence you have had in setting up your policies.

I don't know about other teachers, but I certainly didn't have the confidence to be this firm in my policies when I started out.  And I'm not sure I would have gotten very many students, if as a brand new teacher,  I expected parents to commit to and pay for an entire semester.  But as my experience and reputation grew, and parents developed trust and respect for me, and knew they wanted their children to stay with me long-term.

And as far as make-up lessons, honestly, when I started out teaching I only had 3 students my first semester.  Doing make-ups really wasn't a very big deal then. But by the time I got to 25 to 30 students, offering make-ups became a nightmare.

[keyofc]

I offer one makeup lesson per month.
and write, "I am able to offer one makeup lesson per month."

I just recently had a recital which cost me hundreds of dollars by not charging for it.
Even though I had a group lesson prior to that ( it was in everyone's best interest to have it) all of the money I made and more went to the costs of recitals.

I am planning on changing my policy next year.  I too would like to take off two weeks in December and not take a cut.  I will charge for the recital and give them an extra week off.  As for the last week, I'm not sure how I'll work that one out,  But since the group  lesson was very effective and helped put peer pressure on each other for practicing for the recital, I'm thinking about doing that as well the month of the recital.
They will each benefit a lot from it and have a couple of weeks off.  I think it is very fair for everyone.
  I'm not really make any more money - mainly I won't be losing a lot.   
I would never charge for Christmas week or for someones vacation.  I just don't feel right about that.  But if I have the group lesson and the recital and charged for a regular lesson - no one would be shorted.
I worked so hard this time, and I have a couple of students that are only paying me for half of the month since they are taking off.  All  of the extra hours I worked this month were not regarded.  Well, you learn something every day and every first endeavor.

[m1469]

I am planning on changing my policy next year.  I too would like to take off two weeks in December and not take a cut. 

I would never charge for Christmas week or for someones vacation.  I just don't feel right about that.  But if I have the group lesson and the recital and charged for a regular lesson - no one would be shorted.

These two statements seem a bit contradictory to me.  Sure, one should not charge for time that is not committed, but should indeed charge for time that is.  For example, I take exactly the amount of weeks off during the year as there are 5 week months.  I now-a-days charge the same rate (the equivalent of 4 weeks per month) each month --for 10 out of 12 months-- because I have done the math and it evens out in the end no matter what day(s) they are on.

As far as them being gone and on vacation, the bottom line is that they are expecting that spot in your studio.  If student "A" is gone for a month and not paying, but then student "B" comes along wanting that time slot (and is willing to pay you for it), you would lose money because you are still committing that time to student "A". 

They should pay you for the time you commit to them.


m1469

[keyofc]

What do you think is contradictory about what I said?   I understand we differ on opinions about vacations - but why do you think I'm contradicitng myself?

[m1469]

What do you think is contradictory about what I said?   I understand we differ on opinions about vacations - but why do you think I'm contradicitng myself?

Well, I will admit to not understand exactly what you are saying in the second part that I quoted, but to begin with you have said that you would like to take 2 weeks off without taking a cut in pay, but then that you would never charge for vacations.  So, it seems contradictory to me, but perhaps I am not understanding correctly.


m1469 

[lagin]

I'm in a bit of a rush, so I didn't read the whole thread, but I do post - dated cheques, five at a time = 2 semesters.  They get two sick days each, per semester, which gives them a credit for the next semester.  I might change this though, we'll see if it's abused or not.  They need to give me 24 hours notice to use a credit though.  Post dated cheques works really well, because I only have to chase them down 2x a year.  And the deal is, the semester starts on the same date for every one, and no lessons until I have my money so, "Please pay your tuition on time, to avoid being charged for lessons that are not used."

My 2 cents
 

[whynot]

I have a studio that is unusually flexible.  I perform a lot, including events that happen on (very) short notice that I want to do but can't permanently plan lessons around, because I just don't know about them soon enough.  If that makes sense.  So my policy is that they will understand my changes, and I will understand theirs, and we all make sure the student has consistent lessons--it's rare that weeks are skipped, we usually just re-schedule.  I don't think anyone has ever abused this, maybe one person over the years.  I get called about any conflicts as soon as they are known, and since we reschedule in the same week, my pay is quite consistent.  But this is definitely is not for everyone--I'm not trying to sell anyone on my style, because it would be aggravating for someone who is naturally very organized, or has tons of students.  Just wanted to join the conversation.   

[cora]

I think it's good to have strict policies outlined. But people like to be dealt with individually. So I always tailor my respones to them based on such factors as how good they've been to me over the years, how much money they earn, how solicitous they are on the phone, and the particular reason for an absence. If they try to get me to makeup a lesson that was cancelled on too short notice, I will tell them, "This is awfully short notice. Let's just let this one go. I'll see you next week at the regular time." Or sometimes I offer to have them come in within one or two days, but I won't mark the makeup down for some future point. I also request that make-ups be done within three weeks. If they can't fit it in, then I assume it's not all that important to them anyways and I drop it.

But I always remember how I felt when I still had to pay for a lesson that I had to miss because I couldn't sleep all night, partially because I was nervous about the lesson. It hurts to waste money. So that's always in my thoughts too.

[lagin]

You couldn't sleep all night because you were nervous about your lesson!
I would have switched to a teacher I face each week then, lol.  My teacher is way to nice to be scary.  Was your teacher really mean or something??

[keyofc]

Hi m1469,
Pretty much what I meant is I work a lot more in the first two weeks.  Since I have my recital at Christmas time and everyone can benefit from having an extra lesson (group lesson) I want to charge for the recital and the group lesson and then take off the last 2 weeks.
Even if I do this though, it's just helpful - not exactly income when you take into consideration the cost of tuning the piano, and the other extras..

keyofc

[oksanapianist]

Hi everyone-

This is an intersting thread. I recently wrote an article about piano teachers and professionalism and published it in a newsletter that I am an editor of - and- basically- clients will not think of and respect you as a professional unless you lay down the law from day one. I have my clients sign a policy with carbons (so that we both keep a copy) that clearly outlines all laws within my studio, including the definition of tuition- a fee that covers a specific time once a week every week just for them. If they miss- they are not getting a make-up- unless- they have made previous arrangements for switching with another student on a swap list. I have my entire client base (62 students) set up in outlook and all business transactions are via email including their tuition bills that are sent out every 6 or 18 weeks from my accounting software. If they pay in 6 week increments- they additionally pay a $10.00 service charge. My clients all have eachother's email and home information and they take care of all of the swapping. I finally have built up my reputation and clientel list to the point that if they don't follow policy- I don't hesitate to fire them as clients. It's a wonderful place to be as I set the rules. Also- I am not just out of college- so maybe that is why I have developed a tougher skin to dealing with clients. Simply put- if you give- they take. Don't let them dictate your business. From experience- they will take advantage of you if they can- don't let them. I sent a letter to a client regarding his perpeptually late payments and he wrote back with an intimidating suggestion that I read the 1978 fair debt collection act (or something of the sort), implying that I am harassing him for money. I merely wrote back that if he doesn't follow due dates and policy- I was going to terminate lessons all together. He never responded- partly because I think I surprised him. If you act confident in what you are doing- people will perceive you as knowing what you are doing. If they see you with your tail between your legs- they will treat you as such. It's all a mind game really. Clinets are clients- they don't care about you- they care about their money. Treat them the same- you care about your time- protect it and insist that they pay for it- if not- boot them out. If anyone wants a pdf version of my policy- write me and I'll send it to you. I think piano teachers need to share and join forces to elevate what people perceive us as.  oksanapianist@yahoo.com

[pianowelsh]

Regarding 'dead'time when students are away for one or two weeks on holdiday etc.  I require notice .BUT upside is that those slots then become available for one off consultation lessons.  If I dont have any free slots full time they audition and go onto a waiting list.  I always give them lots of take away stuff at consultations so that if they have to wait OR if they decide to go to another teacher they have plenty to work with in the meantime and get the foundations laid.  I currently have a sytem where people pay me in 'terms' which are stipulated by them on the contract.  For some students this can be a full school term £££ for others it will be once a month and coincide with pay days still £££ for others who i know struggle to afford lessons it can be as short as 2wks per term which is essentiallly just paying for the lesson ahead In someways this is a bit complicated in terms of administration as everyone is on a different contract BUT you know where your gaps come much better and if a student is really giving you grief or payment is not forth coming your termintion period can be very short and you can look for a replacement Quickly.