For a Professional Image, Put Policies in Writing

Date Posted: 07/29/2010 | Category: Billing

Too many music teachers, like other small businesses, don’t take the time to put important policies in writing.  Conducting business on verbal agreements and handshakes may sound quaint and friendly, but it can also lead to mis-communication, frustration, and unhappy customers.

So, to put forth a more professional image and avoid disagreements, it’s best to have your key music lesson policies — in writing.  Be sure to provide each new student (or parent ) a copy when they sign up for their first lesson. These policies might include your:

• Billing procedure
• Enrollment process
• Refund policy
• Cancelation policy
• Lesson Re-scheduling
• Recitals
• Holiday Schedule
• Student referral incentives

If you haven’t yet determined these policies for your music lesson business, you really should invest a few hours to do so.  Don’t worry, you won’t have to draft long, multi-paged legal style documents for each policy.  Most of the above topics can be covered in a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs. So you can probably put all your key policies on just one or two sheets of paper, depending upon how it’s arranged.

The important thing is set the ground rules so your students and / or parents will not be surprised or offended if you remind them about a cancelation fee or late payment fee.  After all…it’s clearly stated —right there in the written policies.