4 Things Music Teachers Need in their Policy Summary

Studio policies aren't sexy.

Music teachers either set their policies once and forget them.

OR, they start teaching without a policy.

Guess what? Music teachers NEED a policy for their music studios.

Why?

How many times have you had to argue with a parent over your tuition policy?

Or the parents that get mad when they want a makeup lesson, and you don't have the time to offer one. These conversations usually lead to conflict, and they're not fun. But that's exactly why music teachers need to have a policy for their studios.

Miss Congeniality said it best, "People care about people who care about themselves."
You want to show parents that you're an actual business.

You want to answer their questions, establish boundaries, and have guidelines to fall back on when you're caught up in the moment and don't know how to handle a certain situation.
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We're going to tell you the basics that every music teacher should have with their studio policies.

1. Every Music Teacher Needs a Written Policy.

You need one. Bottom line. 

It can't just be the policy you've made up in your head either. (Parents will bother and annoy you if they don't understand what the expectation is for make ups, payments, etc!)

It has to be written either on paper or electronically.

This makes you look more professional than those music teachers who don't have studio policies. It also shows your parents that you take music lessons seriously.

2. Music Teachers should make their Policies Easy to Understand.

Your policy for your music studio should be very clear.
Too many words, and your parents are going to be confused or they won't read it at all.
If you confuse people, you lose people.

Music teachers should make their policies less than one page long.
They should be easy to read with bullet points and as little text as possible.

3. Your Policy should be Accessible.

​You want a nice clear system on making sure that the parents in your music studio get the policy when joining. You also want to make sure that they can get back to it easily if they ever need to reference it.

When a student joins, how do the parents get your policy?
Is it printed?
Part of their new student packet?
Is it on your website somewhere?

Make your studio's policy easy to get to!

4. Music Teachers need to Uphold their Policies!

At the end of the day, your policy exists to serve you.

​If you don't stick with it, you're likely going to end up being very frustrated and losing money. So make sure you're sticking to what your policy says. If your policy says that your studio doesn't offer make up lessons, then you should stick with that. If your policy says that there's a charge if tuition is late, stick with it. Of course, it's your business and you can bend any "rules" you want for whoever you want. But remember, your policy exists to help you live the best life.
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These are the very BASICS of what a music teacher should consider when creating or redoing their studio policies. Writing a studio policy can be overwhelming and often times, gets shoved to the back of our to-do lists. It's not fun. We get it.

If you need help creating or revamping your Music Studio's Policies, we are helping music teachers with that in July's Music Teacher Bootcamp...

We spend a whole week talking about everything policy-related and will work together to ACTUALLY write it!
We also cover a TON more like:

- goals
- pricing
- websites
- social media
AND at the end of our 6 Week Bootcamp, we do a 5 Day New Student Challenge to get you five new students in five days!
What are you waiting for?​

Join the Bootcamp