Piano Studio Policies in Three Parts
Crafting the perfect piano studio policies is a balancing act.
- You want to keep things simple,
- But you want your policies to be thorough.
- You don’t want to overwhelm your new families with every little detail,
- But you certainly don’t want to leave out any details that might result in a misunderstanding.
- You want to start your business relationship with a friendly tone,
- But you don’t want any room to be taken advantage of later on.
My solution: PRESENT YOUR PIANO STUDIO POLICIES IN THREE PARTS.
Come along, my dear Pianopreneur. I’ve got a template for you to use, and I’m here to walk you through each section. Let’s create the perfect pack of piano studio policies without a lot of stress!
Piano Studio Policies, PART 1: The Legal Nitty-Gritty
Part 1 of your three-part piano studio policies will cover the legal stuff you have to include, such as:
- Billing and Payments
- Cancellation and Make-up Lesson Policies
- Discontinuation Procedure
Include Billing & Payments in Your Piano Studio Policies
First you’ll cover the logistics of billing and payments. This isn’t the cost of tuition or your holiday break schedule. That will come in Part 2 of the piano studio policies.
In this part, you’ll cover the following policies:
- How and when you send invoices
- How and when families are expected to pay
- What happens if they don’t pay or don’t pay on time
Include Cancellation & Make-up Lessons in Your Piano Studio Policies
In another paragraph, you’ll cover:
- What happens if a student misses a lesson
- How make-up lessons are conducted, if applicable
- What happens if you cancel a lesson
Include Discontinuation in Your Piano Studio Policies
And in the final section, you’ll go over:
- What happens if a student stops coming to lessons or stops paying
- What happens if a student wants to discontinue lessons
Initials & Signature
At the end of Part 1, I recommend summing up what you covered in a few succinct sentences. Enter a line next to each statement as a place for parents to initial.
And then have them include their signature at the end of the document.
Piano Studio Policies, PART 2: Parents Want To Know
Now that you have the legal stuff out of the way, give parents what they really want to know about your services in a separate document.
In Part 2 of your piano studio policies, you’ll list out your prices, any discounts you offer, and the studio schedule.
Include Tuition in Your Piano Studio Policies
- List all prices for your various lesson options
- If you offer any discounts, list them here
Haven’t set your rates yet? Check out this blog post and video where I walk you through How Much Should I Charge For Piano Lessons?
Include Scheduling in Your Piano Studio Policies
- Lay out the schedule for studio breaks
- As well as how many lessons will be included in the term
- Give the dates for holiday breaks as well so families can plan ahead
Not sure about your studio schedule yet? Yes, I have a blog post for that, too! Check out How I Plan My Year As a Piano Teacher.
Piano Studio Policies, PART 3: Just to Be Safe
Part 3 should include any other important policies you didn’t include in Part 1. Anything else that isn’t related to billing, payments, or cancellations that still needs acknowledgement and a signature should go here.
Include a Media Release in Your Piano Studio Policies
Compose a media release for parents to sign. This is a disclosure that allows you to use images of your students in your advertisements, website, and social media posts.
It is okay if some parents are uncomfortable with their child’s image being used. By offering this document, you’ll know who is on board and who is not. And, most importantly, you don’t have any surprises (i.e. angry parents) later on.
Keep Your Piano Studio Policies Simple
Keep your piano studio policies as succinct as possible.
When considering whether something should be included in your policies or not, ask yourself if it would be detrimental if things didn’t go the way you would like, or just inconvenient.
For example, let’s say you want all of your students to take off their shoes when they enter the studio. You would ask yourself: If a student doesn’t not take off their shoes upon entering, what are the consequences? You would conclude that it wouldn’t be a big deal and you could simply request that the student remove their shoes once you notice they have forgotten.
In this case I would not include shoe removal in the policies.
On the other hand, consider what would happen if a parent neglects to pay and finds a late charge on their next invoice. Ask yourself: What’s the worst case scenario if I charge a late fee without including it in the policies? In this case, it could really damage your professional relationship with that family. They could be surprised and upset about the charge if they are not clearly informed beforehand of the consequences of missing a payment.
I have seen piano studio policies from other teachers that include every little detail from hand-washing to practice expectations to parental involvement to recital preparation. I just think a lot of that information can be a timely email or in-person instruction rather than a part of a signed document.
Let Your Piano Studio Policies Avoid Future Misunderstandings
That being said, you do want to include expectations or policies that would likely have a potential to cause hard feelings later on.
Don’t make the mistake I made as a new piano teacher. I made my policy document SO general that I had to explain and put out fires on certain aspects of the business time after time.
As I mentioned before, consider the consequences of an expectation being ignored. Include the things upon which you really want a signature to back you up.
FREE: Piano Studio Policies TEMPLATE
And here is my editable template to get you started!
This is a Canva template. You’ll need a free Canva account to edit and personalize the policy documents.
Keep in mind that these piano studio policies are specific to my studio and not all of my policies or paragraphs will apply to you! Read through every word and change what you need to change before giving these documents to your customers.
Need More Help?
Let me tell you–you are already way ahead of me when I started teaching piano lessons! You are going into this with a plan and set of policies. Nice work, Pianopreneur!
You will certainly be tweaking and revising these piano studio policies for years to come, and that’s okay. We all learn as we go!
If you haven’t already set your rates as a piano teacher, you might want to check out this post next to figure out How Much to Charge For Piano Lessons.