new students Archives - Music Studio Startup

Episode 017 – Jolene Madewell on Building a Skype Flute Studio

October 3, 2018

blogging, branding, creativity, entrepreneurship, instagram, new students, online marketing, skype, summer lessons, virtual studio

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or wherever you get podcasts! Summary Lots of teachers transition in-person students to Skype students out of necessity when someone has to move, but today I’m talking to a flute teacher who has done the opposite. When Jolene’s local studio wasn’t gaining traction, she decided to focus on teaching virtually. She…

Managing Lesson Inquiry Mayhem

October 1, 2018

communication, new students, productivity, studio management, systems

Fifteen years ago, 95% of my prospects called via phone. Probably a landline. And they left messages on my parents’ answering machine. Those were the days. 😉 Today, prospective students can get a hold of us through direct email, phone, text, website contact forms, Facebook messenger, Instagram, NextDoor, casual conversations in the driveway… so many…

FAQs on Follow Up

September 24, 2018

communication, customer service, new students, studio man

I’ve been blogging about moving potential students through the sales funnel and (quite often) a part of that process is following up. There’s nuance to each follow up situation, but these are some of the questions I get asked about most frequently and some general guidelines on how I approach follow up communication. Should I…

Four Phrases to Enroll Students Faster

September 17, 2018

communication, new students, sales, studio management

Most prospective students move pretty seamlessly through the sales funnel, but every once in a while they just get stuck. A coaching client came to me earlier this year, frustrated that she had a lot of strong prospects who had called inquiring about lessons, but they weren’t turning into students. They continued to say they…

Writing a Better Welcome Message

August 27, 2018

branding, communication, customer service, goals, marketing, new students, student experience, student retention, studio management

Last week’s blog post spoke about the tremendous value that comes from communicating well with students and (especially) their families. Today’s blog is an example of how we can practice good communication at the beginning of a new term (or anytime a new student joins our studio), with a strategically-written welcome message! At first glance,…

Avoid Policy Enforcement Problems by Building Bonds with Studio Parents

August 20, 2018

customer service, new students, student experience, student retention, studio management, studio policy

The topic of enforcing studio policies comes up a lot. I hold to the idea that sticking to a policy is a good and necessary thing. (Even if the idea of doing so makes us squirm at times!) I even teach a popular webinar on the topic on how to do this gracefully! But really, avoiding policy…

Three Questions You MUST Answer Before Designing (or Redesigning) Your Studio Website

February 12, 2018

branding, focus, marketing, new students, website

There are two kinds of “bad” studio websites: the ones that are bad because of poor decisions (color scheme, typography, font size, etc.) and the ones that are bad because of indecision. The first is becoming less common since we have website builders and templates that take a lot of the guesswork out of the…

Engaging Students with “Aha” Moments

September 11, 2017

goals, new students, student experience, student retention

In the early days of Facebook, the team behind the social network came up with a metric that could predict the likelihood of whether or not someone who signed up for a Facebook account would become an active user. They determined that if a new user connected with seven friends in ten days, they would…

How Many Music Students Can You Really Expect?

February 27, 2017

budgeting, new students, personal finance

Teaching capacity matters. When you’ve decided to make a career of teaching and you’re trying to figure out how much you need to charge, it’s tempting to simplify and say “I’m teaching full time, so 40 hours a week means I can see 80 students each week for half-hour lessons.” This calculation would be great…if…

30 Day Challenge to Grow Your Music Studio

November 28, 2016

30 Day Challenge, advertising, marketing, new students

I am super stoked to announce the first ever Music Studio Startup 30 DAY CHALLENGE! I’ve been hearing a lot of teachers talk about their struggles to fill their studios…and the financial stresses that come along with that. Sound familiar? The struggle is definitely real. But it’s not insurmountable. That’s where this challenge comes in.…

A New Student Interview is Like a First Date: How I Know When a Student is Not “The Right Fit”

September 26, 2016

lifestyle, new students

A new student interview is a lot like a first date. You correspond a bit by email. You arrange to meet in person. You talk over coffee (or maybe an instrument) for a while. You go home and evaluate everything that happened. You decide whether or not you want to see the person again. In the dating world,…