La Bene Vita

Bleeding Students

No, our students are not bleeding. We are bleeding students from our roster. Don't you love literary ambiguity?

We are currently at 251 private lesson students. That's not pretty. But, luckily, we are in the midst of two major marketing campaigns, neither of which is designed to directly bring us more private students. Because we're marketing geniuses like that.

On the bright side, our new "hold your spot" policy seems to be working (or that number would be pathetically lower.) People who tell us they're stopping for June or for the summer are offered the chance to hold their spot on the teacher's schedule (day and time as well as teacher) if they prepay their return month (e.g., pay for September now.) Customers seem to like this option, because they're used to their time. We like the option, because even though it's logistically tricky to keep those spots open, we know the student will return. Students who stop for the summer tend to have amnesia about music lessons come August, when it's time to call us up and get back on the schedule. It's bad enough that students go three months with no practice and want to pick up where they left off, but even worse when they never come back! So the pre-pay is motivation to overcome that amnesia. Just call us Dr. MTMS.

Meanwhile, we have a great opportunity to win a $250k grant from Chase and Living Social. It requires us to get 250 votes before they'll even read our application, so please check it out if you haven't already seen a message from me on Facebook. Go to this website: http://missionsmallbusiness.com  , scroll down and log in on the right, then scroll down and search for Michelle Tuesday Music School, then click to vote. If you have multiple Facebook accounts, please vote using all of them, because we're a long way from 250. </spammyjunk>

Is it November yet? I need an excuse to write something. #nanowrimo