03 The Way to Do Away With Makeup Lessons (w/ Tiffani Smith)

The Piano Sensei Way

In this episode, I talk with Tiffani Smith about makeup lessons and how to not have to do them! With 36 years of teaching experience and running a music school with multiple teachers and staff, Tiffani shares her insights and strategies to help piano teachers who struggle with trying to accommodate rescheduling requests. I get it. We are kind, compassionate people and want our students and clients to be satisfied! However, it can be a stressful nightmare to try to deal with rescheduling lessons, keeping track of a 24-hour notice, counting up how many lessons a student has had, and many other issues. Tiffani shares her successful tips and has a wonderfully encouraging tone. If you’ve ever considered making life easier by not having to do makeup lessons, Tiffani will surely give you the confidence to take the plunge!

Top quotes from the episode:

• “I don’t need to be everything to everybody”
• “Don’t make decisions out of fear of losing students”
• “When I changed my policy and simply stated ‘I’m no longer able to offer makeup lessons,’ amazingly, there was no pushback, and they stopped cancelling as often!”

For new teachers creating their policies, Tiffani suggests setting the policies as if you had 200 students already. In addition, her top three recommendations for must-have policies are:

1. No makeup policy
2. Flat rate year round tuition
3. Automated billing

Clinton's online tuition calculator for flat rate, group classes, reverse calculator, and tuition increase/student loss calculator:

Tuition Calculator
Tiffani's Facebook Groups:

Piano Teachers Gotta Have It

(teaching products, curricula, sheet music, and favorite "gotta have it" tools for piano teachers)

Piano Teachers Gotta Do it

(Policies, calendars, schedules, recitals, billing, marketing, etc., etc. There's so much to do...Let's help each other out!)