Hmm... I guess it might come off annoying to them if you sent another email. Although maybe you can just give a "confirmation" email to each individual family that you are assuming that May will be their last month since you haven't heard anything from them. ? That way it would come off less annoying or harassing and more confirming...

Yay! On the new student! My hope for you is that there will be a bunch more so you will have no choice but to add your "current" students on your waiting list come Fall.

If you've sent multiple emails as reminders I think I would just let it go. There is really nothing you can (or should) do to make people sign up. A new year will be much different, and I'm sure you have learned tons that will help you in setting boundaries for the new studio year.

I've been where you are, and I know it's not pleasant, so I really feel for you. It's the one thing that drove me to be more professional, though.

I follow a marketing blog which has really helped me stand up, be strong and communicate exactly what I want from my families and my students. In this link Seth Godin shares what I think a lot of private teachers miss. For me it means forget the families and students that don't want what I offer, look for the ones that value music enough to commit to the program I want to offer, a year around program.

If you can, view this as a learning experience, and take this summer to read up on pedagogy or whatever you think you need at this time, and be really ready for fall, which will be a much different story.

Part of what we do as piano teachers is to train parents. Train them to recognize the value of music education, train them to get their tuition payments in on time, etc...

I would NOT send another email. They need to learn. They are adults. If they missed the deadline and their spot is no longer available, too bad. I'll bet that they will be sure to remember the next time, should it happen again.

*Personal anecdote: I require parents to sign up and reserve their Fall time slot by the end of May. It's one fee before the deadline; $20 more after the deadline. Some parents get them to me on time; some dilly-dally and have to pay $20 more. But they only do that once.

That would be great, Jennifer, if that happened! I know it's not really in "my" hands. I do what I can and live and learn from it! As much as I thought I had it figured out, now I know that this is not the best thing for my business. I wish it were easier to figure out all the business aspects of running a studio. My degree did NOT prepare me for this. I think it's a shame that some (most?) universities for music majors don't offer music business classes. I could have really benefited from it! But maybe that is not the "norm".

And thank you, Q88keys, for your sympathy and care. It's not easy being young and figuring these things out. I'm just so glad that I'm not alone and I have other teachers who can help me see what I'm missing. So thank you!!

April, I absolutely agree with you that we (music majors) don't get enough education on the business side of things. Most of us musicians and private teachers are self-employed, and we absolutely need to be able to run a business. However the skills needed to be a good musician and/or teacher are so different than the skills needed to run a successful business and I think it's not likely that someone with natural talent in playing and teaching would also naturally have a flair for business. We need to be taught!

My cut off date for summer registration was last Friday and I still have 8 that haven't signed up (although I did get a call from someone last night about 2 of them.) I had my recital yesterday, guild auditions next week, and I sent out a reminder email and included the summer reminder at the end of it. Summer is not an option in my studio either, but last year it was late June before everyone paid up and got those lessons scheduled.

Q88 runs a great studio and I hope to implement her policy about year round lessons this fall. The only thing I'm still figuring out is how to charge for those who don't pay monthly. About 70% of my families pay up front for each semester. I'm thinking of changing that to the tri-mester.

Arlene, I was wondering what you do in the case of those who want to quit piano mid-year? Do you require they keep making payments as usual? Or do you have a type of withdrawal fee they pay to quit lessons?

April,I have to disagree regarding parents treating your home space without respect since it's not a professional building.
I rent a commercial space on a main street and it's even worse. Kids draw inappropriate things in magazines I have in the waiting area, steal minor stuff and damage things. The bathroom is horrible!!! I clean everything myself since I cannot afford housekeeping.I will not even say what people throw on the bathroom floor... And nobody cares that I have this huge poster about waiting room policies.
It really upsets me that they treat my space like crap. The other day a family came in, ate fried chicken and threw remains of it in the small trash can in the main room and left. Never mind that there was a huge trash bin right outside on the street.

Sorry, I don't know why my post appeared twice.