Good Evening!
I so excited to start lessons with your child! Learning flute and music can be such an exciting and fun adventure. Thanks for letting me share this time with them!
This is my blog that I use for keeping in touch with all of you about general lesson information. Posting all of it here makes the emails and texts you receive from me shorter and to-the-point, which if you're like me and reading everything on a phone, I hope you appreciate. This particular post is just to introduce a few things to you so you know what to expect going forward.
First, you should know that my husband, Paul, helps me with this blog and with my billing. So, if you email or text me with a question about your invoice, he is probably the one who will respond. He started helping me with this a few years ago so I could focus on managing my schedule, giving your child the best possible lesson experience, and giving you the feedback you want about your child's progress.
We used try to always bill lessons for the month in advance. Billing in advance is the common practice for lessons, and most school districts' private lesson guidelines expect that. I understand the reasoning behind those guidelines, but over the years, I have found that billing in advance causes confusion in some circumstances, especially if we are not able to get the invoices out exactly on the first of the month, and is completely unworkable in the summer when most students don't take lessons on a regular weekly schedule. So, for the time being, I will be billing at the end of the month. That means I will expect full payment promptly after I send the invoice. I am very flexible, however, in making payment arrangements with you if you prefer to pay week-to-week, on the 20th, at the end of the month, etc. Just let me know what payment arrangements work for you, and we'll make it work.
Flexibility is one of my hallmarks when it comes to many aspects of scheduling and billing. Over 20 years of experience teaching lessons in schools has taught me to expect the unexpected. There are always unexpected interruptions in our schedule. It used to be fire drills and picture days, but we often have unexpected testing days and the like anymore. Of course, we still have doctors appointments and the usual life-happens type of stuff. So, I plan with flexibility in my schedule, and will rearrange things to make sure your child gets a lesson every week to the best of my ability. That means, occasionally, I will switch your child's lesson day to make that all work. I do keep track of each lesson your child takes, and then on the invoice the following month, you will see an accounting of the dates your child received lessons. If, for some reason, your child receives more or less lessons than what you have paid for, you will see a credit or charge for that on the next invoice.
I accept various forms of payment, and I mention those on the invoices. I have a blog post that covers all of the different payment options here: https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/04/how-to-pay-for-lessons-in-remote.html
I hope this helps you understand the billing and payments. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.
And, as always, thanks for letting me share my love of music and flute with your child.
