Get Your Price Communication Right

Looking back at my first year as a school owner I was totally lost on pricing. I knew what other academies charged, I also had an idea about the cost of running the business and the prices I wanted to charge.

What I didn't have in mind at all were local habits and especially public holidays. By now I have been through all that and I'd like to share some of the tactics I'm using.

They might come in handy as many of you are now preparing their pricing strategy for the coming academic year.

In the end, it's not about your pricing itself, but how you actually communicate your pricing conditions.

1. Too many cancellations?

If you charge your students per class completed, you leave too much of freedom for them to cancel and then not pay. Charge in advance for a period, not by class or number of classes. Make it clear that there is no reimbursement for classes that they do not attend.

2. Solving the problem of  “shorter months less income”.

It is quite common for people to expect to pay less in December being a shorter month, but nobody will ask you if they can pay more in May when there are more classes than the monthly “average”. To avoid this, apply a Monthly Flat Rate. Meaning they would pay the same amount each month regardless of the number of classes. You can also apply the same on a trimester-basis.

Make sure you include points #1 and #2 in your Terms and Conditions. Make sure you have a Terms and Conditions document. Adhere to it yourself and others will too.

3. Learning is so much more than just attending classes.

Students learn the most through real experiences. Classes only support the evolution, but we can never depend on them fully and nobody should have that expectation. Offer a range of experiences to your students and tools to help them become independent learners. Apart from classes, you can offer*:

• Library of books and additional materials
• Themed workshops 
• Access to a weekly video series on becoming an independent learner
• Option to have a private session once a month where their teacher fully focuses on them (if normally they learn in groups)
• Option to invite a friend of theirs once a month to a themed workshop
• Monthly meetings for parents of your students (if you work with kids) where they learn how to accelerate the evolution of their kids at home
• Online community

*Make sure you don't commit the mistake of trying to apply them now our of blue. Take one at a time and build it up slowly, so that both you and your students get used to it. 

In the end all this put together in a package and available at a higher price than that of the normal monthly membership.

What do you get out of this?

1. Happier, more devoted students and families.
2. Increased monthly spend/student at your school.
3. Balanced, more predictable monthly profit.

Do you have any questions about price communication?