This winter has been kind of outrageous as far as precipitation. This morning schools were canceled due to ice. I didn’t have anywhere to be in the morning and so I didn’t go anywhere. (Deep, I know). I did have some errands to run after noon and I hoped my car would have warmed up. No such luck!

I did not drive away like that.

It’s still precipitating a bit but the roads seemed okay, and the sidewalks are pretty icy where they are untreated but if you do the penguin walk you’re probably okay. I haven’t heard any cancellations from my students so I’m assuming we are on…we’ll see what happens!

As far as illness and inclement weather, I do let my students cancel. I trust that they won’t take advantage, but if they are sick, I don’t want them to come or feel obligated, and I don’t want the responsibility of them coming out in bad weather they aren’t comfortable with either. It’s how I run my studio. I do request them to come otherwise, and I try to be particular about absences when possible, and I am especially sticky about “no-show” absences, when they don’t let me know and don’t show up. (In case you are a music teacher and reading this! I have them pay for the month in advance and then if I miss a lesson or they do they carry over, but I have my money in advance most of the time. A few end up paying later and to me it’s not a huge deal as I actually enjoy getting a few more paychecks over the course of the month.) I keep track of all the payments by hand in my little book and if somebody hasn’t paid or gets behind I get in touch.

But you probably don’t read this for my business ideas do you? Actually, let me know if you have more questions about how I run things at the studio-I’m happy to share. I’m always thinking about things and reevaluating, but I’m pretty happy with my current policies. There’s always some teeth pulling and at times I feel like I’m herding cats, but the students keep showing up and the parents keep paying me and giving my name to other parents so I think it’s working well enough!

Obviously I’m in work mode right now. I was on the computer doing some other things (reconciling accounts for February, getting things planned for March, looking at hikes at Glacier National Park) and figured I’d pop in for a blog post. Maybe that’s the way to get more readers?  Posting?