Policies and Payments

Advance Payment & Subscription Models

In this lesson we'll take a closer look at getting payments in advance & options for your subscriptions.

NEVER provide a lesson until after you have received payment. EVER. 

There is a reason that products or services do not operate on the honor system — no one WANTS to have to pay for things. 

And while obviously SOME people DO have honor and WILL pay, many others DO NOT and WILL NOT.

Can you imagine going into a store and leaving with the merchandise, promising that you'll pay after you take it home, and expecting them to be okay with that, and to just trust you? Of course not! Payment first, or no deal.

And the same goes for your business — pay in advance, or no lessons will be provided. You're running a business, not a charity, and there will be plenty of opportunities for you to be extra generous and provide even more value to your paying students later on. But first they need to BECOME your student — and that starts by them paying you.

And for the stability of your business, as well as for their musical benefit, it's best to have them not only pay up front, but also to pay for several lessons at once, and set those payments to automatically come through. And nowadays setting this up is easier than ever.

You will need some sort of payment processing provider (or several) to do this, and all of them require you to have a bank account for security reasons.

Here are the 3 options that I personally use:

Now, that is NOT to say that I don't occasionally accept a one-off payment, but when I do, it is for one of the following 3 reasons:

1.) At the very first meeting with a student, for their first enrollment period only (generally in-person using a card reader and smart phone), via CashApp, Venmo, or occasionally even in cash, or

2.) In a very special circumstance, if an existing student has problems with a credit card (e.g., if someone hacked their credit card or if the card on their PayPal account has expired), and they need to make a one-off payment to keep their enrollment uninterrupted. This usually happens on the day that would be their first lesson of the next enrollment period if they haven't paid yet and show up. I'll just take their payment at the start of the lesson or class and then proceed.

3.) When selling enrollment for a single set-length course in one lump sum. This is typically a special training program with a set number of sessions, so the student can pay up front for the whole thing and then begin.

Both of the first two of these situations require me to follow up with the student at the end of that enrollment period and send them the URL so they can set up their subscription and get the payments on auto-pilot.

Preferably, though, I'd try to get them to sign up using the subscription links in the first place and bypass the one-off payments altogether whenever possible.

If you are going to accept a one-time payment, I recommend the following services:

Additionally, in some cases you may want to offer some sort of training where there IS only a single one-time payment, such as a 12-week course or a single strategy session.

In the case of a 12-week course, you'd just have them pay up front for the whole thing and then provide the schedule. That may be somewhat expensive, so what I recommend is to set up a payment plan, breaking it into 3 payments — but make it cost more for this privilege.

For example, if the course is $360 for the one-time payment price, you could also offer it as a set-length subscription, where they make 3 payments of $150, and you present both prices side-by-side on the page. 

Neither one is presented as "THE" price — you're giving them a choice between two reasonable options and letting them pick the one they like better. They can save money in the long run if they have the money on hand, but if not it's only $30 more per month so it won't break the bank, and you end up with $90 more for taking the risk of them dropping off early before the actual end of the course (as long as they stay enrolled long enough to make all 3 payments).

In the case of a strategy session or mastermind call/session, you would offer a single "master session" that's longer than your typical lesson time, and go more in-depth and offer specific take-aways that they wouldn't get with your regular lesson packages. 

This kind of session is particularly good for students who need a push in the right direction, former students who want to make sure they're staying on the right track, and one-off group trainings online (webinar-style). 

And since it's just one session with no strings attached afterwards, it makes sense that it's a one-off payment.

In any subscription-based program, it's VITAL that you are very clear up-front when communicating what the student will receive in exchange for their ongoing payments.

Whether this is the sales page or a landing page on your teaching website, or a detailed list of perks/benefits on each tier of your Patreon, it needs to be absolutely clear what you're offering.

And then you need to make sure you deliver it — consistently.

Part of that is about simple integrity, but also it depends on being able to keep up with what you promised initially. And sometimes the reality is that you started out intending to deliver all of these things, but over time you come to find that the reality is exhausting trying to keep up with what you offered. And the only option is to change the offer — 

1. Change the public-facing text immediately (before someone else signs up and you're obligated to keep it up even longer),

2. Deliver the last of the hard-to-maintain perks to those who are enrolled for the remainder of the current enrollment period,

3. Notify them of exactly what's changing and why, and

4. Stop offering whatever it was, and replace it with something equally beneficial that you CAN maintain.

Sometimes this just happens, and there's nothing wrong with this. In fact sometimes this is the only way to find your way and strike the right work/life balance in your business. You're allowed to change what you offer, and as long as you can make it an improvement, your students will be happy to keep paying the same amount while getting more.

But no matter how much you charge, it won't be worth it in the long run if it absolutely drains you and you end up dreading the process you unwittingly signed yourself up for.

Following are the various models you can adopt for your subscription-based training, with a brief description of each.

This can be a touchy situation, and ultimately it's entirely up to you how you want to handle refund requests, but here are the guidelines I'd suggest.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you put it right into your written policies/terms of service page, and include access to that full text on the checkout page when people are signing up. 

Subscriptions are a "by signing up, you agree to everything in our policies" type of situation, so be sure to cover your butt by spelling it out in writing in your policies.

If you have a question, simply hit the "Contact Us" button to reach out to our team.

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