One of my goals as a piano teacher–and probably one of the goals of many teachers and studio owners out there–is to avoid student turnover. I understand that many students who quit piano at a young age will go on to have regrets as adults for not sticking with music lessons longer, which I find heartbreaking. I enjoy transitioning students from elementary level music to intermediate and advanced repertoire, and if a student quits music lessons too soon, I don’t get to experience this with them. I also truly believe having happy students (and experiencing little student turnover as a result) is the best marketing strategy out there. If students are happy, they are less likely to quit and leave me to quickly find a replacement before it causes too much of a financial strain. And, if students are happy, they will provide excellent word-of-mouth references in my community–free advertising!
So far, I have managed to avoid much student turnover and my returning student rate each fall has been between 90 and 95%. I have found the following strategies to be successful in helping me to achieve this rate:
essing, and it’s likely that it won’t be long before his family feels the investment is a waste of money and decides to pull their child out of lessons. 
A few months ago I
Most readers of this blog–like me–have probably gone to a lot of trouble to advertise your studio. When I first moved to Wisconsin, I paid for a huge ad in the paper, stuffed mailboxes with coupons, and hung flyers at every business in town that allowed them. No one called. After a few months of this, I put an ad on craigslist. In a few short weeks, my studio was full and I had to begin a wait list.