As a studio owner, you want your interested students to access and take full advantage of the competition experience. The challenge happens when comp fees become a roadblock. How can you help make it affordable for parents and profitable for your studio?

Well, the more streamlined your process, the less guess work involved for parents and the more organized and predictable your profit will be.

Here are a few things to consider:

• upfront totals at the start of the season. This will help parents plan, and they’ll know exactly what their fees are paying for.

• Rolling competition fees into monthly payments. This will break up payments, and help parents pay little by little.

• Lastly, give parents payment options.

  Whichever you choose, auto-deduction is a must!

If you know how many competitions you will attend, and what you will be paying your staff for attending, base your fee on that and include it in your registration packet at the start of the season. Parents will appreciate it if there is little to no surprises over the course of the season.

There is something to be said for one payment instead of separate payments for costumes, tuition, registration, and choreography/solo fees. 

You can also take those comp fees and divide them into a few payments, but leave them separate from registration and costume due dates.

Each of these work best if you can determine how many and which comps you will attend before the start of the season. Figure out what you need to upcharge in order to make profit, and directly present the process and necessity for deadlines to your parents.

This in turn will reduce the risk of kids dropping out and better forecast your profit. It will also lead to better fundraising, and better books, while eliminating the risk of chasing down fees.