Dealing with late payers, dead beats and wimpies.

[Bob Hubbard]

Running a professional school is hard, some say harder than almost any other type of business. What are the techniques you use to deal with and prevent late payers, dead beats and the wimpies. You know, the folks who will "Gladly pay you Tuesday for some Karate today."

 

[jarrod]

i'm in a pretty unique position. i share space with an IT business & two other martial arts clubs/schools, so i don't have much overhead. my rent is half of what my students pay me or $300, whichever is lowest. i live about 30 miles from the club, plus i work a lot so i do have to make it worth my while to drive down there. i usually tell the guys that if they can't afford dues, then pay what they can, even if it's $5. suggesting $5 usually shames them into paying a bit more though. i'll also work on the barter system. one student had a friend at a t-shirt shop, so i had him design & print shirts for 6 months training. i try & run a club first, & a business second.

jf

 

[Aaron Little]

This is a problem I have not had to deal with since I started using a billing company. It works great and I never have to be the bad guy.

I did a lot of research in order to find the proper company to work with. One that was fine with my not using contracts. Students sign an agreement to pay and they can cancel at any time as long as they are current on their fees.

 

[Lynne]

Our school has contracts. Also, if we are five days late on a tuition payment, we have to pay a $15 late fee (which is stipulated in the contract).

We also have registration fees. For my first registration fee, I worked it out with the owner to make it in three payments. But I signed a contract to that effect.

 

[stickarts]

we mostly use electronic funds transfer for payments. works pretty well.

 

[foggymorning162]

We also use EFT no contracts though.

 

[Kwanjang]

We also use EFT's through a billing company. Still, I have people come with sad, sad, stories on why they can't pay.

It has always been, and continue to be my phioshophy; Students first, martial arts second. Having said that. If a student (or thier parents) comes to me a tells me they are haveing a hard time with making payments, I usally tell them (if they have been a good student) I will work with them and ask them-- what can you pay.

This can be a slippery slope- in that if the other students find out you are giving a break to student "X" then it might cause some anomosity amongst
your students who are paying the full rate.

Also, I had rather a student start paying me NOW and forget what they owe me. I will allow "hardship cases" about five months.