Grandparents. Now, why grandparents? Well, grandparents are such an important part of our independent school community. I mean, think of how many grandparents really want to be involved in their grandchildren's lives. In addition, how many are helping out with tuition or supporting families in...

At our last Small School Leaders meet-up, an interesting question arose. What is a small school?

"I'm not sure this gathering is for me,'" said a colleague from a school with 400 students. This came after a school with 75 students commented that a school of 300 seemed large. Another colleague...

If I could come up with a catchy way to smush Retention + October together (Retentober? Octention?) I would. But nothing magical came to me.  ‍

Although retention should be a year-round effort, I feel like the official hard-core kick-off should be in October. If school started in...

“Too often we substitute internal industry and product knowledge for customer input.” - Cindy Alvarez

Without feedback, you’re not going to know the issues parents have on their minds or what support they need. Communication is a two-way process. Without having a consistent...

“The process of exceeding a customer's expectations to create a positive customer experience with your product or brand to improve loyalty.” - Hubspot

“Surprise and Delight” is actually a psychological principle. It’s human nature to want to reciprocate when...

I love this quote because it's so true. We live so much of our lives in fear.

Fear of disappointing.

Fear of failing.

Fear of hoping.

Fear of succeeding.

And when we listen to these fears, we end up not trying.

This can look like not trying a different marketing strategy or continuing...

In schools, we often have this false belief/hope that there are actually lulls and "down time" in our roles.

After almost 20 years in the field, I can tell you that is rarely the case. Yes, there might be a dip here and there. And perhaps a little bit of a break over the summer. But mostly what...

At our last Small School Leaders meetup, part of the discussion was about surveys, so I figured this might be a good topic to share. If our Small School Leaders are thinking about it, I bet others are as well. These common school survey mistakes are easily avoidable and make all the...

During this time of year, there's a lot that's unfolding — fundraising, annual funds, admissions events, open houses, and everything in between. We often forget that when we're planning out these seasons, we also have to plan out strategic connections 

Because of the chaos of...

At our Small School Leaders meet-up, two important topics came...we chatted about why families enroll (see below!) and print vs. digital. 

I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest. Do you know why families enroll at your school?

No, I'm not talking about a...

↔ While working with schools, we've noticed there is often a disconnect between what parents think the school and teachers are delivering and what is actually being delivered. Now, there are many reasons for this but I'm going to tackle one common one today.

‍ Schools put a ton of effort...