If you find the admin side of running your business a burden and a bore, studio management software could be the answer.

One of the ironies of being a self-employed singing teacher is that the more successful you get, the more non-teaching related tasks you have to do.

With every new student who joins you in your studio comes a host of business admin jobs such as scheduling, invoicing and attendance. For this reason, Bizop writes about business opportunities and interesting ideas.

And then of course there’s the book-keeping and tax (how many times have you had a last-minute scramble to meet your filing deadline?).

Hiring a PA and accountant to handle these tasks for you is one solution. But a less expensive option is to use one of the studio management software packages on the market, such as My Music Staff (MMS) or Duet.

The Singing Teachers Talk podcast recently spoke to Erin Ross from MMS to learn more about how the platform works. Here’s a taster of what she had to say.

‘Automate where you can’

Erin says using tech to do as many small tasks as possible frees teachers up to do the thing that they enjoy most – teach.

“Frankly, the admin stuff is not the most fun part of running a business which is why we try to automate as much as possible,” Erin says.

“Using something like My Music Staff gives you more time to focus on what you actually love to do, which is probably not counting up how much money you’re owed, tracking down missed payments and running to the bank to deposit a cheque. It allows you to focus on teaching.”

So how can it save you time? Here are some of the things a good studio management platform such as MMS can do.

• Manage your calendar – Students (or their parents) can book or reschedule lessons online or cancel (in line with your cancellation policy).
• Billing – You can customise each client’s contact information and send out invoices (on paper or via email) automatically. You can bill a client after each lesson or on a weekly, monthly or termly basis.
• Send out links – If you teach online lessons, the system will automatically send out links to upcoming Zoom, Skype or FaceTime lessons.
• Attendance – You can keep track of attendance and, if necessary, schedule make-up lessons.
• Auto-pay – MMS can integrate with Stripe and PayPal to collect online credit card payments. No manual intervention is required; the money goes straight to your bank account.
• Tax – All your account information will be in one place so you can track your teaching revenue and keep tabs on your expenses. When tax time comes around, you just need to run a report and – ta da! – the information is all there.
• Student notes and practice logs – You can monitor a student’s progress by adding notes at the end of each lesson to their file. You can also include a practice log that students can access outside of the studio.

So what does it cost?

MMS costs £11.95 a month for a single teacher account and £4.95 for every additional account, so other staff members and teachers at your studio can access the platform. You can set account privileges according to a staff member’s responsibilities.

For more tips on saving time on your business admin, listen to the full interview with Erin here.