Studio Management

Wendy Morgan HunterSep 30, 2010 , , , 2 Comments

I have been using Music Teacher’s Helper for years now as I was an early adopter –and I love the system, but I have had to manage two calendars for all of those years: My “life” calendar- Franklin Covey , and my MTH calendar. Of course this broke the cardinal rule of the Franklin Covey system! Keep one calendar!

A year ago we downloaded “calengoo” in an attempt to manage my multiple calendars because it could talk to MTH and gather that calendar information, however every time I tried to open the app it had to run a tedious download of information that took 5-7 minutes – not usable for entering quick information or scheduling meetings and events when you are on the go, or for quickly knowing where you needed to be next!

Now, thanks to google cal – I can see my MTH calendar, my daughter’s school calendar (it links directly), several rehearsal schedules for shows I am directing, my performance calendar, my husband’s calendar (can we ever have a date?) and my family’s life calendars. Not only that, but they can all be color coded- yet be in one calendar! The page loads very quickly – I use an Iphone 4 now and I keep it on my home page of apps. You can sort by calendar… (ie: hide my current show calendar) or see them all and then some! I added US holidays and my favorite football teams game schedule from the options listed on the google calendar site!

The combination of MTH’s improved calendar sharing and the Google Cal app has drastically improved my ability to manage my life efficiently when away from my desktop. I highly recommend you give it a try!

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Nicole MurphySep 23, 2010 No Comments

As a musician with a busy performing, teaching and composing schedule, I am constantly looking at ways to simplify everyday tasks and increase productivity. I have been using MusicTeachersHelper for a number of years now, and I still marvel at how quick and easy it is to organise my timetable, send mass emails to students, keep invoicing up to date, and produce yearly income reports. The time I have saved by using MusicTeachersHelper has allowed me to take on more performing and teaching. However, at the start of this year, when my number of students had increased dramatically, I realised that while administration was no longer time consuming, I was spending increasingly large amounts of time responding to emails or phone calls from parents and students.

Obviously communication outside of the normal lesson time is necessary and I am always happy to talk to parents and students about their progress, future planning, etc however I found that I was answering my phone at all hours of the day and night, and often when I had just walked in the door from a long day teaching and realised that I needed to set boundaries so that teaching did not intrude on my personal time.  [···]

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Nicole MurphyMay 23, 2010 , , 1 Comment

While those of us in Australia are starting to rug up for the winter, I know that the summer break is quickly approaching for the rest of the world. The summer break can be a fantastic opportunity to refresh and revitalise with a well-earned rest, or to undertake your own professional development. It is also an excellent opportunity to expand the skills and knowledge base of your existing students, and to attract new students to your studio by running summer workshops.

Below is a list of 20 workshop ideas – [···]

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