Music Teacher's Helper

Music Teacher's Helper reviewed 2 Feb 07
Summary: A world-class piece of online software that manages every aspect of a private music teacher's studio... apart from the teaching!

Music Teacher's Helper is without doubt a fantastic innovation. This online software (you just sign up, initially for free, and login using a username and password) allows you to keep track of everything that goes on in your studio, including scheduling, payments, online payments using paypal, generating tax reports, automatic invoicing, lesson notes, and much more.

Although it does take a minute or two to enter all the information into your account once a lesson is complete, this is possibly the only drawback. Because you have accurate notes from each lesson, and all payments are tracked, you never end up with the embarrassing situation of 'forgetting what we did last lesson', or not being sure whether someone has paid you or not.

Lesson notes can be emailed immediately to students (although you can also make private notes for yourself too). Everything is fully customizeable, and new features are often added.

Students can register themselves directly on a studio website, which comes built in to the software (though I'd suggest that if you're using Music Teacher's Helper as your only website, you should also get a domain name for yourself too - otherwise you'll end up with a website at www.yourstudioname.musicteachershelper.com - which doesn't look so professional). It's fully customizable, and you can add pages such as 'about my studio' and 'photos' to give potential students a good idea of what you offer.

The pricing is very good value: completely free for the first 3 students you have, then upgradable to a small monthly subscription as your class expands, starting at about £5/month for a class of 10 students.

In many ways, Music Teacher's Helper is kind of like having a very simple personal assistant for your teaching business. No doubt, once you've mastered the basics, and if you can spare a couple of minutes daily to keep everything up to date, then it'll be a BIG time-saver in the long term!

The best thing about the software? Well actually, it has to be the service. Very rarely do you come across customer service that's just out of this world, but the guy who runs Music Teacher's Helper, Brandon, is exceptional. Features and suggestions are welcomed, and this is one of those few companies where you just get that really solid feeling that they won't let you down - which is really important when they're a critical part of your business.

I particularly recommend the unlimited free trial, which is a great way of finding out if the software fits your needs. - SJ

Link: Music Teacher's Helper