Kerri Green

Music Teaching Financial Binder Makeover

June 15th, 2013 by

I have a confession to make.image

I am a musician. I possess a wonderful, creative, passionately-interested-in-the-world right brain. I love to explore, to learn, to ponder, to express. I love to share ideas, to share emotions, to create beauty.

It is a great kind of brain to have.

Most of the time.

There are those times, however, that the possession of such a brain creates chaos, confusion, and disorder. I am sure that there are many of you fellow musicians who have never had these feelings. I am sure there are many of you who have learned to harness both your right AND your left brains, that your paperwork is all in order, all of your financial dealings with students have been handled in a timely, professional manner, and that you have no questions about how to start over from a muddled, unsure record-keeping state.

This post is not for those of you who fit that category. Instead, please fast forward to the end of this post and leave us your wise counsel and organizational tips in the comment section. We need you. We really really do.

For the rest of us, though, I have this promise: you are not alone. We creative sorts have many gifts. So what if filing isn’t one of them? Let’s use our creativity to find new solutions. I have some advice, some tips, some words of hope for you. Read more…

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Posted in Financial Business, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Ronnie Currey (Editor)

New Features and Fixes This Week

May 7th, 2013 by

The following are new Features and Fixes on May 6, 2013:

  • Group events to be reconciled will now use each student’s default lesson cost if the Cost field is left blank.
  • You can now edit the time on Repertoire tracker.
  • You can now edit a studio expense without having it affect any future recurring expenses.

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Posted in New Features and Fixes, Using Music Teacher's Helper

jkroll

Returning Student Scheduling Made Easier with MTH!!

April 24th, 2013 by

Returning Student Registration and Fall Scheduling Made Easier with MTH!

Many music studio schedules follow the local school schedules. The end of the year fast approaches with extra work often necessary for recitals and registration for the next fall.

One may use MTH website to eliminate the hassle of tracking changes to fall schedules.

Spring registration

In contrast to music teachers who request registration during the late summer months; at my studio registration is due in April. This accomplishes several goals: I am able to determine how many lesson slots I have available and advertize accordingly, I do not have to work with customers during the busy summer months when they are often traveling, and it may be a lot more difficult to tell an instructor you are not returning when you have lessons for another month (perhaps a good marketing strategy). This also allows time to discuss reasons for discontinuing lessons and possibly the opportunity to suggest changes to keep a student playing.

Use MTH to make yearly registration and scheduling much easier!

Every year when I set up the yearly schedule I include an extra week of lessons on the web calendar. Example: Lessons end May 19th but my web calendar shows lessons running through May 26th. I let customers know that lessons will not actually be held on these days but are only there for administrative purposes. It is easy to add a fake event for all students stating there are no lessons during this week and that the extra lesson showing on the calendar is only for fall scheduling purposes. When a parent/student logs onto the website they will see this note on the calendar (See picture 1). Read more…

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Posted in Studio Management, Uncategorized, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Ed Pearlman

Tips on Teaching by Skype

April 16th, 2013 by

Skype and other online learning options are increasingly attractive for people who are comfortable with communicating via computer, and especially for people who have few local learning choices.

For music teachers, working online presents some special challenges.  Here are some tips.  If you’ve tried Skype teaching or learning, please contribute your thoughts as well.  In my next post I will discuss ways to work with students online in real time, without the delay of Skype!

Let’s take a look at setting up for a Skype lesson, verbal skills, visual and sound issues, online materials and what to do in the case of technical difficulties.

Set up.  From the college of hard knocks, here are a few tips on preparing for a Skype lesson.  Read more…

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Posted in Music & Technology, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Kerri Green

Some Not-So-Helpful Tax Tips for Music Teachers

April 15th, 2013 by

It’s tax day in the United States.

Does that sentence fill you with dread?

Or are you lucky enough to be one of those music teachers who has all of your receipts in perfectly organized envelopes, a well-filled-out mileage tracking notebook in the glovebox of your car, and a tax accountant on hand to answer any tricky tax questions?

If, indeed, you are one of these blessed souls, can I come watch how you work? Can I adopt your systems? Because here is how tax season works at my house. Read more…

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Posted in Financial Business, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Ronnie Currey (Editor)

New Features and Fixes in March 2013

March 28th, 2013 by

Every week we post new features and fixes on our Facebook and Twitter page. We also post features and fixes weekly on our blog, as we are aware that many of you do not use social media accounts. You can also read current blog posts and new weekly updates at the bottom of your MTH home page after you log-in.

Here are the Latest Updates made in March 2013:

New Features:

  • Free plan websites now show advertisements.
  • Fixed several issues with the iPhone app (details can be seen on the app itself in iTunes).
  • When exporting data to Excel, the date format can now be sorted in Mileage Tracker.

New Fixes:

  • The iPhone app will now show the event status.
  • Choosing students with the iPhone app was duplicating students. This has been fixed.
  • The Japanese version is now showing the correct currency format.
  • Cheque showing as default in U.S. instead of just the U.K. This as been fixed.

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Posted in New Features and Fixes, Site Announcements, Using Music Teacher's Helper

jkroll

Patience for Music Teachers

March 24th, 2013 by

What is patience?

Patience is the sate of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way: or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer term difficulties. Patience is the level of endurance one can take before negativity.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for the description and picture – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience)

Patience, engraving by Hans Sebald Beham, 1540

 

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Posted in Customer Support, New Features and Fixes, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Reuben Vincent

Create Your Own Website: Part 2 – Spin Your Web Further!

March 6th, 2013 by

The average time spent on a website is less than 60 seconds!

How can we, who have a website, possibly hope to engage with our audience and encourage them to want our services? There are some basic marketing techniques that can help our virtual “shop window” look attractive and encourage potential customers to “step inside.”

Put Your Feet in Their Shoes

The most effective way to present ourselves is to consider what information prospective clients want to know. Give them this information quickly and easily and their experience on your website will be satisfying. What do they want to know?

What instrument/s do you teach? Where are you located? How much do your lessons cost?

Think for a moment how frustrating it is when you look at a product for sale that doesn’t have a price tag, you can’t work out where a company is located or what exactly it is “they do!” You can see how important it is to clearly state your

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Posted in Financial Business, Music & Technology, Professional Development, Promoting Your Studio, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Ronnie Currey (Editor)

New Features and Fixes in February 2013

February 28th, 2013 by

Every week we post new features and fixes on our Facebook and Twitter page. We also post features and fixes weekly on our blog, as we are aware that many of you do not use social media accounts. You can also read current blog posts and new weekly updates at the bottom of your MTH home page after you log-in.

Here are the Latest Updates made in February 2013:

New Features:

  • Studio Policy: A new adult student or parent, when registering for lessons on your website, can be required to acknowledge and agree to your studio policy before completing the registration.
  • The New Updated iPhone App is released and can be downloaded on iTunes. You must first uninstall the existing app before installing the new iPhone App.
  • Music Teacher’s Helper is now available in Polish.
  • Three new affiliate banner ads have been added.
  • The page order can now be viewed on the edit pages screen.
  • You can now edit the mileage tracker entries.
  • Captions are now displayed on photos.

New Fixes:

  • When reconciling an event with the iPhone App, the event fee will now use the default lesson cost if the fee is left blank.
  • The iPhone App will now save lesson notes.
  • The help section and video tutorials were not showing. This has been fixed.
  • The iPhone App was not loading all payment categories. This has been fixed.
  • Currency symbols were not customizing in the “Paid During Lesson” section of the event reconcile screen. This has been fixed.
  • There was an incorrect date in the registration page for some users. This has been fixed.

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Posted in New Features and Fixes, Site Announcements, Using Music Teacher's Helper

jkroll

Use the MTH calendar to send recurring reminders.

February 24th, 2013 by

How often do you send reminders or tips to your students or parents of students? How often do you forget to send an important yearly reminder?

I use the MTH calendar to remind me to sent specific emails to parents/students about tips, rules and important information. Often these emails are sent in relation to a specific time of year, so having this on the calendar is very helpful for everyone. By adding it as an event on your calendar, folks may also view this information on the web calendar at their convenience.

How to do this: Read more…

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Posted in Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper

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