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Protègèm Dance School

Protègèm was founded by a fellow member of the IDTA, Gemma Wenman-Ballan. Having dreamed of owning a dance school since she was six years old, she finally achieved her goal in 2003.

When we asked what her motivations for starting Protègèm were, Gemma said – “I cannot imagine my life without dance and the overwhelming feeling I get when the pupils achieve something we have been working on – it's worth its weight in gold!”.

Coupled with the dance school's vision which aims to support, nurture and encourage young dancers' talents and provide them with regular performance opportunities, it's not hard to see why children are desperate to attend. Unfortunately, though, with increased popularity comes increased admin, and Protègèm soon found they were fighting a losing battle. That's where LoveAdmin stepped in.

The Challenge

Protègèm soon found their payment collection and information management had quickly become outdated and ineffective. Gemma was reliant on herself to chase late fees, relay communications and deal with prospective applications. As Protègèm continued to grow, it was apparent their current systems and processes were inadequate, and they identified key areas for improvement.

Speaking to Gemma she said, "Chasing payments took up half my life. Having opened a dance school, I wanted to be teaching dance, but the dance part was becoming only a fraction of my time. A lot of nights I was sitting up until midnight doing the admin.".

To compound these issues, students' information was stored using lengthy spreadsheets which they soon found difficult to reconcile and keep up to date. And, by using spreadsheets, safeguarding students' information could be compromised which following the implementation of the GDPR was important to remedy quickly.

In the face of these challenges, Protègèm began looking for a solution that could support their admin needs more effectively, and importantly, stay on top of their payment collection.

The Solution

Key to Protègèm's choice was the need to increase payment collection rates, reduce administration time and improve safeguards. LoveAdmin's 'real time' payment reports helped Protègèm keep track of every penny paid and owed and as payments came in, the system would reconcile the payment automatically saving lots of time.

When it came to keeping on top of debtors, they could quickly see who was yet to pay and have the system send reminders automatically.

"The automatic payment reminders have been brilliant. Rather than having to chase parents to pay myself, LoveAdmin now does it for me – and it looks more professional than me writing letters or sending emails individually."

LoveAdmin also provides students with their own online account where they can keep their information up-to-date first-hand. The process of the parent logging in and checking that their child's information is up-to-date means Gemma no longer has to do it herself. It also drastically increases the likelihood of the information being accurate which aids GDPR compliance. And, because fields on the registration form can be made mandatory for completion, vital information like medical conditions, declarations and emergency contact information is now collected in full, improving the safeguards for the students and Protègèm itself.

Now, when new students join, no longer does Gemma have to add them to their spreadsheets manually - new registrations are done online and information and payments are recorded on the database instantaneously, meaning staff at Protègèm have more time to focus on teaching dance – the thing they love – rather than admin.

The Result

Protègèm has seen great results since switching to LoveAdmin. Since adopting the LoveAdmin dance school management software they have increased their payment collection by £2,000 and collected payments 3x faster than ever before. If that wasn't good enough, Protègèm has reduced their time spent on admin by 70%.

Speaking about LoveAdmin, Gemma said: “We should have switched to LoveAdmin years ago – it's changed my life.”

If like Protègèm you would like to increase your payment collection and reduce your admin, get your FREE demo of the LoveAdmin software today.