Here at Studio Planner Pro we are all about how to make your life easier and your studio more efficient. Here are our top 3 google features to take advantage of:
I’m sure we all know about the benefits of using Google Drive, Sheets, and more. However, one feature you might not be taking advantage of is Google Forms. Google Forms allows you to make online forms that can be shared with a link. We like to use forms in our studio to collect information for our recital program ads, uniform and merchandise orders, studio rental requests, and birthday party requests. You could also use forms to create a quick poll to make scheduling team meetings a breeze. You can link your form to a Google Sheet so all of your form responses automatically populate. You can also set features to notify you when a new form is submitted. This makes for easy management of the information you are collecting.
2. Google Voice
Did you know that if you have a gmail account you can get a FREE Google Voice number? With the Google Voice app you can call and text from your Google Voice Number. It is a great way to control when you receive business notifications. You can turn notifications on and off ensuring you aren’t receiving messages all hours of the day. It also is a way to give families a way to communicate with you without giving out your personal phone number. It takes one crazy parent to learn not to give your personal information out again. Within Google Voice you can also block numbers you don’t want to receive calls or messages from.
I’m sure you are all familiar with Google Sheets but the possibilities are endless when it comes to sheets. It is so easy to share your spread sheet with your faculty and staff to quickly get information without having to track everyone down individually. We use sheets for recital planning and it holds all of our information in one place. Faculty and input the songs, costume choices, and production notes on their own. You can comment on the specific area you need information and tag the individual you need it from. You can have your forms populate into your sheet (Recital Ads can automatically go into your recital planning spreadsheet).
If you are familiar with the formulas in sheets you can do all kinds of things. Most recently, I created a spreadsheet for our upcoming Pre-Pointe/Pointe screening. On the first page I will be able to input all of the notes from the screening so we will have them in our records. The following pages will automatically populate with the information so I can quickly print off the individual notes for each dancer and send it with them that day. There will be no sitting down to type up the information or copy and paste it to another document later.
If your studio does any type of skills testing this is a HUGE time saver.
What are your favorite google features?