Krista Casey founded Academy 831 in Brea, California in 2015 after taking eight years off from owning her first dance studio. With her children being older, she and her husband knew it was the right time and the right opportunity to own a studio once again.

Between owning the two studios, Krista taught yoga and pilates classes out of her home and used booking software to manage customers and classes. From this experience, she knew that dance studio management solution would be a must for her new studio. But, not any software would work. It needed to be easy to use and mobile so she could accomplish her studio goals while being a mom and a wife. Download the case study below to see how she supercharged her business. 

Goals for Utilizing Dance Studio Management Software

Krista’s primary goal for implementing studio management software at her new business was first and foremost to have a healthy work/life balance. Owners, directors, and managers of dance studios know achieving a work/life balance can be challenging and often list this as a main goal along with business growth.

A secondary goal for Krista and the staff at Academy 831 was to find studio management software that connected to the other business management applications they used to manage the operations of their studio.  

The Solutions for Academy 831 

With their goals well defined, Krista and her team at Academy 831 went to work to find studio management software that would be the perfect solution and help this self-proclaimed non-tech-savvy business owner build a strong foundation for her studio to grow on.

Custom-Branded Mobile App

If you’ve been in the business of running a dance studio, you understand how time-consuming communicating with parents and families can be. That’s why first on Krista’s “must-have” list was a mobile app that allows for easy connection with customers.

Jackrabbit Plus offered Academy 831 the solution to bundle their monthly studio management and mobile app subscriptions into one payment. Jackrabbit’s mobile app integration not only connects your Jackrabbit account to a parent app, but it also allows you to customize it to match the branding of your dance studio. 

After set-up was complete, Krista was able to use one single platform to communicate with different groups ranging from staff and customers to classes or specific families.  

Live Streaming Classes for Parents

Some dance studios have to allow customers to watch their students in class, and many like to offer a viewing window to allow parents to see how their child is developing from lesson to lesson. 

What do all viewing windows have in common? They are a magnet for parents, siblings, and anyone else in your lobby interested in watching class while they wait. They can also be a distraction for students while they are in class. 

Krista and the Academy 831 team learned they could eliminate distraction while still giving customers the ability to watch their dancers in class through Jackrabbit’s integration with Spot TV – a simple and secure live streaming service. By taking advantage of Jackrabbit’s exclusive integration with Spot TV, Academy 831 customers have more ways to watch their students in class: 

• In person at the viewing window
• Online from their Parent Portal
• Through Academy 831’s mobile app 

Staff Payroll Processing 

Krista had experience with a staff payroll company that left her searching for a different solution that would save her and her staff time while tracking hours worked and processing payroll. 

Express Payroll provided solutions for both staff and administrators at Academy 831. Not only were staff able to track their hours worked in Jackrabbit’s Time Clock, but the seamless integration between Jackrabbit and Express Payroll meant that when it came time to process payroll, Krista’s team knew that hours and wages were accurate. This resulted in time saved and eliminated any costly payroll mistakes that can be made out of human error. 

Academy 831 Achievements

With her new studio open, Krista has been able to connect the apps she loves to her dance studio management software to save time and increase productivity, which has led to her achieving the work/life balance she desires.