Running a martial arts dojo can be a lot of fun, but it can also be quite the headache – especially if you’re using the wrong software. Spreadsheets certainly do have their time and place, but they aren’t the best option for managing your information as your dojo grows.  Tracking attendance, payments and gradings become almost impossible once you pass 40 students.  This is where Martial Arts Software can help you.

Here are the pros and cons involved with spreadsheets and martial arts software.

#1 – Communication

If you’re going to run your business the best you possibly can, then communication is very, very important. Not only do you need to be able to communicate with your other employees, but you also need an open line of communication with your students and their parents or guardians. Think about the methods you use to communicate right now. Chances are good they include text messages, emails, phone calls, social media, instant messengers, and more. It can become a daunting task to keep track of all of that information.

A spreadsheet can help, but only so much. In it, you can list client names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. This makes it easy for you to find someone’s info when you need to reach out to them, but it does very little to help you manage the actual exchanges of information that take place. That’s where martial arts management software can fill in some significant gaps. It will allow you to keep track of every exchange of information between you, your employees, and your students. This way, all of your communication is consistent from day one.

#2 – Scaling with the Growth of Your Company

In order to run a successful martial arts studio, you’ll need to grow over time. A spreadsheet will let you keep track of some basic numbers.  This is very limited information, though. What if you want to see your projected income over the next six to 12 months?  You could invest in better amenities for your student or potentially evaluate the viability of adding a new class.  You simply cannot do this if you are managing your business in a spreadsheet.

Once again, enter martial arts software. It provides you with everything you need to understand how your business is operating today and how you should scale it to accommodate for the tomorrow, next month, and even next year. It allows you to spot trends that are adding to your ability to gain new clients. It allows you to discover which demographic is providing you with your best source of income. It even allows you to find out which of your customer retention campaigns are working, and which are simply slowing you down.

#3 – Accurate Reporting

Think of your spreadsheet like a bank. You put information into it, and it stores it there for future use. You can refer back to that spreadsheet at any time you’d like, but your reports just aren’t that accurate. What’s more, you have to format spreadsheets in multiple different ways to see the numbers you need, and getting access to those numbers in real time is all but impossible.

When you need real-time insight into the success of your business, a spreadsheet just won’t cut it. You need more than just a bank – you need an accountant. That’s what martial arts software can do for you. You can analyze and quantify everything in a matter of seconds with no real effort involved, just like hiring someone to crunch your numbers for you. You can change things where you see fit, and everything happens in real time, too. The best part is that you can get reports multiple times a day, and you can share them with your employees instantly.

#4 – Company-Wide Standards

If your company is growing to the point that you are considering opening another dojo, think about how difficult it would be to create standards if you’re using a spreadsheet to keep track of most of your information. Yes, there is internet-based spreadsheet software, but unless everyone is familiar with formatting it – and frankly, most people aren’t – then you’re bound to run into trouble at some point. If you hire a new employee, will he or she be able to derive the information he or she needs from a spreadsheet? Can you easily audit changes to the spreadsheet?

When you switch to martial arts management software, it’s easy for everyone to access it from anywhere, both locally and remotely. If you have two studios, everyone in the company can stay on the same page. When someone updates something, it’s updated everywhere in real time. You can keep an eye on everything from client acquisition to churn in real time, even if you’re on the other side of the country. Keeping company-wide standards makes it easy for everyone to understand how to input, change, and process the information they need to access.

#5 – Everything in One Place

Finally, the ability to make sure that everyone in your company has access to the information they need right when they need it is absolutely critical to your success. When you have multiple spreadsheets filled with data that is difficult to decipher, you end up with employees who don’t know where to look when they need something. If they want to figure out how many more memberships they need to meet goals, they have to search through pages of information. If Mr. Johnson calls and wants to know when his next membership fee is due, your employees are going to struggle to find that data – and it’s going to affect your ability to provide quality customer service.

Perhaps the best benefit to martial arts management software is that it provides you with a central hub to store all of your information. Whether you want access to addresses, telephone numbers, payment histories, membership statistics, communications between customers and employees – whatever you can imagine – it’s all in one place. This means that there will be no more searching through pages and files to find the right information, and this benefits you, your employees, and your clients tremendously.

Although there’s no doubt that a spreadsheet can benefit you in many ways, particularly when it comes to keeping track of things like money or basic bits of information, it simply cannot perform at the same level as martial arts management software. Dedicated software makes your company more organised and able to provide the best possible customer service with every single interaction.