Smart systems that run the parts of a studio nobody should still be doing by hand.
Built inside a working dance studio, by people who got tired of doing it the other way.
Already know what you want built? Book a working session →
Your studio already has systems.They're just made of you.
The schedule parents can actually read
Pulled live from the software you already pay for. No PDF from 2019, no version taped to the wall with a chocolate handprint on it.
The work that happens without you
Recital reports, competition fees, calendar entries, rehearsal caps, forms that file themselves. It runs whether or not you remember it.
A receipt at the end of every month
Every task it did, the hours it gave back, and what those hours would have cost you. Measured, not estimated.
A brand-new front end website.A brand-new back office. On top of the system you already run.
Your dance management software stays exactly where it is — you keep using it exactly as you do now. The setup is my job, not yours. After that, nothing gets typed twice. It's a workflow system that sits between the systems you already pay for and makes them talk to each other — pulling what it needs, writing back what it should, and automating the parts nobody should still be doing by hand.
The front end parents see
A website and schedule that look like your studio and stay current on their own, because they read from your system rather than from somebody's memory.
The back office you run it from
One place for the fees, forms, rosters, reports and reminders — instead of nine tabs, a spreadsheet and a text thread.
Both of them talking to what you own
It integrates with the software you already pay for and automates the parts nobody should still be doing by hand. Nothing gets replaced. Nothing gets lost.
Rather see it than read about it? See my studio's schedule, running right now → It reads from our dance software every morning and updates itself — nobody maintains it. And here is the website it lives on → Both open in a new tab.
My wife and I own a dance studio in Louisiana — about 400 dancers, competition studio, and we still run it every day. Before any of that, I was in school to be a computer programmer. I left to go dance instead, but I never lost the interest — so after many years of doing calendar entries and recital reports and competition fee sheets and draft schedules by hand, I spent about six months building my way out of it.
I want to be straight with you about what this is. It doesn't run our studio — we do. What it does is take the worst jobs. You know the ones — nobody wants them, they make your eyes cross, nobody should have to do them twice, and your dance management program either doesn't handle them at all or doesn't handle them the way you handle them. So somebody ends up doing them by hand anyway. And even when you pay somebody to do it, you're paying for something that should just happen on its own — automagically.
The live schedule is the easiest one to show you. It rebuilds itself out of your class data every morning before anyone's awake, and nobody touches it. It happens automagically.
You've probably bought something that was going to fix everything and turned into one more login you'll never remember, with a bunch of features you'll never use. So here's how mine goes instead. Nothing gets installed on your computer. Your dance management program stays. Whatever else you're already paying for stays.
We start with an exploratory call — screen shared, looking at your studio together, working out what's actually costing you the most time and what to fix first. Then I set it up with you on a call while you watch me do it: your class names, your levels, your fee structure, your recital week, your calendar. It gets shaped around how your studio already runs, instead of me handing you a template to bend yourself into. One piece of it or all of it, both are fine, and nothing lands on your plate when we hang up.
And my own studio is where I use what I've built — every day. For the last six months it has kept its own count of what it handled, without me: 1,264 tasks neither I nor my staff had to do, and 240 hours we got back between us — that is 30 full consecutive 8-hour working days — counted out of the logs rather than guessed at. Nothing to show you but the work.
— Michael ArnoldOne number.That's the whole price list.
Start with a free call. Up to 45 minutes, screen shared, looking at how your studio actually runs. I tell you what I'd fix first and what it would take — no charge, and nothing to buy at the end. Everything below is only if you want it after that.
Build it
Billed by the hour until it's done, in half-hour blocks. No retainer, no contract, no minimum. You get a range of hours before I start, so it is never an open chequebook. You see the hours — they're counted out of the work log, not guessed at.
Keep it running
Hosting, updates, backups, and an hour of changes every month. If something breaks, fixing it is free and doesn't touch your hour. Cancel whenever.
Or just ask
Bring the apps you already pay for and we'll make them behave. This is the paid one — me actually working on your stuff, not just looking at it. The free call above is for finding out whether that's worth doing.
A development shop quotes $15,000 to $150,000 and nine to eighteen months for work like this. That's the real alternative, and it's why most studios never get custom anything. See what's included →
Seventeen questions.About four minutes.
You get a score at the end you can either frame or hide. If you'd rather just talk, put something on my calendar — it's a conversation, not a demo you have to sit through.