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The tool stack most academies end up with
Say you're running a growing academy. You're probably paying for a course platform, a community app, a CRM, a booking tool, a payment processor, a messaging tool and a spreadsheet to hold it all together. Each one works fine by itself. Put together, what ends up happening is the same few problems.
- Students log in to three places for content, calls and community.
- Coaches can't see the full picture of a student's progress, payments and messages.
- Sales and delivery don't talk to each other, so someone types a new student's details in again after they pay.
- Nobody trusts the numbers, because enrolments, retention and revenue all come from different tools.
- Subscription costs keep going up as the team and the number of students grow.
What one platform includes
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Applications and sales | Application forms, qualifying, booked calls and the sales pipeline in your CRM |
| Enrolment | Payment, agreement and welcome in one flow |
| Learning | Course modules, resources and tracking progress |
| Coaching | Calls, check-ins and messages linked to each student |
| Roles | A workspace for each role, so students, coaches, sales, assistants, admins and any partners |
| Payments | Subscriptions, instalments and payment status that the right people can see |
| Reporting | Enrolments, retention, performance and revenue in one view |
You don't need all of it on day one. Most academies start with the part that hurts the most, which is usually enrolment or the student portal, and then add the rest in stages.
Case study: TMMB Academy
TMMB Academy runs a TikTok Shop academy. When they came to us the funnel and the day-to-day processes were all over the place, software subscriptions kept going up and there was no single system linking the team to what customers actually go through.
We built one portal with its own workspace for admins, coaches, creators, sales, assistants and brands. It covers onboarding, creator performance, subscriptions and payments, course modules, calls, messages, community resources, brand deals, deliverables and operational alerts. The build ran for more than 60 days.
TMMB was able to take on greater capacity, improve scalability and retention, and reports generating six figures within roughly two to three months. That's a client-reported result, shared with permission. You can read the full TMMB Academy case study.
Custom platform or course software?
Course software is the right call if you sell self-paced courses with a bit of coaching and you've got a small team. A custom platform starts to make sense when one or more of these is true.
- You've got several roles who each need to see something different.
- Coaching, performance data or partner work is a big part of what students pay for.
- You're paying for five or more tools that each hold a piece of what a student goes through.
- You want to own the platform, and maybe license it to other people later.
We go through the numbers on our custom software vs SaaS page.
When is a custom platform not worth it?
Stay on course software if you sell self-paced courses, your team is small and the tools you've got fit without workarounds. Same if the way you deliver still changes from one cohort to the next. Get the programme settled first, because rebuilding a platform around a process that keeps moving costs more than waiting.
There's a middle step as well. A single student portal on top of the tools you keep is a smaller project than a full platform. Our client portal pricing page shows what you get at each budget.
How we build it
- Audit. We map every tool, every role and every place a student's details get typed in twice.
- Design. You get a written scope with the roles, what each one sees, the payment and agreement flow, and how we'll measure success.
- Build. Inside your own accounts, so you own the code and the data.
- Test. We test each role with real cases before any student logs in.
- Launch. In stages, with coaches and staff trained and the documents handed over.
Our approach page goes through each stage.
Frequently asked questions
Can students and coaches have different views?
Yes. Each role has its own workspace and only sees what it needs to. TMMB runs six roles in one portal.
Can it take subscription payments?
Yes. Subscriptions, instalments and one-off payments can all run inside the platform, and your team can see who's paid.
Can we move our existing students and content across?
Usually, yes. We check what your current tools can export and plan the move so your students don't get messed around.
How much does it cost?
Projects start at £4,500 for a focused first stage, like a student portal. A full multi-role platform like TMMB's sits in our top band, from £20,000 to £30,000 or more. You get a written scope and price first.
Do we own it?
Yes. It's built in your accounts, and you own the code and the data.
Can coaches see their students' progress?
Yes. Coaches get their own workspace with the calls, check-ins and messages for each student, next to course progress and payment status if you choose to show it.