As an Instructor, your calendar is one of your most important tools. Mis-managing your calendar can lead to lost business. By having an online, real time diary, it enables Learners to request lessons directly with you; no missed calls, messages taken, or consolidation at the end of the day.

The ADBOK.com™ calendars adhere to data protection and display information only related to the person logged in to the system — Instructors see all their lesson information, Learners only see their own lesson information.

Availability is clearly marked and Learners cannot book lessons outside the working hours specified by each Instructor. As an Instructor, if you specify (in your ADBOK.com™ profile) that you don't work Wednesdays, for example, then Learners will not be able to book lessons on Wednesdays.

With the large number of Instructors eligible to teach people how to drive, the Driving School industry is one of the most competitive industries within which to operate. In the first three months of 2008, only 43 per cent of those who passed their driving test had paid for lessons — in the same period in 2009 that proportion dropped to 32 per cent.

As Learners get more careful with their money, or even turn to family members for driving tuition; Instructors need to find new ways of selling their services and retaining their pupils — this is where ADBOK.com™ can help.

ADBOK.com™ is a dynamic, online "shop window" for all Driving Instructors. It allows Learners to find local Instructors based on their buying decisions — price, discounts, type of car, gender, etc. This part of ADBOK.com™ works in very much the same way as any other comparison website. The marketing feature allows you to advertise offers when things are slow, or simply to differentiate you from your competitors.

ADBOK.com™ is focussed on helping Instructors manage and interact with their Students in the most effective way, using advanced technology. When your Student undertakes some practice in their own time, for example, they can record this on ADBOK.com™ which can then be viewed by you, in preparation for their next lesson. By working in this way, it helps guide your Students and aim for the DSA's recommended 52 hours of driving before sitting their driving test.

Your Students will use ADBOK.com™ to record their progress and record their details, this will ensure that you always have access to your Students' most up to date details; contact numbers, home address and pick-up address, for example.

To ensure your records don't get cluttered, you can even deactivate Students that have passed their test and don't continue with any lessons — these records are archived for reference and help you focus on your active Students.

ADBOK.com™ allows you to update your Students' "Driver’s Record" (based on the DSA syllabus) after each lesson. This can help you plan your lessons — in line with the Private Practice — and also provides valuable progress information to your Students.

By monitoring your Students' progress in this way, it helps ascertain when a potential test date can be booked; it also helps your Students understand how much learning is required. Additionally, by providing this information graphically, you can rely on this ADBOK.com™ information to help plan and canvass more business — as your Students "turn green" (complete their tuition) you will need to plan for more business and more Students.

The syllabus is reproduced with Crown Copyright permission.

ADBOK.com™ is designed to manage your calendar, your rates and your discounts; with all this information, it is possible for ADBOK.com™ to calculate your revenue. ADBOK.com™ also provides you with a simple to use accounting and bookkeeping package that allows you to record all your outgoings and expenses, including; petrol, diesel, insurance, car maintenance and phone bills — if you need an additional expense category, just customise your list!

Now that you have ADBOK.com™ to manage all your revenue and overheads, it is possible to calculate your turnover, cost of sales and profit. This puts you, as a business owner, in control of your costs and what your projected earnings and profit should be.

If you already use an accountant, export your details from ADBOK.com™ and have everything prepared — this should reduce the burden on your accountant and, therefore, reduce your accountancy fees!

When Learners come to ADBOK.com™ to find a Driving Instructor, they make a decision based on various details. These range from; other Learners' ratings, the type of car you teach in, how much you charge, how far away you are, your gender, and even the transmission type of your car.

ADBOK.com™ allows Instructors to define this information in their profile, so that when searches are made within a certain area, Learners can make decisions based on what is important to them.

The profile page includes the rates that you charge for differing types of lessons (Standard, Pass Plus, Advanced, etc), the car you teach in, and the hours that you work — this is directly linked to your calendar so that Learners cannot book lessons at times you do not teach.

A large proportion of the ADBOK.com™ members have joined through a referral from satisfied ADIs. ADBOK.com™ recognises that it can only be successful if our members are satisfied and are willing to "spread the word", which is why we pay our members for referring new members.

As an Instructor, you can invite other Instructors who would also like to join ADBOK.com™. As with all ADIs, the new members will get all the ADBOK.com™ services for free and only pay 60p for each lesson booked by a new Student. Since the new member came from your referral, ADBOK.com™ will pay you 10p for each of their booking fees.

10p doesn’t sound a lot, but get 100 ADIs to join ADBOK.com™, all doing an average of 25 lessons per week, and that would earn you about £13,000 per year, every year!