The Five Pain Points of Owning a Dance Studio Business
Tiffany Henderon with Amanda Scott
Twinkle Star Dance
October is one of my favorite months of owning a dance studio business. It’s the moment just before we all board the non-stop train to destination dance - holiday shows, costume ordering, planning for next season and summer camps while simultaneously running your current season, competitions and conventions, recitals...Choo, Choo!
Right now I still have time to reflect and plan before we really start throwing coals on the fire. The past few years, I added some mid-season live events to my calendar. Making the time to step away from the studios and attend live events to work on my business (rather than in my business) gives me a clear focus on where I am conducting the train.
After several years of making these live events a priority, I now have the privilege of working with and interacting with dance studio owners all around the country. Year after year, I find many of us struggle with the same five pain points in our businesses:
Work/Life Balance
Financial Instability
Hiring and Management
Gaining Competitive Edge in Saturated Markets
Keeping up with New Trends
So since it’s still October, I had the time to compile some actionable items to help give you an extra boost of motivation before the train leaves the station at the end of the month.
1.Work/Life Balance - My biggest takeaway for work/life balance is to ask yourself if you feel like your studio is running you rather than you running your studio? If the answer is yes, I want you to do the following:
Set healthy boundaries
Hold regular office hours in a designated office space
Delegate and set expectations for when and how tasks should be completed
2. Financial Instability - It is easy to get caught up in adding extra community events or outside performance opportunities to our calendars. This season I want you to focus on the two main revenue streams:
Class tuition revenue
Recitals
3. Hiring and Management - You are now a “Teacher of Teachers” and your number one job is to inspire, motivate, and provide resources to you staff so that they can be successful. I do this by having:
Annual trainings
Weekly meetings
Availability to meet one on one
4. Gaining Competitive Edge in a Saturated Market - When the grass is greener on the other side, water your own grass. Center your energy on what you do best and the biggest pool of potential customers. Questions for brainstorming:
What’s on your menu?
What does your “special dish” look and feel like?
Does your branding and marketing reflect that service?
5. Keeping up with New Trends - This season, we’ve moved towards having our clients “opt out” from events so they essentially have to “do nothing” in order to participate in our shows. This is because of the following trends:
Non-transactional buying - we want to make it easy for them to register, participate, etc.
Constant changing digital marketing landscape - mobile first!
Sell the experience
Ready to add a train stop mid-season? Join Tiffany at Thrive! Studio Conference. From the creators of Energize and Twinkle Star Live— Join us for an invigorating two-day retreat in Dallas, Texas. Thrive was designed with the busy studio owner in mind. We’ve planned fresh new seminars that will empower you and your staff to take your studio to the next level.
Get Tickets and learn more: https://www.thrivestudioconference.com
