5 Struggles of Owning a Dance Studio: Keeping up with Trends

We’ve been chatting the last several weeks about the five struggles of owning and operating dance studios:

1. Work/Life Balance 

2. Financial Instability 

3. Hiring and Management 

4. Gaining Competitive Edge in Saturated Markets

5. Keeping up with Trends 

Today I want to touch on longevity in a dance studio and keeping up with trends. Sometimes we do something in our business because it is the way our dance teacher did things or the way we have always done it.  

For example, offering Summer Sessions and Summer Camps versus running a year-round schedule. About twenty years ago, we transitioned to a year-round dance season which allows me to create one schedule that runs July 1 - June 30. 

We find most parents prefer to secure the day, time, and teacher for the whole season as well as paying $90 per month for class versus $250 for the week of camp. 

Some additional trends:  

1. Non-transactional buying - we want to make it easy for them to register, participate, etc. 

2. Constant changing digital marketing landscape - mobile first!

3. Sell the experience - focus on the benefits for the dancer. 

Want more insights and practical advice? Join me for a dance studio owner weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

5 Struggles of Owning a Dance Studio: Financial Instability

Welcome to March Madness in your dance studio. Where we are simultaneously creating for this season and planning for next season. 

Connecting with studio owners through the Twinkle Star Dance community, my Diamond Circle coaching clients, and Dance the Dream parade events, I find many of us struggle with the same five pain points as dance studio owners: 

1. Work/Life Balance 

2. Financial Instability 

3. Hiring and Management 

4. Gaining Competitive Edge in Saturated Markets

5. Keeping up with Trends 

Last week we chatted about struggling with work/life balance. This week I want to touch on something that often causes us to feel unbalanced which is Financial Instability. 

When your business is not yet profitable; you’re not categorizing your revenue correctly so you don’t know how much you can pay yourself; or you find yourself rebuilding your business after losing a performing company group and/or teacher it leads to feeling like your business is owning you. Trust me, I’ve been there. 

In my early days of studio ownership I decided to expand my one room studio location to three rooms, taking on an additional lease thinking I could sublet my first location. How hard can it be? Then the real estate market crashed and I had to drive home from teaching every night for three years and wave to my $3,000 per month salary. 

It’s safe to say, after decades of owning and operating multiple, successful locations, I have enough failures under my belt to offer some solutions. 

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 maximizing your two main revenue streams in your business: 

• Class Tuition Revenue 

• Recital Revenue 

Class Tuition Revenue - Focus on making your dance classes the absolute best they can be. Create or implement a proven curriculum that balances structure and fun. 

For example, the Twinkle Star Dance program introduces young dancers to ballet, tap, jazz, and creative movement. They learn the basic steps while following directions and imitating movement in a positive environment. Engaging music is used to get these little guys inspired. The use of props such as Twinkle bears enables the young dancers to use their imagination, creativity and, most of all, have fun!

Recital Revenue - I’m a big proponent of two shows per season - Holiday and Spring. Dancers pay a recital participation fee for each event that includes the performance, costume, tights, action photos, wide angle video, and dancer ribbon or medal. 

Notice I did not say tickets. When it comes to recital tickets, be sure to have tiered pricing, reserved seating, and do not sell out! Depending on the size of your theater consider having smaller, shorter shows so you can sell more of the higher price tickets. We plan for every dancer to sell 5 tickets on average based on previous show data.  

Want more insights and practical advice? Join me for a dance studio owner weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

Check back next week for my tips and tricks to combat Hiring and Management. 

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

DREADING “MARCH MADNESS” IN YOUR DANCE STUDIO?

March seems to be the time of year when everything collides in a dance studio. 

As a studio owner, you are finalizing details for this year’s recitals (costuming, ticketing, show orders, dress rehearsal); you are editing music; you are coming up with new themes, graphics, lesson plans, ordering crafts, scheduling, and marketing for summer camp; you are beginning choreography for your recreational dancers and cleaning choreography for your competitive dancers; you are editing music again; you are putting the schedule together for next season; you are hiring new teachers and administrative staff; you are training new teachers; you are waking up in the middle of the night to add to your to-do list; you are thinking up new promotions to get students to return next season; you are BURNT OUT. 

You are also expected to figure out how to continue to enroll new students and cross your fingers…knock on wood…three calls to the costume companies later *hopefully* get them a costume so they can participate in your spring recital. 

Twinkle Star Dance is the proven dance studio curriculum and teacher training system to help you earn a comfortable living doing what you love, Teaching Dance!

Twinkle Star Dance has transformed hundreds of dance studio owners’ lives. Studios have gone from on the verge of shutting their doors to tripling in enrollment and preschool classes with waitlists. But don’t just take our word for it, listen to Terri Anderson share her success:

“ After attending the Twinkle Star Dance conference in Las Vegas, we put everything we had into the Twinkle Star Dance Program. We left the conference with a refueled passion for teaching dance. Since then we have more than tripled our students, have a continued waiting list for our classes, and upgraded our studio from 400 square feet to 5000 square feet! Thank you Twinkle Star Dance for changing the future of our studio! “

Terri Anderson
Sister Act Dance Academy, Brownsburg, IN

What are you waiting for? Join Terri and 300+ other dance studio owners in the Twinkle Star Dance community today. 

Still on the fence? Take a girls trip and weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain and gain exclusive behind the scenes access to Tiffany Henderson and the Twinkle Star Dance Method.

Festive Fun in Your Studio

‘Tis the season for adding extra Holiday Events in your studio. Hosting a Holiday Mini Camp or Nutcracker Tea Party markets your dance classes, increases revenue in short/slow months,  fosters community and customer loyalty, as well as shares the magic of the Holiday season.  

Some Holiday Events to consider hosting: Spooktacular in October, Nutcracker Tea Party in November, plus Holiday Mini Camps in December and January. 

Don’t make it too hard to participate! Keep your Holiday Events open to current, past, and future students. You can charge a fee or make the event FREE if you bring a friend that’s not currently enrolled at the studio.  

Plan on marketing Holidays Events 2-3 weeks prior to your date with email and text message blasts to your mailing list, boosting a Facebook event, and studio announcements/newsletters.    

The day of the event, welcome dancers by decorating the studio in the theme, having music playing, and gifting goody bags. Be sure to offer a promotion for new students to try or register for a dance class. 

Free Webinar

On top of offering the Twinkle Stars and Showstars Curriculum and Choreography subscriptions, Tiffany strives to provide real-time business insights from her experience of owning and managing multiple dance studio locations. Each month she holds free webinars. Learn more: https://www.twinklestardance.com/webinars

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Nurturing your Studio Community

Happy November! Now is the time of the year when the number of new enrollments start to dwindle as we transition into the busy holiday season.

Not to worry, we know inquiries from new students will pick back up in January. We have exciting promotions to capture new friends to enroll in our Twinkle Babies and Twinkle Stars classes at the start of the year.

I like to remind myself the months of November and December are a great time to focus our attention on marketing internally to the dancers currently enrolled and help nurture our studio community. 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share various programming ideas you can incorporate at your dance studio to keep your dancers and families engaged.

This one might seem obvious, but I like to use themed props to add fun to dance class!

For example, we have a class set of autumnal-colored scarves that our Twinkle Star Dance classes use along with “Colors of the Wind” a choreographed ballet center stretch and movement. 

This November we are doing a line dance to “The Git Up” in all of our classes. Then during Parent Observation week this month, we are inviting the parents to join in the fun with a Family Hoedown.  

December is a fun time to use jingle bells. Our Twinkle Babies love dancing to “Jingle Bells Opposites” and hearing the jingle of the bells and the tapping of their toes. 

Another great prop is a star wand. Our Twinkle Stars enjoy using star wands and dancing to “Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star.”

Learn more about Twinkle Star Dance and our live teacher certifications: https://www.twinklestardance.com/how-it-works. 

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.