How to Start a Dance Studio

there are so many things that could happen and just making sure they are prepared for those things [Applause] hey guys welcome back to my channel the number one place for entrepreneurs where I give you the keys you need to succeed today we're going to talk about a long awaited topic that I get questions on all the time I seriously get DMS about this a lot and I kind of was shying away from it just because I was trying to stay more General but we're going to talk about the specifics about how I started my dance studio today so it's not some laid out format um we're gonna have a casual conversation and I'm gonna keep it real with you guys the ins and outs of it the ups and downs the hard Parts the easy Parts I'm gonna lay it out for you so hopefully if you want to start a dance studio you can do the same thing so if you don't know I have a dance studio in Marietta Georgia it's called Divine dance studio I'm going on my 10th season and I do feel like I know a lot about the dance studio business a lot about the ins and outs of starting a business in general this is my second slash third time restarting my business um and I say that to say it's no accident and it was my choice so I essentially started my business in Tennessee and then I relocated to Georgia so I had to start over completely obviously none of my clientele followed me here and then right now I'm in the process of reopening new location so it's not so much starting over like the first time but it kind of is in the sense of a dance studio is building is a big part of its property a big part of its assets so when you leave a building behind you can't take a lot of things with you so we are starting over again for the third time but with that being said I have a lot of tips on what to do what not to do how to make sure your dance studio is successful and I'm going to share some of those today so I would say the first thing that you need to do to start a dance studio would be to decide that you're going to start a dance studio I know that sounds silly but decide what your passion is and if this is something that you really want to do make that up in your mind before you start setting um your goals and things like that because when you say you want to start a dance studio I used to say that when I was in high school and college I had no idea how it was going to happen I had no idea the resources how I was gonna make it all happen but the more you start deciding and saying it the more that these things will start coming to you and you'll start picking up on things that you need in order to be successful so decide what your passion is decide what you want to do and then from there just have the mentality that it has to work and believe it or not I am a believer in affirmations like the secret things like that information will start coming to you'll start picking up on little things that you need to pick up on so that would be step one step two would be set your business goals decide what you want to do and think about it okay do you want to have this type of studio for kids do you want to have a studio for adults do you want to have a studio for both like I do um decide what type of Studio you want what goals you have what your ideal clientele is and figure out what it is that you want to do in this industry because there's a lot of different directions you go you can go in there's some studios that are strictly for adults in some studios that are strictly for kids some studios for hip-hop some some studios for ballet it doesn't matter what you want to do I know that I primarily focus on kids and competitive dancing but I have great teachers who focus on adults and recreational dancing as well as like all the different genres that I don't necessarily like to do so you can Outreach and do more than you you want to do but I would say for the instances of starting think about what you're capable of doing and what you want what message you want to put out there once you've kind of decided your goal and the audience that you're going to go after get very specific on that audience and that Avatar and think about who you're going to be talking to and here's just a quick tip that a lot of people don't say um yes your kids are your clients if you're doing a kids studio um your kids are your clients but when is the last time a kid wrote you a check no they're not who you're advertising to of course there are kids who will say mom I want to do this I want to do this but a lot of times you're advertising and you're talking to your parents and you're trying to give them the benefits of bringing them their child here so keep that in mind when you're doing your marketing your messaging that you're advertising to the person who was actually signing up and doing the payments and things like that once you do that I do think it's important to establish business goals not necessarily A business plan unless you're looking for funding um then you have to have your long drawn out business plan if not I'm not a big proponent of the extensive business plans I I think that there's a way to do that on a smaller scale and kind of just having the things that you need to have your goals your budgets and things like that it's very important in my head to have a mission for your business I've had a mission for myself and for my business since before I started and I know that I wanted to inspire through dance and I wanted to provide a positive environment so when you are making certain decisions you can go back to your mission and make sure that you're really just pushing that so that your business will Thrive so we're gonna get real for a second because businesses take money to start and a lot of people don't think about that which one of the ways to do that in my head is to think of your MVP which means your minimal viable product so think about the smallest way that you can get started for the least amount of money and things that you can Implement and execute on your own and then from there get started so for me when I graduated from grad school I didn't have a lot of money I had student loans I had to think about a way that I could get my studio started right away with what I had what I had was some mats a trampoline some Dots and a speaker so what I did was I went around to daycares and after school programs and I implemented programs and other people's facilities that I ran parents paid me directly if they wanted to sign up and I advertised it as a great way for the daycare teachers to have a break it was a great offering for the actual schools and daycares because they could say oh we offer dance classes we offer I did Dance and Gymnastics so we offer dancing gymnastics classes it made people want to sign their kids up and I wasn't paying rent I wasn't paying anything like that I was coming in teaching my classes getting my money and leaving so that was a way for me to get started and it was very lucrative and I was able to save a lot of money doing that and it was something that I was able to do on my own so I would I would go out and do that I think that lasted about a year where I would teach the kids um save as much money as I can and eventually I got the money to start my studio so when I was thinking about actually starting the studio the first thing that I was thinking about was location I lived in Chattanooga I started looking up business locations loopnet looking up vacancies things like that I actually think I found my business location on Craigslist and from there I was able to create a budget and think about the things that I needed for the business as far as floors mirrors speaker front desk that was like the minimum that I needed I was like okay from there we're gonna get started I'm a big type a person so once I knew I had those things out of the way then I could focus on the smaller things but I found my building was able to put the deposit security and things like that I will tell you something that people don't realize when they're starting a business is that lease that you sign is not like a lease like an apartment lease if you call and say something's broken they're gonna look at you like okay so fix it um there are landlords who will kind of make sure you're set up in the beginning but other than HVAC a lot of landlords this is my fourth building this is my third building and a lot of landlords other than the things in the contract like the HVAC or maybe the plumbing it's up to you to handle so you get in there you do your Renovations they might work with you on on your rent um for a couple of months while you're doing that but everything is on you the other thing that a lot of people don't realize is the down payments for um or the deposits for your utilities so when you get your power turned on at home your deposit might be like 200 or something my deposit for this place I think was 1800 for to get the power turned on um everything is just skyrocketed so keep that in mind when you're budging there's a lot of hitting costs like that that a lot of people don't realize a lot of people are like rent utilities no there's so many other costs outside of that that I can get to in a separate video but you have to make sure you're budgeting properly I might make a separate video on budgeting and budgeting for a business because there are so many things that people don't think about people think about rent that's not even the highest cost let me tell you um finding your building making sure that your building is good for what you're going to be doing making sure that legally you're able to have a dance studio in that building there's all types of um permits and things like that that you'll have to go through um when you're opening a brick and mortar and inspections and things like that you can Google whatever area you're in and kind of see what your the perspective studio is zoned for but make sure that it's properly zoned and from there you can go ahead and start your renovation process my renovation process and my first space did not take that much because it was pretty much built out how I wanted I just had to do floors and mirrors so luckily my family has always done Renovations and things like that so we were able to get approved to do it ourselves we did that that's a whole separate process um Renovations for a studio can be very expensive let me tell you about mirrors do not discount the kind of the price of mirrors I got so lucky in my first Studio guys I found mirrors that were they were being sold by a hotel so they were getting new mirrors in their hotel frameless mirrors is what you want I got them for ten dollars a piece these mirrors cost about two to three hundred dollars a piece for the size that I'm talking about sometimes more if you want bigger I got them for ten dollars a piece I will never stop thanking God for that blessing alone because when I tell you I was not prepared and I think my mom found them on Craigslist and it was this hotel selling like 40 of them I was like I need all of them I need all of them and I've never come across a deal like that ever again in my life it was God looking out for me but do not discount the cost of mirrors your mirrors are going to be expensive installation and for them is going to be expensive I'm literally getting mirrors set up in my big studio right now it's tip so factor that into your cost when you're thinking about opening okay Renovations aside you need to start thinking about your offer think about the types of classes that you're going to do I suggest you work as much as you can when you're first starting and teach as much as you can and also get help in other areas like bartering things like that I've had lessons on that before but think about what you're going to be offering for me I was going to be offering the basic kids classes Jazz ballet top Hip-Hop lyrical things like that I'm luckily I'm trained in all of those areas so I was able to teach the majority of my classes our first year and then I started bringing in help once we started making more money but think about your offer think about what you're going to charge I suggest doing research in your area and looking what other people are charging and kind of mirroring your prices to that with me I was doing combination classes so I was able to charge a little bit more but you also need to think about your rent pricing and your pricing for operating your business and then you need to make sure that you're able to make enough money to cover that with your prices so your offer includes that mvp that minimal viable product because I was still doing that as I was opening and a lot of those clients were coming over to my studio my pricing how much I was going to be charging my profit how much I was going to be making and hopefully profiting from that amount that I was charging upselling so people are coming in for a ballet class oh that's great we also have hip-hop classes would you like to try that too I was upselling those classes as well as the things that they were needing for class I'm like oh they need leotards let me order leotards and they can buy them from me these are all things that you can think about adding to your business that will hopefully help you make money in that first year all right the next thing you think about when you're opening is systems okay there are so many systems that you need to think about from your website your phone number your customer Journey how people are going to find out about you I'm just not realizing that this might need to be more than one video because there's so many different parts and things that you have to think about um automation when people find out about you what are their next steps you have to outline their next steps for them okay so someone finds you what are the next steps for me their next step is a trial class so you try to get them in for a trial class and then you try to get them into your system for normal classes there's also legal systems are you set up as an LLC as an S corp as a sole proprietor you need to make sure that you are set up correctly in your business legally and paying your taxes please pay your taxes I cannot stress that enough I've never had an issue because I already knew I would I didn't want no smoke from the IRS but make sure that you are set up correctly and you are paying your taxes okay once you you are open and you're starting to turn a profit you need to make sure that you're providing a great experience so there's so many back and behind the scenes things that we talk about but you still have to make sure that you're providing great classes that you're providing a great experience that you are catering to your customers and giving them the things that they need so that your business can keep thriving and growing don't pay so much attention to the back end of the business that you're not paying attention to what you're actually offering and making sure that is a great product and that people are going to want more and more of that once you start making sure that you're operating correctly and you're open then you can start thinking about growing your business hiring more people and eventually thriving as a studio these are all things that I talk about in my course passion and profit how to take your passion and turn into a profitable business that is available on my website www.asianline.com I will link that below as well as if you want some more information on starting a business and if you want me to work with you directly I do offer one-on-one business coaching and I can help you get to the next level like I said this is my 10th season so I have seen every type of issue that you would probably imagine I can help you and hold your hand through the entire process and I actually love to do it so if that's something that interests you go ahead and check my website out and book a call with me so we can get that set up for you in the meantime keep in mind that starting a business is not easy mindset is one of the most important things that you're going to have to keep in mind when you're doing this process like I said you have to make up in your mind that you want to do it and for me I said it has to work or it has to work there was no other option you have to keep your mindset clear and make sure that you have a Clear Vision to your goals so that you can hit all of your goals and execute everything properly I actually remember when I was moving my studio to Georgia I went to lunch with this girl and I won't say a friend because it was not a friend but she essentially wanted to start a dance studio and I was telling her everything that I was going to do and everything that I had planned and she looked at me and she said do you really think that you can do all of that and it was so shocking to me because in my head of course I I knew I didn't there was no doubt in my mind that I couldn't do it um I hadn't even thought about the possibility of not being able to do it and years later I have done it but it's so important to just keep in your mind that it's gonna work because then you will always be looking for those answers rather than those excuses so if Dan opening a dance studio is something that you truly feel in your heart that you can do I would love to help you do that I would love to see you succeed so make sure you check out all of my tips and all of my other videos and if you are serious go ahead and book a call with me and we can make sure that you're set up for Success all right guys that is it for this week I hope you have a great day and a successful life I will see you next time

Channel: Ashia Carpenter

Views: 3,678

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Id: gECglUg3Sg0

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023