It’s been a strange time for dance studios over the last few months. No matter where you’re located in the country we’re dealing with some issues we’ve never seen before.
I can understand the stress that uncertain times cause for studio owners that wonder what the long-term impact of a crisis might be for their own businesses.
Are students going to quit permanently?
Will I have enough income to pay my bills?
Will we have to close our doors for good?
Or, is there another way to get through this? Thriving instead of just barely making it.
There were so many studios that were already struggling just to get by before we they were hit with some extra-tough times |
“I vowed to learn from the experience. To make changes quickly. And to never be caught off-guard again.”
As a studio owner of multiple locations myself, we learned a lot through the financial struggles of 2008.
I can distinctly remember at that time almost every week someone coming in to the studio and needing to cancel their membership because they had lost their job. It was scary for them. I was heart-broken, but also concerned for the long-term welfare of my own studio business.
I vowed to learn from the experience. To make changes quickly. And to never be caught off-guard again.
We implemented some important changes during that time.
1. We figured out how to charge large down payments from new registrations.
2. We figured out that the old-school advertising techniques weren’t working any more. (No more relying on parents magazines, organic social media posting, dancing in parades, or hoping word of mouth picked up)
3. We figured out how to keep students enrolled over longer terms and through tough times by pre-framing them to think about our programs the right way ON THE FRONT END.
4. We realized how much we had underestimated the size of the cold market, and relied less on marketing to the people that already knew about us.
But, most importantly, we did something none of our competitors were willing to do at the time. . .
5. We implemented quickly.
We took the things we had learned and we didn’t wait. We didn’t wait for the economy to turn around. We didn’t wait to feel like we were “ready” for change. We didn’t even wait to feel like we were personally 100% ready to implement everything.
That’s my advice to all of our one-on-one clients today as well. Get out there and implement. Make massive change. Impact your community in a HUGE way. Stop thinking small, or hunkering down, or waiting for things to “get better”. . . they never do on their own.
Over the next week we’ve opened up some additional times to talk with studio owners about how it might make sense to work together with our team to help them implement these new strategies that are working right now to attract and retain more students.
We’ll spend a few minutes on that call talking about the current situation at your studio. We’ll help you to figure out the most profitable path forward. Then, if we think you’re a good fit we might make an invitation to work together with use one-on-one to implement quickly.
Either way, we’ll help you to understand what your specific next steps should be.
We love this industry. We’re personally dedicated right now to growing our own programs in our own studios and genuinely want to see others thriving as well.