Building a Studio Business With More Than Just "Hope"

If you're like most studio owners I'm talking to then right now there is a lot of "hope."

They are hoping that their students will all come back.

They are hoping that new students will start looking for new activities.

They are hoping that if they just open their doors that things will work themselves out.

That's not okay. Hope is a great emotion, and a horrible marketing strategy.

Still, there is a lot of anxiety (understandably). So many studio owners are losing sleep at night wondering how the next year is going to play out.

"Is the economy going to take a nose dive?"

"What does that mean for our businesses?"

 "Will people even be able to afford our classes?"

 "Should I drop my tuition rates?"

 "How will I pay MY bills?"

 It's enough to make you want to throw your hands in the air and give up.

"Hope is a great emotion, and a horrible marketing strategy."

Let's talk about "hope" again for a moment.

Hope can help to keep you motivated, but it's not an actual plan. Positive thinking is powerful, but it's not the whole picture.

Without a clear strategy for getting in front of the right students and making a compelling offer to get them enrolled, studios are GOING TO STRUGGLE even more over the next 12-18 months.

Not only that, but many of the grassroots style marketing strategies many studios relied on in the past are not going to be as effective for the foreseeable future. Dancing in the parades and festivals might have been fun, but how many students did it really generate? Shows and recitals are great, and important to have, but it's hard enough to sell tickets, much less get tons of new enrollments off of them. Community events, health fairs, and festivals are a ton of work and not something you can do every weekend anyway.

Like never before in history studios are going to have to leverage their online marketing skills to attract and retain new students. That's the NEW NORMAL.

Even through the Covid shutdown my studios were all shut down to regular group classes just like everyone else. BUT WE WERE STILL ABLE TO ENROLL NEW STUDENTS. And, collecting large down payments and full tuition commitments to our 12-month programs.

I know that might sound unbelievable, but it's all about having the right system in place. If we can do that during a global pandemic, imagine what happens when we're not playing in "hard mode!"

If you run a quality program you can do it too. It's nothing magic about me, or the city I live in, it's just the business and marketing systems that we have in place that run in the background day by day. 

So, "hope" does play a part. It's the motivation to take the next step. It's a matter of believing that you can accomplish more for less and finding ways to actually implement that.

What's next?

What's the next concrete step you're going to take to invest in your own business education?

What's the next system you're going to implement and test to grow your studio?

Leverage that hope you have for a better stronger business and make a move!