I talk to so many studio owners that had a large student base and suddenly lost a big part of their enrollment to a disgruntled staff member that decided to open up their own studio down the street and took a big chunk of the students with them.

They spent the time and money it takes to build something and then from one day to the next find themselves in a position where they have to start over again, AND now they’re competing with someone that is familiar with their business and strategies. It’s a tragedy and it’s devastating.

It amazes me how often this happens in our industry. So many studios end up dealing with it, or worrying that it could happen to them.

But, the real tragedy is that it’s completely avoidable. If a studio is set up and managed properly the chances of this sort of hostile mutiny happening are all but negligible.

So, why does it happen so often?

“But, the real tragedy is that it’s completely avoidable. If a studio is set up and managed properly the chances of this sort of hostile mutiny happening are all but negligible.”

We don’t see this happen very often in other businesses. When was the last time you saw the employees at a grocery store decide they were going to open up a competing market down the street? Maybe it happens in other industries, but we definitely don’t see it as often.

I think there are a number of reasons.

Most importantly, almost all dance studio owners (especially new ones) have little or no actual business or management training. They need to become experts in that too, but very few start out that way. Without that knowledge they start out at a real disadvantage.

So what’s the answer? How do we prevent this from happening to us?

It’s not practical to just teach all of the classes yourself if you ever plan on growing your business. You can’t scale something if YOU ARE THE PRODUCT.

It’s also not “non-compete” contracts. Having instructors sign some kind of agreement that they won’t open up a competitive business within a certain radius is a piece of advice that I see passed around among studio owners, but not only is it not a good solution to the problem, it’s probably not even legal (depends on where you live) or enforceable.

The real solution is really a three-pronged approach to the development of the business itself and its marketing.

 

STEP ONE is to make sure that you’ve got the staff working to accomplish something MORE than just teaching people how to dance. There needs to be what we call “elevated messaging.” Their purpose is not just to create great dancers, or to put on good shows, or to win competitions. Their job is to create successful humans.

They need to see their priority as teaching character development, leadership techniques, healthy lifestyles, and goal setting. They are not “just dance teachers,” and you are the leadership figure that is able to train these staff members and give them the tools they need to be able to effectively transfer these skills to their students. (The bonus is that then the students become more dedicated and skillful dancers as well.)

People want to believe in something. They want to hope for good things. If you can provide your staff with that vision they will be loyal, dedicated, and willing to make sacrifices for its success.

 

STEP TWO is to effectively get this messaging to the students and their parents. YOU ARE NOT JUST RUNNING A DANCE STUDIO. You are something more. By training with your studio they are getting something more than they would get training at any other studio in town. . . and they can see that.

This makes the students loyal to YOUR STUDIO and not to an individual instructor, and this is key. Even in the rare circumstance where a staff member does leave, the students are much less likely to go with them. 

 

STEP THREE involves mastering the art of marketing your studio. You absolutely have to have the confidence that even in a “worst case scenario” where you do lose a large group of students at once for some reason you know that you can easily crank up your marketing machine and replace them quickly. 

This accomplishes a couple of things. First, it helps your staff to have confidence in YOU and to know that they have a stable job and a constant influx of new students. They know that they can rely on you to help them reach their own goals as well. People want security, and they will (once again) be more loyal if they feel that from you.

Secondarily, the staff members know that competing with you for business in the local area would be VERY difficult. If they do aspire to open their own location they’re more likely to do it far away from you, which also helps to guarantee that lots of students won’t be willing to follow them.

Any studio that successfully accomplishes all of these steps can rest easy knowing that they’re well positioned to avoid any sudden, unrecoverable losses.

There is a lot to learn. It can be daunting. I know, it took me two decades to gain all of the knowledge that I have about this industry and what works and what doesn’t. I learned most of it the hard way, making mistakes and missing out on thousands of dollars along the way.

If you’d like to shave years off of the learning curve I’d love to help you. If you’d like to run a successful studio without making the painful and costly mistakes that I’ve made, I’d like to show you how.

Click to Schedule a Strategy Call

It’s important to understand that I don’t work with every studio. I work with studios that are interested in making massive change and rapid growth. If that sounds like you then you should click here and let me know a little more about your studio and your goals. Then we’ll schedule a 30 minute call, completely free of charge, to see if working together might be a good fit.

Whether we work together or not, I wish you all the luck in the world