If you are someone who loves dance and is passionate to share it with others, opening a dance studio is certainly the right idea. However, you must know the fact that opening a dance studio requires a lot more effort than becoming a professional dancer.

It requires your attention for various areas of business operations other than just teaching dance.

You have to be concerned about everything, i.e. from advertising to payment processing, legal matters to customer feedback and reputation management.

You may delegate tasks to multiple people on a later stage, or if your budget allows at the startup stage, but you must know things yourself, just to make sure that everything is going on track.

Here in this article, I will list the most important areas of a dance studio business that must be considered by all dancepreneurs.

1- Money Management:

No doubt, it’s your passion and determination that is most important to start any business, but when it comes to set up a dance studio, you do need sufficient money and effective money management so your business should not run out of money at any stage.

While you can’t predict every expense, you may prevent surprises by taking good care of your investment. Investing in a dance studio accounting software right from the beginning is a great way to ensure the financial health of your business.

As a fact of the matter, most of the dance professionals do not have much experience with managing money. So, hiring a financial advisor while starting up is a smart move. A good financial advisor can help you set financial goals for your startup by analyzing your investment potential, market conditions, and competition.

2- Location:

Location plays a vital role in business success; you don’t just get maximum exposure, but also save a lot of advertising costs. So, a dance studio located in a populated, busy area that’s visible to passing traffic is an ideal set up. But also consider that the location should be safe for children.

Having more dance studios located in the proximity can give you a tough competition, so do proper research before finalizing the place. Depending on what you offer, you can decide the number of rooms, but make sure you have enough space for the reception area, have sufficient changing rooms, proper emergency exits, and parking spots.

3- Equipment

Your dance studio is simply incomplete without equipment, so right after finalizing the location, you must work on getting the best equipment for the right prices. Look for dance studios that are closing or upgrading their business. Buying used equipment in good condition is a great way to save money.

And yes, it’s not just the dance classes related equipment needed; beyond the dance equipment, you also need the basic equipment required for running a business, i.e. computer system, CCTV cameras, studio management software, merchant account to accept credit card payment and so on.

And, do not forget to consider the costs of equipment and materials for maintenance requirements, i.e. cleaning service, equipment servicing, lighting, air conditioning etc.

4- Marketing & Brand Development

It’s your brand name that people will remember while telling people about their experience, so you should consider building a strong brand rather than opening just another dance studio.

Right from naming your business to reaching out targeted customers, it involves various stages of planning, knowledge of right marketing techniques and hands-on experience of running successful marketing and branding campaigns.

So, ideally, you should hire a marketing expert to do so. Consider someone with expertise in online marketing as well as offline marketing; particularly in social media marketing and growthhacking along with the hands-on experience of devising offline marketing strategies.

What you need to do is to overlook the campaigns by having a pre-campaign brief and evaluating the results.

Further, you should not miss any opportunity where you yourself can bring in clients, i.e. have awesome business cards, brochures, a company website and social media profiles. Get in touch with local schools and community groups for possible partnerships especially during summer, winter and spring breaks and also during school days.

Organize an event for the local community right in your dance studio, hold an open house day, and consider offering incentives for signing up for classes on that day. Offer rewards to people who refer a friend.

5- Running the Dance Studio:

Honestly speaking, there’s no quick list of TO DOs for running a dance studio effectively. Depending upon your dance studio offers, requirements may vary, so think about all the things that will be necessary to provide ease and convenience to the clients and prospects, let it be online booking, weekend classes, and discount deals etc.

It’s better to create a set of rules and studio policies early, even before starting operations. The document should include tuition rates, attendance requirements, and discipline rules, schedules, refunds and extra charges, performance evaluation etc.

As a business grows, some things start getting complex, i.e. the taxing process and other legal issues. So, it’s always good to hire a lawyer to help you deal with these complexities.

The Bottom Line:

Starting a dance studio is very exciting, but this excitement starts declining as the dance enthusiasts turn their talent into a business. Ultimately, they have only one option, i.e. to close their dance studio.

The only way to keep this excitement on is to educate yourself, and delegate tasks to niche experts. Shed your unnecessary load and run your dance studio like a worry free soul!