Where Do We Begin?
Well a new season of dancing has begun at Burns Dance Studio. Season #43 to be exact! While many things stay the same within a dance studio structure, a new year brings about new adventures, too. As we, studio owners, prepare to embark on these adventures we may ask ourselves and our staff a few questions to guide the way.
Questions like:
1. What themes and ideas will we implement to enhance the culture of the studio?
2. What trends do we need to adapt to in order to maintain a vibrant business?
3. How do we keep “the main thing, the main thing” while adjusting to new ways of life?
4. What external factors outside of our control are going to force changes in our organization?
The answers to these questions very much direct our path as we go throughout the year, and they shape the experience we all have at the studio - dancers, teachers, and parents alike.
Enhancing Studio Culture
In the studio this year, our themes include highlighting the items that contribute to the mission statement. Each of our teachers looks to offer praise and feedback in a way that advances kids’ progress. Our primary teachers like to use external awards such as stickers and certificates while older kids receive verbal praise and critique. For our recital, we incorporate music choices that center around a theme to be announced later in the year, and hopefully this will spark creativity and excitement among the teachers and students. Past themes have been “Come Cruise with Us” where all the songs/dances are parts of the cruising experience. We have done “Dancing through Disney” where songs all had ties to Disney World. In the end, themes enhance the culture of the studio by building and encouraging unity within our dance community, while also keeping everyone focused on the basics of teaching or learning dance.
Maintaining a Vibrant Business
Trends we need to adapt to in order to maintain a vibrant business include ways to communicate with parents, share information with the community, motivate kids each week and manage the “goings-on” of studio life. While kids have not changed in thousands of years, parenting has changed. Without going into too much detail, there is a gap between the past and the present in regards to how we handle a “struggle.” Some examples to make this point…
● Water bottles: There are currently 9 full water bottles in the lost and found. While we
would love to offer water breaks every 10 minutes of class, it is just not necessary. However, parents are more than happy to buy $10 - $30 water bottles for 6-10 years to
make sure kids stay hydrated for their 45 minute class.
● Observing class: Our studio is built with parent observation in mind. Each room has full size observation windows. As a parent, I wanted to watch as many of my kids’ practices as I could. However, I fully recognized the imperfections of teaching/coaching, class dynamics, styles and results. In our system, with parents all watching at the window together, it is very easy to go down rabbit holes about class dynamics and structure. I have to carefully balance the high expectations we have for teachers vs the expectations parents have for their kids. Not all of our teachers understand the varied levels of passion kids have for dance or how to reach them effectively. As we work through that with our staff, sometimes it is also necessary to work with parents on managing those things as well.
● Communication: We use social media and email as primary forms of communication. The feedback we get is that parents really love the email form because it is convenient and easy to refer back when details are lost. Social media is great only for those who follow, and also opens up opportunities for comments, shares, and criticism. Some studios have carefully crafted social media campaigns with managers, who create daily posts of fabulous things going on in their programs. The goal is to create demand for service and promote their business. There are varied degrees of success in these methods, but it really comes down to business goals. Creating demand is awesome as long as you can supply teachers and space. Remember that part about sharing passion for dance? That doesn’t always mean making a fortune. Long term success usually comes from controlled growth and sustaining a quality product. Thinking through these new trends is something we do not take lightly and want to create and maintain a supportive atmosphere while also managing reasonable expectations for a studio to thrive.
The Main Thing
That leads to keeping the “main thing, the main thing.” We are a dance studio, and we want kids to learn how to dance. That “main thing” is the basics of tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop and contemporary. We feel our teachers can provide the most suitable training for kids in the area to become the best dancers they can be. We acknowledge the fancy costumes, cute outfits, shows, social media posts and nice facilities, but keeping the main thing the main thing is at the core of our business.
Outside of our Control
External factors that force changes in our organization are really the same for all small businesses, regardless of product or service. The City of Aiken is steadily increasing taxes to make up for the 20+ years of neglect to water services. School district fees are increasing to fund new schools and maintain the teacher workforce. The challenge for us as business owners is adjusting tuition rates based on projections of enrollment, that may or may not actualize and how to manage that financial challenge. There are quite a few things outside of our control that we must consider when planning for our year.
A Successful Beginning to a New Adventure
After spending time planning and thinking through how we will make our year successful, what never gets old is the faces of parents and kids when they have had a great first dance class of the year. It is always nice to see the pictures and hear the comments of parents whose kids are happy and enjoying dance. It is always nice to see a summer advertising campaign yield results that sustain operations and continue the passion for dance. Not all studios are fortunate enough to stay in business as long as we have, and thanks to the support of our community, we continue to be Burns Dance Studio!
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