"How to Add Specialty Programs At Your Dance Studio And Keep Students Coming In All Year Long"

Transcription

1 "How to Add Specialty Programs At Your Dance Studio And Keep Students Coming In All Year Long" Suzanne Gerrety: Kathy Blake: Good afternoon, everyone. This is Suzanne Blake Gerrety from DanceStudioOwner.com and I am on the call today with Kathy Blake, our co-founder. We are talking about how to add specialty programs at your dance studio to keep students coming in all year long. Welcome, Kathy. Thank you. This topic arose from a few conversations we had from members requests who say, How do I rent out studio space for quiet times when I cannot offer classes? or, How do I keep enthusiasm and excitement with my students going all year long? I am really excited about this topic today because you have tested this through trial and error throughout the years, correct? That is correct. What would you say is the biggest thing you want people to take away from this call today? We are going to touch upon a few questions and things we promised for outcomes, but would you say is the big takeaway at the end? Ultimately, I think all dance studio owners want to pay the rent and have a varied program offered to their student base. It has been my experience that we cannot be masters of all trades; we need to specialize in what we do really well. There are many people out there who have their own niche, their own area of expertise and they are not necessarily the kind of person to be a studio owner or compete with you. You are looking for programs that complement, enhance, and provide some sort of revenue, whether you are offering the class yourself as a specialty class or you are subletting your studio and renting it out. I often rented other people s studios through the years when I was building my program, especially when I was doing a lot of Ballroom dancing and other studios did not. I think it is about paying the bills and offering a varied menu to your constituency. That s great. Welcome, if you are just joining us on the call. Copyright: Page 1

2 Kathy, would you share with the listeners how we are now adding extra income at our studio with specialty programs? I have been doing it for many, many years. I find that, again, you should not try to be a master of all trades. There are programs around Zumba, NIA, African dance; there are Music Together and Kinderdance programs; there are Ballroom programs; there are Yoga Pilates. There are all kinds of things that some of the gyms offer to their gym memberships, but they do really well in a dance environment. Some people do not necessarily want to have a full, monthly gym membership just to take one particular kind of class. There are Yoga studios around and at the gyms, but I think dance studios are missing the boat if they do not look at other kinds of programs they could offer. Whom they could network with or offer rental space to? Perhaps they could offer the class themselves. Just this year we offered Irish Step Dancing because a teacher had been recommended to us. I hesitated offering it for years because it really is an art form in and of itself with a real bent toward competition. However, this great instructor came and she did very, very well. Then, wouldn t you know, she was transferred. She recommended another Irish Step studio outside of Boston. We were able to network and get another teacher who is very excited about building an Irish Step program. Our students are delighted; we are delighted; and we are able to offer this entire eclectic program in which we do not need to have expertise. It is really wonderful. We have rented for Music Together; we have rented for Yoga classes. Some of the classes we offer in our regular brochure, but I have specialty teachers. We have a full Zumba program at our studio now which has really brought all kinds of students to our space that would not have come for our regular, traditional dance. Let s talk about two things: renting an empty studio versus offering a specialty program. People ask, How can I get an Irish Step teacher in here? I do not want to have an employee. I also do not want to be liable for their students. Copyright: Page 2

3 The first point is how you sign them, but how do you distinguish between someone going on your faculty versus just a guest teacher? There are pros and cons to both. I would say that it really depends an awful lot on how committed you, as a studio owner, want to be to the program. We offer the Zumba and Irish Step classes, but for the Ballroom program we sublet the space and put out the fliers for the gentleman who offers the program; he is in a neighboring town. We did the same for Music Together. I think it really depends upon your commitment to the program, whether or not you are experimenting with it, the degree to which you are familiar with the background and experience of the person interested in coming on board. There are many, many factors, and every studio owner has to assess it for what is in their best interest. If we sublet the studio, we charge by the hour. For instance, with our Ballroom person we charge $25 an hour for the first four hours a week and then we drop it down to $15 an hour after that. He comes in on a Friday night, a Saturday afternoon, and he doesn t have to pay us a cent if he doesn t book private lessons or have group classes going. It is a time when that particular studio is idle. Let s talk about that for a second. Right now we are talking about allowing a Ballroom studio, for example, to use your dance studio as a satellite branch or as a completely separate entity from your own studio. That is correct. I used to offer the classes myself, but as the studio grew and as I matured I wanted more time off and did not want to be locked into a weekly schedule. I found it in my best interest to discontinue my own program, yet I still wanted to offer it. I found someone for whom it was perfect to come in and moonlight at our studio. We have a Ballroom dance studio about 30 minutes north of our current studio and this gentleman says, I want to serve that market. You say, Great, and on this person s Web site they list our dance studio as their second location. That is correct. We set it up so that he bills his own students through his own processing; you do not have to worry about his lessons showing up. All we are doing is renting the space to him by the hour and allowing him to advertise their satellite location as Kathy Blake Dance Studio. Copyright: Page 3

4 One of the pros to this arrangement is that you can rent to them during off hours and keep the space full. That is correct. You cannot always be sure of your revenue, but if that person is committed to building their own program, they will have incentive to do that. We have other alternate programs. For instance, we are doing a Hip Hop workshop, a one-day workshop on a Sunday. We are sponsoring that event and students have to pay us. We have a guest artist coming in and we do this a few times a year. Interestingly enough, we had a gentleman who came in from Texas in November for a weekend. He did a two-day seminar and then an evening Salsa seminar that was unrelated to Hip Hop. We made enough money to pay all our expenses, to fly him in, take care of that, and he left our studio with a check for $4,500 for the weekend. I do not make that kind of money, mind you. However, what he did to bring enthusiasm into the studio was extraordinary. We then had a secondary reparatory class where each of the students who took his workshop for which they paid about $100 for the weekend had to pay an additional $70 to us to perform in a special spring showcase. Initially, it brought excitement, enthusiasm, and new life into the studio. He was compensated well; it made us look good artistically; we then had secondary income from continuing rehearsals with the work he did; and the customer satisfaction is just off the charts. That gentleman s name is Pay-Y-O. He is a well known Hip Hop teacher. We found him at one of the Dance Teacher Summits when he was teaching there at a Dance Teacher Conference. A lot of people say, I do not want to take on the expense of a guest artist or an intensive. I am worried I will not be able to cover the cost. In instances like our guest teacher for a one-weekend event or even a one-day workshop, they will work with you. Terrence Taps Bennett is another one I have mentioned before as well as Pat-Y-O. I can post a lot of this information into the forum after our call so you can get their information. They are used to working with studios to help it be cost-effective for the dancers while at the same time profitable for the studio. Copyright: Page 4

5 Many times you can work with them on that and we have found it to be very, very rewarding from every angle. The gentleman coming in who is more local has a great background. He is actually going to come on board with our faculty next year, so we are doing this workshop as an introduction. I have arranged with him a 60/40 split. He gets 60% of the revenue that comes in and 40% goes to our operating budget. We printed a flyer; we are promoting it with our students. The 40% I make, again, probably just covers the administration fees and rental of the studio, but it gets our students on fire, it builds his programs, and it causes some excitement. There are many ways to do it. Sometimes it is a flat fee; sometimes we do a split. I want to encourage studio owners to get creative and innovative with your ability to expand and enhance your ongoing tracking-to-recital program. We will pause for a second to see if anybody on the call has a question about what we have covered so far. We want to make sure we answer it. For our guests on the call, we would love to help you specifically answer a question or solve a problem. Speak up at any time; we are happy to help you. We will keep going. As I said, we are here to answer questions. We talked about hiring a guest teacher for a one-day event or a weekend workshop; you can hire guest teachers to come in on a regular basis. Let s talk about our ballet instructor who came on this year. With paying people like this, I want to mention the liability side, Kathy, because it comes up a lot. Who is responsible for these students? Whose students are they? Let s talk about the information you discuss when you have a guest teacher coming in. You have to ask for an insurance binder for people coming in who are renting your studio. Generally, if you are sponsoring the event, you are liable for injuries and so on. Studios operate differently. I have Workmen s Compensation in place in a really large liability and commercial policy. However, you must be careful to cover your bases to be certain the person is insured and to determine who is responsible in the event of an injury. There is not always a clear cut answer. Always check with Copyright: Page 5

6 your insurance policy and make sure you have liability insurance covering your facility and anyone that comes in. If we do an outside performance, we have to have a rider that we present to a theater. You cannot be too careful in this regard. I would say that if somebody is coming into your facility to which you are renting, you absolutely must have an insurance binder. This is important, so I want to make sure we stress it. When you are considering a specialty class or guest teacher or renting out space, there are ways to do it. We talked about Yoga, Pilates, Music Together, Zumba, and Ballroom. There is also NIA and Irish Step. We are also doing specialty programs like birthday parties. We create programs for homeschoolers. This is another thing that is really great. There are homeschooling networks, if you go online. We do things for the Brownies. There are many organizations that are looking for units or an eight-week course. We work with our local Montessori school; they come in and do a program every spring with us. We continually network out into the community. We say, We can come to you or you can come to us for a specialty program for your organization. This is another extraordinary way to reach out into the community. Many of the people who come as guests to a birthday party, come in with the Montessori school, or come in with the Brownie troop, they see what we are doing and they experience the real studio environment. Then they get excited and say, Mom, Dad, I want to take dancing lessons! It is really low-cost marketing because you are actually being paid to promote yourself. That s it, exactly. It was really our students asking for Irish Step that brought about the Irish Step program in our studio. They love it. They do love it. Sometimes you will hear people making a request for a particular program and you can experiment with it. We have members who are in very rural, remote areas that within an hour or two can reach a more urban, city location. They could say, Let s contact a big specialty studio a Ballroom studio, an Irish Step studio, or a Pilate Yoga and ask if anybody in their studio wants to come run a satellite program at our studio. Copyright: Page 6

7 It seems odd, but often this is where you can reach in to grow your business. This is exactly how we got our Irish Step teacher. She is very, very well known and has an extraordinary background. She is in the Boston area and we are about 60 miles outside of Boston. She happens to live halfway between the Boston studio where she primarily teaches and where we are. She does not have a non-compete clause with her employer in Boston. We are no threat to her because none of our students would be going that far to take the lessons for Irish dance. Let s talk about some important lessons you have learned or mistakes you have made along the way. One of the things I hear from studio owners is, Gosh! I have this specialty class. I agreed to pay this person and no one is coming to the class. What do you do about that, Kathy? You must have contracts or agreements even for outside vendors such that you establish in writing up front what the terms and conditions are. All of my contracts are based upon student enrollment. I may hire an Irish Step teacher and say, We are going to put four different classes in our brochure (published work), we will put it online, and there has to be five or more students in the class or we cannot run the class. They agree to commit to those four classes, but maybe only two of them run; maybe only three of them run. I do not guarantee anything up front because I cannot. You do not want to pay $45 for an hour long program and be losing money. Many people say, I do not want to get stuck offering this program, so they never run it. Here is the solution: Put it out there with those terms in a contract. You say, This is only going to work if we have sufficient enrollment. If not, we tried. Perhaps it would be better off in the fall instead of the spring. Maybe we should try it for a one-day workshop and not an eight-week session. These are the things you need to experiment with in order to get a feel for what is working best for your students, the interest in your area, and what people want. Copyright: Page 7

8 We tried on several occasions to offer Yoga classes at our studio. For whatever reason, they just do not work in our venue. There are many great Yoga studios in our area; there is Yoga at all the local gyms. We really promoted program. We have a wonderful mom who is outstanding in Yoga. We tried to promote a Wednesday morning class and we thought it would totally fly. We did everything; we set up the flyers; we agreed with her. We spent some money and some time to promote it and it just did not fly. We tried it for almost two months and the enrollment was not there. Sometimes you gamble. You have to; it is the nature of business. Sometimes it works in an extraordinarily successful way and other times it fails. It is just trial and error. The last thing I want to talk about before we wrap up is Zumba. It has been something we have put a lot of time and effort into with the studio. Also, some of our members are Zumba enthusiasts and are finding successful with this specialty class at their studio. I would like to say this about Zumba. It is a perfect fit for a dance studio. I base this upon having been involved in the organization for a couple of years. Zumba is here to stay. When Jackie Sorenson came out with her Jazzercise, it was a craze. She is still around 30-some odd years later and people are still devoted to the program. It is available at most community centers and so on. Zumba is just going to become a regular part of our culture. Yoga used to be very esoteric and now it is commonplace; everybody does Yoga. It is not associated with Eastern Mysticism to speak of or anything. Zumba is here to stay and nothing could be a better fit for a dance studio because it really is dance exercise. We have Zumba six days a week and people love it. We offer monthly unlimited class cards to try to model the gyms. We have walk in classes; we have class cards. We run the program very differently than our regular technique classes. The moms love it; we have people coming in from outside who would never walk in our doors. It is just a perfect fit for us, so I would say that any studio that is not offering Zumba is really missing out on an opportunity. I would add this. After speaking to some of our faculty who came back from a Dance Teacher s Club, a Boston event, I learned that even there Copyright: Page 8

9 classically trained dancers were saying that every studio should at least offer Zumba. In so many ways, this is a low-cost marketing, cross-cohesive thing for your program. It may be a mom taking a Zumba class at your studio. She has children and may refer other people. It is just great. I know a couple of our members do wonderful fund-raising events with Zumba at their local schools. It is awesome and I think there are many ways you can leverage time in your studio where perhaps you could run a class in an otherwise empty studio. I promised we would talk about some more low-cost marketing buzz to generate and sell the programs. It is very easy to promote a special event; people love it. Special events will be published in newspapers and community calendars when they are open to the public. It is exciting. Consider how you could do a class as a guest event with a special artist, someone coming in, so you can post this on your Facebook fan pages and get the local paper involved. Take pictures; hire a photographer; make it really fun. This is the way to keep your studio name out there. As you said, Kathy, it is about getting creative with filling your studio at off hours. We offered an African drumming class! It is just getting out there and trying something completely unusual; it is sometimes the best thing to do. I have a question about Zumba. This is something I have been looking at for a while to add to the studio. Obviously, my main teacher is not certified and in our area of Montana it is very hard to find those classes. We missed one because we were at a competition. It was actually in the same city we were in, but it was on the same day so it was impossible to send her. I would like to get it going, but when you guys talk about going to the Ballroom gentleman and things like that, do you just approach him and find out if there is a noncompetitive clause in any of their contracts? We have two teachers that I researched online at different places in our valley who teach Zumba. What do you suggest? Should I just call and ask them if they are available to teach at another location? What is the proper etiquette? You would have a big expense to send your person on an airplane to get certified? Copyright: Page 9

10 Yes, because the next place I have been able to find is Vegas. Today I was working with Suzanne on a project and my secretary called me and said, One of our local industries called. It is a big computer company and they want Zumba four times a week in their location. What would we charge to send one of our instructors out there? We also have a couple of instructors on per diem to cover. There are four of us certified in Zumba at our studio. Two of them do it in the full-time program and we have two per diem people. You want to get some of the local, certified people to see if they are interested in building a program for you. You could choose to contact either way: you offer the class and pay them a fee or they offer the class and pay you a fee. Do you see? This would allow you to know what your student interest is and then you can see if it would be worth the money to have someone within your faculty and staff to be certified in the future. Tammy, did you go on the ZumbaFitness.com Web site to search your zip code? I did. There was a class in Spokane and it was just unfortunate that we were in that town that weekend. We had the competition dances at this place and we were doing it on both days, but the Saturday was mainly her dances, so I could not sneak her out and get her back. I kind of looked and I ed them, but right now their schedule only goes through May. I know our area is always difficult to come around to. Here s the thing, too, Tammy. On the Zumba site you can find a certified instructor in your area. You should pull a list of certified people in your area. I can show you that online. Trust me; those people are like authors of books who want to sell their books. These people want to teach Zumba, so they will want to do it. It is new in our area. I have actually had quite a few calls lately for adult classes and we do not have a lot of adult classes other than a Hip Hop cardio class. A lot of them are not sure that this is what they want to do, so I said, Would Zumba interest you? and they say, What s that? Copyright: Page 10

11 I explain it to them and they say, That sounds really fun. I say, We are working on getting something started and I would love to give you the information as soon as it is available. They are very interested, but this is as far as I have been able to go with it. I would definitely go that route. We do a five dollar introductory class; we put out coupons. We gave a coupon for a free introductory class to all of our moms and dads, all of our registered parents of students. As a mom myself and one who has taken classes from very different Zumba instructors, not all Zumba instructors are alike. They are like dance teachers. Some are awesome; they are fun and great. Others are more into the exercise. You may even want to take a couple of Zumba classes where these people are teaching to try them out. Take a class from them and then you can say, Yes, I want to talk to this person. This would be my recommendation, if you can. That is a great point. All Zumba is not alike. Even though it is a program and there is a certification, it varies greatly. When a dancer teaches Zumba it is very different than a fitness person teaching Zumba. If you can take the time (and I know none of us has extra time on our hands), go to the local areas where some of these people are teaching. Take a couple of Zumba classes with them and then say, I m over here because we have had some interest expressed. I do not think Zumba teachers have to sign any sort of non-compete unless their own studio is making them. They are all independent, from what I understand. Is that true, Kathy? The two I found in our area teach at the health club, so I do not think there would be. However, you just never know; you want to cover your bases. You could inquire, but that is my recommendation. It is going to take some dedication to educate in your area. Like you said, give some trial coupons; give some free classes; get people excited about Zumba. Then you can decide if it is sticking enough that you want to even bother certifying your people or perhaps you are making enough revenue off of it to just have it be a win-win for both people. Copyright: Page 11

12 It is not just about the revenue. It is about the customer satisfaction. Your moms and adults in your area are excited that they come to your studio and here is this exercise program. Sometimes they build their confidence there and all of a sudden they are in a ballet class with you. Exactly, and it is filling those days and times that are idle that you talked about is very important for our studio right now. We are so new. You can be the innovative studio offering Zumba. There are no other studios in our area that offer it right now. I keep talking to my teacher saying, I know we need to do this. When you are competing in a small area like this you all have the same things to offer. It is really nice to find a little niche that will set you apart from them to get that excitement and enthusiasm going. I will definitely look into trying that and taking a class or two and going from there. Do not wait. You could get it started now in the spring going into your recital. Last year a bunch of our moms that just started in Zumba did a little two-minute Zumba demo on the stage at our recital to show everyone how much fun it is. They did it when we needed a costume change and they had a blast. They loved it; they were all over it. That is a great idea. We asked them all to wear black, red, and white, so it almost looked like it was costumed. Absolutely; that is perfect. Kathy, would you mind sharing what you think getting started for Tammy would look like as far as paying? She would have to ask, What does the Zumba instructor charge per hour? What is the least risk aversion for her in terms of getting the class and paying that instructor? I think it would involve how far the person was traveling. Are they going to demand $25 an hour? My teachers, of course, are in house and I pay them $25 for a certain amount of students. It depends upon what your rates are and how long they are traveling. For instance, today I told my secretary that I would not send one of my instructors out to the local computer place for under $100 because she has to give up three hours of her time to do that. Do you see? It is that kind of thing. Copyright: Page 12

13 Trust your own instinct and be willing to work with that person. Then again, sometimes what really works for people is saying, I really want this to be profitable for you, and do a 60/40 split. Maybe it is a 50/50 split. The instructor knows they are getting the lion s share; it is their job to be great, to show up; they have the potential to increase their student base. Let s suppose you had five students. Well, if it is 60/40 and you took in only $30 for the class, they are going to get 60%. You might not make as much, but each of you has the potential for profitability. Absolutely, and it is more than you were making at that time anyways with the studio sitting there empty. Also, you are providing customer service. This would be my way to start the program. That is a great idea. I will ask one more question of you, Kathy. What have you found are the studio times for Zumba that fill the most classes? They want either 9:00 in the morning or 6:00 at night. That is what they want in our area. They want to do it after the kids get on the bus or go off to preschool and then they want to do it after their kids are home from school. The kids are where they need to be for an activity or a hobby; maybe someone can watch the kids for them while they run out for an hour. Then they are home in time to put their kids to bed. Do you do Zumba mostly on weekdays or do you offer it on Saturday? We do a Saturday morning 9:30 class, as well. My home office is 45 minutes from the studio. The very popular Zumba class in our town is at 9:00 A.M. on a Saturday. She even offered a 7:30 A.M. for people who are ambitious on a Saturday. We live near the beach, so people like to get to the beach early. You just have to experiment, but I think that is the way to go. Is there anyone else on the call with a question? I think that is it for me. I think we really covered a lot of subjects, Suzanne. I think we want to leave all of our members knowing that they do not have to do it all. Copyright: Page 13

14 There are lots of exciting programs out there and talented teachers who are looking to moonlight, associate with you, collaborate with you, and you can offer a hugely varied program without it all being within your expertise. That s it exactly. We are here to help you keep your passion for dance alive as you grow your business. We are always available to answer questions on the discussion forum. This has been a DanceStudioOwner.com teleseminar and we will talk to you next time. Copyright: Page 14