Do you want to become a Dance Studio Owner? Over the years I have heard from many dance teachers who would like to branch out and start their own dance school. They are ready to take the leap and become an entrepreneur, but often the reason why they want to open a dance studio varies greatly. For a dance studio succeed as a business, you need to be able to look at the venture in certain critical ways.

First and foremost you are starting a business. You have to have a completely different mindset and approach than that of just teaching classes. This is where many people make a big strategic error. They presume that because they are good teachers or have a following they will be good at being a Dance Studio Owner.. The fact is, whether you are a great teacher or not may have little to do with the success of your business. If your only interest lies in the artistic side you are probably better off only teaching. If you have an interest in learning how to run a business, then you may have the right mindset to succeed. This process takes some time and you should learn all you can about marketing, pricing, finding the right location and developing a business plan, to name just a few preliminary steps to launching a business. You also need to be a person who can make decisions quickly and who can be a leader. You will need to have a certain amount of cash in reserve to keep the venture afloat during the first year. If you are still reading this article and I haven’t lost you, then I will assume that you are ready to proceed!

These golden rules for Dance Studio Onwes are the foundation to getting off to a great start:

Golden Rule #1

Never, ever under any circumstance, open a dance studio near a dance studio you are teaching at in an attempt to draw these students to you. Many dance teachers feel that when they create a following those students belong to them and will try to start their school with these students. This is the biggest mistake anyone could ever make! Starting a new venture and having an enemy right off the bat is not a good idea. What these teachers forget is that they would not have even met these students if they were not teaching at the school they are about to leave. Keep in mind that your dance studio owner spent time and money to market to get these students and paid the dance teacher to teach them! It is just a bad karma to pull a stunt like this. Here is a better idea: If you want to open your own school I recommend that you approach the dance studio owner that you are teaching for and explain to them what you are thinking. They may even offer, or you may consider offering them, a partnership in this new venture. In any event you should find an area that will not impact the location you are teaching at. This way, even if you go it on your own, you could consider hiring the school owner where you teach as a consultant. Learning from a school owner with a lot of experience is invaluable. Here is one more reason to do the right thing: What goes around comes around.

Golden Rule #2

Get yourself as much help as possible at the start. This is where you need to leave your ego at the door. If you are thinking, 'I can do this and I don’t need any help,' you are dead wrong. One other word of advice: Don’t get help from some friend or family member with no business experience. While I am sure you will get plenty of advice from people, I would not put much stock in it. I remember when we first started out. There really weren’t many business coaches and we pretty much had to do it by trial and error. We made our fair share of mistakes. We could have saved a lot of time and money if we had someone knowledgeable to help us in the early years. I recommend that you find a mentor or business coach to help you for at least for the first year. They can guide you and help you project where you are and where you want to go. Set up a calendar with everything that needs to be done. Keep track of when and where you will be marketing, ordering costumes, getting your customers to sign up for the next season. The first season will be the hardest because you will have no baseline to work from. Even the best-laid plans will need to be adjusted as you move forward. Stuff happens, and you will need to be ready for that eventuality.

Other Considerations

OK, you are ready to move forward. Now you need to consider how you will proceed. Are you going to hire someone to do administrative work or hire other dance teachers? Chances are, you’ll want to set up a dance school specifically for the dance style you’re most comfortable with. However, if you are trained in multiple disciplines and you want to offer a broader range of styles, then you can do that. Alternatively if you want to offer more varied experience, but only know one style of dance yourself, then you might want to contact other teachers and see if they would like to join your team in this new venture.

Think about ways that you can differentiate and distinguish yourself from all the other dance schools within a certain radius. Starting from scratch I recommend that the majority of your classes be focused on beginners and preschool. This way you can train them as you see fit and you will build a reputation fast that you are an expert at teaching beginner/preschool students. If you think that’s a bad thing, remember that every dance student is a beginner at some point. Ultimately the focus on your school is up to you.

Now what are you going to do?  We recommend that you try a dance studio owner membership (if you are not already one!) to check out all the wonderful tips, tools and ideas Dance Teacher Web has to offer.

Next month, We will be doing a Q&A on this topic. If you have specific questions on making the transition from dance teacher to dance studio owner!