Ordering Costumes: Timing Is Everything!

'There is a time for everything and a season for every purpose under heaven,' and if you are a dance teacher or studio owner, you know that this is the season for ordering your costumes. It may not be easy to focus on a show that is still months and months away, but early planning and ordering will minimize the craziness later in the year and maximize the discounts you can get. There are four main keys to making this process easier and more efficient: careful preparation, correct measurements, complete organization and appropriate pricing.

As soon as the first catalog appears in your mailbox it is time to start planning. We all go through the book and flag our favorites, but you should also start to create a chart including the following:

·        The company name, website, phone and fax

·        Whether they offer any special discounts for early order or quantities (almost all do)

·        The cut-off date for discounts

·        Whether online ordering is available

·        A rating for each one based on past experience in areas such as costumer service, exchange policy, quality of the costumes and your overall satisfaction.

I have compiled a partial list of this year’s companies and deadlines to include with this article. It is the list I use, but I am leaving the rating system up to you!

Once you have this information choose two or three companies as your primary source for ordering. Keep those catalogues separate and try to order as much as possible from them to maximize the special discounts. Just like going to Costco or BJ’s, larger orders equal increased savings.

Organization is a vital key to successful costume ordering. Keep a special binder of information for costuming. Each class has a page in the binder with class list, teacher, dance discipline, music choice for show and any special requests such as theme. Once their costume is ordered, the page also includes which company the costume came from, the date ordered and received and when fittings and distribution are done, along with a picture of the costume.

Take control of your measuring. If you have the parents send in measurements, I guarantee they are not accurate. If you want accurate numbers to work from, I suggest that you train one or two people to measure properly and have them go into each class to take the measurements. Your parents will thank you for taking this task out of their hands and you will have a much clearer picture of each body. Correct measurement are very important; when in doubt I always order on the large side and make adjustments rather than have a dancer squeezed into their costume like yesterday’s sausage!

 Costumes are an area that can and should be profitable to the studio. Pricing costumes is a hot topic. How do you determine the amount to charge your students for their costumes?  There are probably as many answers to that question as there are dance studios. I would appreciate some feedback on this question—please email us at Dance Teacher Web and share your thoughts and policies.

Simplify your costume billing by charging all students the same amount per costume. Look at your total cost of costumes last year, divide it by the number of costumes used, then add a few dollars for the studio, and you have an average cost to charge. Many people try to pass on the exact cost of costumes to the students; this is tedious and misses the opportunity to bring in a bit of income to the studio. Another alternative is to have levels, with younger students paying less, older students a bit more, and competition groups still more. Yet another option is to charge 'a participation fee' that includes not only the costumes, but also rehearsal times, music editing costs, and other show related expenses. 

It is important that ordering time does not drain the resources of the studio, so be sure costumes are paid in full before ordering starts. This also will avoid the scenario where you order a costume and then the student decides not to do the show. For your own protection, be sure your costume order form includes a clearly stated no refund policy.

Please join in an open discussion of this topic by sharing your policies and routines via email. I will happily share this in a future article. Good luck to everyone and happy ordering!

Here Is A Handy Guide Of Costume Companies