5 Reasons Your Dance Studio Isn't Growing - Part 1

Hello friends, I'm Amanda Barr and I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan, and welcome to Dance Principles United, the podcast. Together we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio.

Join us as we talk everything from marketing, systems, studio culture, motherhood, life, and everything in between.

This is the Dance Principles United podcast.

Well, hello friends, Hey, it's Bec here from the Dance Principals United podcast. I am joined by the beautiful Amanda.

Hi! Thanks, I'm good. How are you, my love?

Super awesome, super awesome. It's Bibi's birthday today.

Oh, beautiful! What did she— tell me, tell me what's on the agenda for her birthday.

Well, she's very spoiled. We're taking her to Barangaroo Crown with two of her friends for the weekend.

I didn't know you were going to Crown. I knew you were going somewhere nice.

I want to go somewhere nice, Amanda, so she gets to go somewhere nice. So just get a crown for 2 nights, seeing a show, or just going to dinner, or what? She's got the whole itinerary, let me tell you. So day 1 is art gallery, opera bar, and shopping. Day 2 is Newtown, Paddington Markets, thrifting. Oh, okay. And day 3 is Bondi Beach walk.

Oh, okay, so going out of the city and stuff as well. She just wants to do the whole shebang.

The whole shebang. We've got the restaurants chosen, we've got It's all booked. The entire itinerary is sorted.

Oh, fantastic. And a nice girls weekend. I love that. I know. I love that. Hey, can I— we're just off topic. I haven't told you this, but I want to tell you this. I booked Sassy's birthday party last night.

Oh yeah?

It's a unicorn party. They dress like little Shetland ponies up with wings.

What?

And put unicorn horns on them at this farm near us. And they get to like— she does a unicorn trick show where she teaches it to like jump over things they get to like, you know, brush the ponies, all of that kind of stuff.

That's so amazing.

They are so cute. Oh my God. I know this is totally off topic, but I was like, how good is it for people to be thinking like outside the box? I think not just a normal kind of party. It was making me think of studios and how they could be, you know, a little bit different. It was just— it was a very interesting— but it's all just in a farm. So there's just a really beautiful setup in an old shed. Right? But they have this beautiful big purple tree in the middle of it that they've obviously invested in. Yeah, but it's just like one small investment has changed like the whole look of a shed.

Yeah, right.

You know what I mean? I just— I don't know, there's something to it. Like, I haven't quite got my idea for dance studios yet, but I'm like, just putting a little bit of money into something to change the whole vibe of it. Because let's be honest, it's probably just an old horse shed that's probably smelly and probably like— I haven't been there yet, but in the pictures, because it's got this big beautiful purple tree tree. It looks amazing.

Oh, I can't wait to see that.

I know, so off topic, but yeah, just while we're talking birthday parties, very important.

That's so good. That sounds amazing. At first though, I did think you meant the hobby horse kind of thing, and I imagined like people coming to your house dressed as unicorns. I'm like, that's really random.

You saved that. I love it. That's not what we're here to talk about. We are not talking about birthday parties and our children's birthday parties, but we are talking about 5 reasons your studio isn't growing. We speak to hundreds of studio owners every single week and we see some common patterns, right, of reasons why people can't grow their studio to be the business they want it to be.

Absolutely. And yeah, we chatted about this at Expo. We thought we would chat to all of you today because lots of people really loved it.

Absolutely. What is reason number one, Bec?

Number one is you treat it like a passion, not a business, which was totally me for the first 15 years of running my studio.

Absolutely. And all of us got into running a studio because we love dance, right?

And what dance can bring to kids and all those amazing things.

Absolutely. And it was like, oh my God, can you imagine just getting to dance all day? Like, that was literally my thought when I was 16. Like, I just get to dance all day. This is great. And that's what starts us treating it as a passion, not a business. What are mistakes you kind of see from this when, you know, people do think about it as a passion? Is it the, the costumes, the props, the— like, what is it, the biggest thing?

Um, yeah, all of those things. I think not feeling like they deserve to make money off it is the biggest one because they feel guilty because they think that parents shouldn't have to pay for it, almost like— I don't know how to explain that well, but yeah, that, that guilt seems to be a big factor. Um, and I think it's because we genuinely love what we do. Absolutely. We grew up doing it and it brought us a beautiful childhood. And so then we don't think we should make money off it, you know? And I think that's probably the biggest struggle.

Absolutely. I just had an interesting conversation with a studio owner before, and we were talking about, you know, putting your own oxygen mask on first. You know, she was talking about that she wants to bring dance to her community. And, you know, as a regional studio owner, that she thinks it's important to bring the arts. 100% agree. Yeah. Um, I agree with that as well. However, if you're not looking after yourself and putting your own oxygen mask on first, I'm like, if you could treat it as a business rather than a passion or a community service, you know, you can then give so much more. You, if you have the money, number one, you can give more opportunities to your students. You can give more opportunities to your staff. You can pay your staff more, but it also allows for so much more than that because we see so many stew owners that get burnt out because they're not making the money that they deserve. Yep. And then they shut down and that's not serving anybody, right?

And they resent it. That's the biggest thing because they've put so much. And then if kids leave, they're like, how could you leave when I've put so much time and effort into, you know, and it becomes about them and it needs to actually not be about them.

Absolutely. And I think that's a big thing. The other thing we see a lot of studio owners do when they're kind of like really like, you know, it's a passion rather than a business is that, you know, spending so much time on, you know, costumes. I think we've all been there, like not just the time or the money, but like, oh, I've only charged the parents $100 for this costume, but I found this beautiful one that was $220 per costume. And I just, I have to have it because of the art and the, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Look, we've all done it. We all do it all the time. Let's be honest. Yeah, sure. You still do it.

I'm still doing it.

Absolutely. But, you know, you're not doing it with every single—

I'm much smarter about it and I make sure that things even out, if not, you know, obviously go in my favor. But yes, yes, I think you still do do that. I mean, the props I have this year, Amanda, you would die. You die.

How big are we talking? Are we talking like fit in one truck?

Not sure this year, might need 2 trucks. That's how bad it is. I'm not kidding.

I can't deal, man.

Pete Evans— this is totally off topic, but Pete Evans has a 5-meter table that pivots in the middle and goes around in a circle. Then Lockie Thomas has these risers. And then Kyle, who's done— this is all senior routines— Kyle has a bed, a king-size bed that breaks in half, and I have to fit that into And there's a table. There's a table.

If you are not watching this on YouTube, my face is like, what the fuck?

It's really out of control this year.

So 2 trucks, you reckon, to comps?

Potentially. Justin thinks we might need 2.

I think we need a total reel on you packing the trucks before each comp and what it takes to get there.

We need your fucking intervention is what we need.

I feel I may have tried to do that previously. I'm looking forward to being at Nationals with you and you getting all of these to Gold Coast.

Justin's already I agreed to drive the truck to Gold Coast.

Except if you need to. Oh my God. Okay, so promise me real on you packing— well, not you, I presume it's not you packing a truck, but I do help pack the truck and I think that is important to do that stuff.

This is totally off topic.

Getting the truck ready for a comp and what it takes. And I feel like it might be like, uh, you know, like the clown car where lots and lots of things keep jumping in. Is that the vibe we're going for in the reel? I'm going to drop this to Justin and make sure he does this. Okay, so that is an example of a passion, not a business, but I know you love it and you make money other ways. And I think that it's really important that we know that yes, it's okay to do those things sometimes. That 5-meter table, fuck, it's gonna look great. Yes, it is going to look incredible, but we've got to make sure that we're making smart business decisions, not just passion-led decisions all the time.

Exactly, exactly.

All right, what else do we see, uh, studio owners doing that's like, you know, really focusing on that passion rather than the business, I guess? And we— and regarding their time, uh, or is this number 2? Am I getting the wrong way?

I think so. Yeah, number 2. We're going on to number 2.

I'm so sorry.

That's all right. So number 2 is you're spending 95% of your time servicing current clients and 5% marketing your business. And I say this to all of our new people all the time. Yep. Um, you know, how much time do you actually spend? And that never ends. Like, you know, I have the Paws email on my phone, not that I answer the emails, but I like to see what's happening and coming through. And it's, it's never ending. Yeah, absolutely. There is always going to be parents emailing you, asking questions, and you can make yourself—

and this is going to be a bit controversial—

You can make yourself feel very busy by constantly just answering those emails. I'm so busy, you know, because it's that back and forth. Um, and so then you feel good that you've been so busy all day and I've been so productive.

I've done a lot. Yep.

But you're not actually spending time moving the needle. That's why we meet with our SGC members every Monday and say, what are the 3 things you're going to do to move the needle in your business? In other words, to market your business instead of just spending it looking after your current peeps.

Absolutely. It is so easy to do this, right? And I think sometimes we go, oh no, I spend time marketing. You're like, do you really? You know, like obviously we have to work inside our current business. Yep. You know, most studio owners are teaching, uh, whether it's a lot or a little different depending on different, uh, people, uh, you know, they're still doing some sort of hands-on, whether that's doing the invoicing, answering the emails, doing the inquiry, like whatever that is, ordering the costumes, cutting the bloody music, like whatever that is for them. Um, however, they really need to flip that if they want to grow their business. You know, I don't want to say that you, you know, have to go 50/50. That's not a reality, but spending 95% of your time on your current clients is really stopping your growth as a business owner. You really need to look at it across the week and try and just like change that up a bit. Spend more time marketing to new students, getting the marketing out, learning new ads. You know, uh, dealing with inquiries, chasing old leads, like all of these things are actually going to make a difference to the growth of your business.

Absolutely. And you know, we talked about being strict on your time and, and that's the thing, like we're so, it's so easy to get distracted by that email coming in. It's so easy to get, you know, that, oh, that parent's calling me, I'll just quickly answer it. And that's why we don't actually get anything done. So putting in, okay, from 9 til 11 on a Wednesday morning, I am not answering any emails or answering any phone calls. You know, I always say it's not life or death, guys. We're not brain surgeons. You know, it's dance. It'll be all right if that parent gets answered at 11. And saying, okay, I'm going to do my social media for those 2 hours is just so important. I can't begin to tell you how important that is.

Absolutely. And so, you know, spending some time making sure that you set yourself up for success. You know, uh, we are big fans on, of time blocking and really making sure that you have certain times in your week that are scheduled and planned for certain activities in your business, but also being really clear with your boundaries. Like, you know, turning your emails off at those times, putting focus mode on, like shutting that, telling your staff you're not available, whatever that is, because if you don't protect your time, no one else will.

Absolutely. I love that you did the sample timetable.

Mm-hmm.

That could be good to give to people if they want.

Absolutely. I can put that— I might put that on Instagram. Yeah, because, you know, that showed a 38-hour week.

Yeah, I loved it.

And a 38-hour week is normal working, normal full-time person does. Most, most business owners would do more than 38 hours. I think that's, you know, 38 hours is very standard. Sure. And this has 22.5 hours of teaching in it. Which I think is pretty like, you know, standard. You got to do that, right? Yep. A lot of studio owners do 22 because I have so many studio owners go, I just teach so much, so I couldn't possibly have time for anything else. But I think if you're intentional about it, it's so, so good. So we put this out as like 38 hours and, you know, you teach for 22 hours, but you do business operations, meaning, you know, whether that's, you know, invoicing or accounts payable or whatever. You know, 10 hours, uh, you know, we did, um, but that should also include things like staff check-ins, it should include, you know, events, it should include marketing, it should include inquiries. You know, we've had time in this sample thing for every day to like chase leads and get back to inquiries, which actually makes a difference. Yep. As well as time for personal development, because we know that as business owners we need to be constantly up upskilling. We expect our dancers to be constantly training and upskilling and honing their skills. We need to do the same as business owners. Yep.

I love that you've put, um, just looking at it, family time, and on a Friday you finish them at 12 PM and they have the whole night off.

Yeah. And I think, um, Wednesday morning.

Yeah, I think this would be great for you guys to see, so check it out on Instagram.

Absolutely.

Um, and you know, use it if you need to, but I do think it's got a lot of great stuff in there. And the thing with time blocking is, guys, you've got to stick to it. You can't just, you know, have the time blocking there and then not actually do it. Um, but yeah, I think you've done a really good job.

Or get distracted. Like, that's the big thing. Like, oh, I'm gonna start doing the Facebook posts. I'm just gonna scroll Facebook for a little while. Like, it's such a— we all do it. Me too. Yep, we're all guilty.

Um, all the time.

But it's about, like, you know, being intentional. I was chatting to someone yesterday specifically about social media. Yep. And, you know, I said like most of us are competitive people. Most definitely. I'm looking at you, Bec. You're a very competitive person.

What are you talking about?

And I think as competitive people that we should make a competition with ourselves, you know. And one of the— I was actually speaking to Tanya from Dance On Cue, and she's like, I'm so competitive. She's like, I even do things like 'How long do you reckon it's going to take me to—' Oh no, wait, it was Christina. Sorry, let me get it right. Um, she's like, 'How long do you think it's going to take, uh, me to, uh, like clean the dishes?' '15 minutes.' 'Right, I'm gonna do it in 7. Watch me go.' Like, you know, she does things like that. So we were talking about bringing that into like social media, for example, and going, 'Okay, well, last time in an hour I did 6 social media posts, so I'm going to do 8 today and beat my personal record. Watch me go.' I'm like, it's fun, right?

It's fun.

Gamifies it. Absolutely. So if you're one of those people, maybe that might work for you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Number 3, you don't know your numbers.

Mm-hmm.

Nathan and I actually spoke about this in the podcast with him about numbers and all of the things. But I think it's so empowering. Yes. To know your numbers. And it's crazy how many studio owners— and I was one of them, so I'm not judging you guys. Don't know how much money is coming in per week, don't know how much money is going out per week, and just kind of, I don't know how it works, but it just works. Yeah. You know, it's so, it's crazy. And, and that's completely normal if you're someone thinking, yeah, I don't know those numbers and that is normal. We see so many studio owners. Yes.

Like that. But you should train yourself to know them and to actually know them without looking them up. Like, I think that's So, so important. I always think about the weight loss thing, right? Right. And I'm not a big gym junkie or haven't been on heaps of weight loss challenges or anything like that. Yep. But I know that, you know, they're very big on measuring the growth, right? Because it rewards, like it makes it exciting. It gamifies it like we were talking before. Yes. And if you, what you don't measure can't grow, whether that's your weight or how many reps you did or whatever that is. Right. So if you want to grow your business, it's important that you know your student numbers so that you can actually see the growth. Be rewarded and go, oh, that felt good. Let's, you know, do a little bit more. I think it's so important. So what are the 3 numbers, Bec, that you feel like as an absolute minimum every studio owner should know every single week?

Yep. Well, 1, student numbers. 2, class placements. So how many classes is everybody doing, essentially? So you might have 100 students and they're doing 100 classes. Yes. Or you might have 100 students and they're doing 300 classes. Or 321.

Yeah, like a random number. Yeah. Because they're each doing 3 3 classes each.

So that looks very different money-wise. Absolutely. And revenue is how much money's coming into your business. Now, if you want to go next level, you should really know revenue and then how much money is going out.

Yes.

Because you don't want to— it's great to know how much money is going in, but if you also don't know how much going out and you're sitting above— yes, that can be a massive problem. Yeah, that's a major, major problem. Absolutely. And knowing it week to week is so much better than knowing it by the term. Like, I just, I, I think when you're dealing with big numbers, you know, if you're getting $5,000 in a week, that's very different to saying I'm getting $50,000 in for the term. Like, it just becomes so much more confusing. I feel like knowing that weekly amount is where it's at for me.

Absolutely, I totally agree. And you know, that way you can see the growth week to week. You can see if you have a big drop-off. You know, at the moment we're recording this, it's It's, uh, week 2 of term 2. I'm trying to think. It is week 2, isn't it? It's week 2 of term 2. And a lot of studio owners have just experienced some drop-offs. Yep. You know, that, that dreaded term 1 drop-off, uh, that happens from kids that have tried it and it's not for them. Winter sports started, all of that. It's pretty standard in most studios that they have a bit of a drop. Absolutely. And sometimes that takes until like week 2 to kind of like work out exactly who hasn't come back, all of that kind of stuff. But if you don't look at that until the end of the term, How do you know what's happened? You know, you need to be looking at that every week and going, okay, how can I fix this today? Not wait and see what happens. Let's fix this. Oh God, our numbers are down from last week. We've dropped 10 class placements. Okay, what do we need to do to fix that today? Yep. You know, let's do another marketing push. Let's get that back. Like, and I think it's really, really important to be checking those numbers very, uh, like consistently every day or one day a week. Yep.

And that's exactly what happens on Tuesday of this week because it was a long weekend. Is Lisa sent the numbers through, exactly what you're saying. We've had some drop-offs, and I was like, right team, we've got a bit of work to do. And they're like, yep, we have. So we know that we're not waiting until the end of the term and going, oh crap, we haven't made the money that we thought we were going to make because we didn't really look at it. We know every single week, yep, what's happening, where the classes have dropped, you know, where we've gained. Absolutely. The times we've gained. So it's just great, so important.

And it's like the power, you know, when you know your numbers, it gives you the power to make educated decisions in your business. You know, if you don't know them, how are you making good decisions about, you know, your marketing, where you're focusing your time, you know, whether you're getting that choreographer out, if you can afford this? Like, you know, numbers give you power. They do. Because once you kind of know that, you can make good decisions and you can keep growing your business and you can get excited about them. So the biggest thing we'd love to, you know, encourage you all is to get excited about those numbers.

It'll really help you grow that studio and empower yourself to know them. You know, you're going to feel so much more powerful because there's so many people that dig their head in the sand and don't want to think about it and don't want to look at it because they know it could be scary. But if you empower yourself and do it, it is a game changer.

I promise you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Hey guys, Amanda Barr back in your ears. Hey, this podcast went for longer than expected, so we've cut it into two. Hope you've enjoyed part one, but make sure you jump back into the feed next week to hear part 2 of 5 Reasons Your Studio Isn't Growing. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United podcast. If you'd love to learn more from us, we have a special offer just for our podcast listeners. Go to the link in the show notes right now to get 2 weeks free in Dance Principles United Tribe. We would love to see you there.