Mastering Backstage Concert Critical Paths - No Bulls#$t Business Tips 36

Hi, friends.

Welcome to no Bullshit Business Tips by the Dance Principals United team. Each week we're dropping short, actionable tips for you to grow the studio of your dreams. You can find this video on our free Facebook group at Dance Principals United or check it out here on the podcast as a bonus episode every week. Hope you love it. Hey, friends, we're back with another episode of no Bullshit Business Tips.

We are so excited to be here today and chat to you guys about backstage concert critical paths, which I found after doing staff training in lots of studios all over Australia, that a lot of studio owners don't do this. They don't actually have critical paths, don't know what they are, and just kind of let everyone backstage sort of just do what's needed at the time.

Absolutely. So we've been working on critical paths a lot with our studio growth club members. And, you know, a critical path is basically documents for every single person backstage, whether that's a staff or a backstage helper or whatever that is that gives them a minute by minute description of exactly where they've got to be and what they've got to do.

Right? Yeah. And, like, the easiest way for me to explain this to you guys is person A parks their car. And I want you to imagine every little step that they need to do from the second they park their car through the event to the second they finish and write all of that out for them. And it's even like things like at the end of the concert, Amanda and I like to say that the staff should be going out and talking to parents, not just sitting there and going, oh, wow, that was so huge. But actually going out and interacting like that is so powerful, right?

Absolutely. So, you know, what we want you to do is write this sheet out for every single one of your staff members. Everyone gets a copy of just theirs, not anyone else's. And it is super clear with what they've got to do. So no one's like, oh, I have nothing to do right now. Because that's when problems start. When we find that the staff aren't doing exactly what we wanted them to do at the given time because usually it's lack of direction and they don't actually know.

I was just going to say that's actually back on us because they're not standing there being lazy. They literally probably don't know what exactly they're supposed to do. The cool part about doing this, guys, is that you are going to have so much less stress in your concert. And also then when something does go pear shaped because everyone's where they need to be. It's not so bad like, but when something goes pear shaped and you've already got chaos, it's absolute chaos, right?

Absolutely. I think that's where the problems begin. So if you haven't done a critical path for your concert, now's the time to do it. It's not too late. Make sure that your key staff members all know how to read it really clearly. It's set out really well because graphic design matters. How it's set out matters because they need to be able to read it and see exactly where they need to be the whole entire event.

Right? Yep. Mine are there minute by minute knowing exactly what they need to be doing, even the changes. I say you've got seven minutes to change these kids. Like it just makes it so simple for them and for our helpers. Sometimes we have parent helpers as well and absolute they don't know what's going on. So just trying to keep it as simple as you can for all the peeps is definitely the best way to go.

Absolutely. Hey, if you start Critical Pass for the first time this year, we want to know about it. Drop a comment below. Let us know if this has worked for you because we'd love to hear if it changes the studio the concert day, which hopefully it does.

Thanks, guys. We'll talk to you soon.