The Top 5 Mistakes Studio Dance Owners Make

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 Principals United Podcast.

Well, hello, friends. It's Bec here. Happy break Wednesday. I am here with an incredible, incredible special guest. Today we have our new member, success rock star with us from Dance Principles United, Melissa Bor. And how are you, Mel?

I'm great, Deck, thank you. How are you?

I'm super awesome. I'm so excited to have you here. I know this is going to be such a great podcast today. I thought I would start by telling everyone a little bit of our background. So you and I have been best friends for one way too long. And that all actually started when you started working for me at the dance studio. I think you were at the dance studio as a student, and then I roped you in very quickly when I very first, you know, bought the studio with. What, did it have, like, 50 kids in it or something? As a team member. Is that what happened? I can't even remember. It was like 20 years.

Yeah, yeah. Gosh, it's a long. I was. I. I was 18 at the time, and I think, yeah, I started as one of your students. You came in to teach contemporary here and there and just got along really well from then. And then I was. When I was at university, you sort of said, like, hey, you know, would you like to come in and do some office work and a bit of teaching? And I just, yeah, jumped at that opportunity because it was. Yeah, seemed like a match made in heaven.

It has been a match made in heaven. And I thought we'd start the podcast by saying what a terrible business owner I was back then and how bad I was at all the things. Do you remember?

Like, I would. Look, I would never say that. I would never say that. I don't know how much of it you've shared on the podcast already.

A lot. A lot. I tell my story all the time because I think it's important for people. Like, I was a really good teacher and, like, really good at teaching dance and getting kids to be elite, but as far as running a business goes, I was absolutely shocking at that and happy to admit it because I think that's what's missing in a lot of studio ownership lives is that they need that business side of things.

Absolutely. And I think, you know, on reflection, you would have really Been the poster child of a lot of studio owners and their experience at the time. You know, certainly we're talking 20 years ago. We didn't have, you know, online resources and support and coaching. You know, I remember being at the studio at the time we implemented email communication. It was that long ago. So it's, you know, don't be hard on yourself because it was a time that, you know, very much a lot of studio owners and a lot of people running kind of passion focused businesses didn't have those, yeah. Those resources or skills or you know, even know where to ask for, for support.

That is true. But I also think like you and I didn't really work very hard either. I remember we used to go home and just have lunch together every day and watch Ready Steady Cook. Do you remember that?

Of course I remember. Sometimes we would have a nap, we'd be like, oh, we've been working so hard, let's go and have a nap.

This is also pre children days for those of you out there that you know, gosh, remember those days. Mel was exactly amazing. Amazing. Look. But since then, you know, you've gone on to work with studio owners in various realms for over 20 years now, which is pretty impressive. And I thought today could be a cool thing, a bit of a reach out to, you know, maybe self reflect if you're a studio owner listening out there. But I thought Mel could tell us the top five things studio owners do wrong. Like what are your top five? You've seen, what would you say, thousands and thousands of studio owners in what you've been doing and probably have seen some amazing things and also seen things that are just continually repetitive, if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's certainly not, you know, an attempt to, to diss anyone or to say that anyone's doing anything wrong. You know, the reason, reasons that these things come up all the time is because they are so common not just in the dance industry but in, in business in general. So yes, it's no, no shade to anyone that's doing any of these things or you know, guilty in the past of it. It's just really important, I think to be aware of them and to see yourself kind of falling into these habits to understand that like, you know, that's what it is. It's a habit that you can break.

Yep, absolutely. And I'm sure that all the ones you're going to say I was that person at some stage in my career and possib.

And I think as well there's, you know, we Kind of go through these periods in, in work and in life where, you know, these, these things, they can creep back in. And you'd be like, oh, wait, hang on, I am being a bit of a control freak right now. So having awareness around it and kind of understanding why it happens and, and kind of more important, the remedy for it, because any one of these. These five things we're going to talk about, there is a solution to them and there are ways that you can kind of, yeah. Sort of snap yourself out of it and, and see how that could be hindering your business a little bit.

I love it. I love it. So what is thing number one?

The first thing that sprang to mind, and I mentioned to you this before we started recording, was to kind of look at businesses that aren't just dance studios, but also other businesses I've worked with and some of the common mistakes they make. And the very first thing that sprang to my mind was this impulse to be doing too much too soon. And in the dance studio, that's really super, super common. And I think it's probably because a lot of studio owners are very high achievers. They have very high expectations and very big goals and wanting to see a lot of results very quickly. And the danger with that is if you're trying to do too much too soon, and let's say, for example, you acquire a dance studio, you buy that studio that you grew up in, perhaps you've spent most of your life dancing there, suddenly the opportunity comes on to buy that studio and you think, oh, my gosh, my dreams come true. And then, you know, so many people in this situation would have that compulsion to want to rebrand suddenly and then to change the name of the studio and to change the uniform and to enroll 100 new preschoolers and to do all the training that they can possibly get their hands on and want to do everything all at once. And, you know, when you kind of put it down on paper like that, you can sort of see how that really leads to sort of burnout. It leads to conflict within the studio. It's not a great experience. Experience for your team or for your students. And essentially, you know, you're likely to be let down by not achieving all of those things at once. So, yeah, too much too soon in any industry is. Is a big no, no. But it's also probably the most common one that I would see.

I'm having a little laugh because that's exactly what I did when I bought Pause. And I don't know if you are remembering that as you're saying it, but I literally came straight in and I bought it halfway through the year and it was quite sudden and I rebranded immediately and changed the name, the uniform, everything, and parents were absolutely like up in arms. It was so awful. It was such a stupid thing to do. Yeah. So I've experienced that firsthand and completely agree with you. I also think that, you know, studio owners don't realize what a slow burn things need to be and that it needs to be consist. And I guess if we relate it to our students, we would never expect that a student in a year is going to get a triple pirouette. We know that's going to take a lot of time, a lot of practice, a lot of consistency, a lot of doing different exercise and balances and all the things for them to eventually get it, you know, maybe in three years. So I think we need to think about that. And I know when I talk about having 300 preschoolers that took five years of consistent marketing, consistently being out there at the different preschools, consistently retaining them, like that took a long time. It didn't just happen overnight. Right, and we see that all the time, too.

Yeah, 100%. And it is such a slow burn. And I think it's really important to have those lofty goals, to have a huge vision and to want big things for yourself and your business. Those things, I'm not saying don't have that, but what's probably more important is to have realistic timeframes around it and to have them broken down into smaller things. Because, you know, as humans, we sort of tend to underestimate how big a job will be or to overestimate our capabilities in doing that. And so if you're looking at, you know, say, for example, you want to launch a new website, you know, really dig into how long that's going to take, not just implementing it, but the brain power behind it, you know, how much energy it's going to take. Because we can all, we all want to see really fast results really quickly in everything that we do. But it's, it's for the, for the best, for the longevity of the studio, that you can kind of break those things down and have a bit of a vision in place and a pathway to get there.

Yeah, I love that and like the steps to get there as well. I think that's really important because I also feel like studio owners go really hard at something and then they get really busy and they stop doing it and then they like go, oh, really hard at it again. It's it doesn't work like that, does it? It just needs to be bit by bit by bit by bit.

Yeah, you've nailed it there. Absolutely.

All right, what is thing number two? I think you may have mentioned a little bit about it before, but what's thing number two?

Yeah, so thing number two is something that our, our studio growth club members probably will get sick of me saying a lot, but it happens all the time. So I, I do want to kind of hammer at home, and that is to not let your stuck become your stop. And by that I mean if you get stuck in one area of your business and I'll talk about marketing, because that's kind of where a lot of my specialties. Why? If you're working in your marketing strategy, for example, and you start to feel overwhelmed or you start to, you know, you can't quite understand one aspect of it, you're not getting the algorithm, you're not getting the ads manager, you know how to work that. A lot of people then will kind of shut down. It's like that fight or flight response almost right where they'll go, oh, that's too hard and I'm not going to do it. It happens a lot with, you know, particularly with software type things, you know, your website, your social media, things that are evolving very quickly and that you're not necessarily spending a whole lot of time in can get really overwhelming. And it's totally fine, of course, to be overwhelmed. But so many times I will say that that becomes a stopping point and people will say, oh, I'm not doing that because that's too hard. And I would really discourage that because even though we can't be doing absolutely everything we need to, we need to do things that move the business forward and that grow the business and they're going to sort of go towards those goals. And getting stuck and then stopping is is not going to help with that.

I love that. And it's like keeping up with the times as well, I think. You know, I always find a lot of older studio owners, including myself. Like what you said before we introduced email, that's how long we've been in the game for. But, you know, they still want to do the newspaper ads because that's what we did. We did the newspaper ads back in the day. But there's this whole social media platform now that has these incredible ads that really do work well if you learn how to do it properly. And it's just, you know, I. Businesses who stay for a long time are the ones that do keep with the times and that, keep updating. And I think that's really important with that, you know, not getting stuck on that old way of doing things. Right?

Yeah, 100%. And it's, it's very, you know, it's. It's not easy to stay current with all the different things. And so if people kind of listening think, well, that's easy to say, but how do I know about TikTok? And reels are changing and the Instagram grid is changing. It's not easy to keep on top of all that stuff. So that's why it's important to be sort of in groups like SGC or, you know, listening to podcasts like this, where you do have that expertise to be able to stay on top of things without it becoming like a chore. Right. It shouldn't be, you know, oh, gosh, I've got to go and keep up with some trends now. It's, you know, these things are coming, are coming your way all the time. And, you know, you mentioned about social media and that being a stuck as well. You know, that's a really big one. We know that people need to be posting consistently online and using video content and using their reels. And I'll see so many people will post, you know, two weeks straight with their daily reels and then go, oh, I'm not getting engagement. I'm just going to stop that. And that's just what I would really discourage. You know, we've got to have that kind of resilience and build that muscle so that those. Those stops don't happen.

It's. It's where everyone's at, though, right? Like, everyone is on their phones all the time on social media. All of us are guilty of it. So it's definitely the best platform. I am totally one of those people, though, Mel. And, like, what I'll do is just revert back to the stuff that I'm good at. So you know what I mean by that? So I'll be like, oh, but I'm really good at, you know, finding music or cutting music, or I'll just quickly write this script instead. Like, the stuff that I know that I love to do, I'll just revert back to that and just bury my head in the sand with the other stuff.

Of course. Of course. And because we love that rewarding feeling, right? We love to do things that we're good at. We love to do things that say good results, or people will say, wow, that music cuts amazing, or you just such a perfect job with those costumes. And sometimes we need to give ourselves a pat on the back and reward ourselves and say, like, hey, I posted every day on my reels and I tried something new. Like that should be the reward as well.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. All right, what is your number three thing?

Oh, my third one. When we were chatting about this before and you were laughing and I feel like this probably hits the closer as well. So it's talking really about kind of the control freak in all of us. And it's very, very prevalent in studio owners. And again, it's a matter of being that sort of type A, high achieving, you know, not to be too gendered about it, but a lot of, a lot of women in this role and it's a very, very sort of typical personality trait. So if I say you're being a control freak, it's certainly, again, no shade. It's just, it's just how it is. And what's dangerous about that is kind of a reluctance to be seeking support or outsourcing and very much a mentality around if you need something done well, do it yourself. And that's a very, very old fashioned mentality. And it's something that we kind of need to snap out of. Because if you're growing a large studio, if it's not a hobby business, if you're wanting to run a profitable business, you need help and you need to, you know, be willing to have the frustrations that come along with outsourcing. You know, whether it is, you know, an in person, part time employee, whether you're outsourcing to a virtual assistant, it's not just going to fall into place magically and suddenly you've got a second brain that's just like a clone. It takes some time and it takes a bit of patience and it, you know, really, it takes letting go of that control. But I think that once, you know, studio owners can sort of step out of that and wearing all the hats and sequening their own costumes and writing their timetables and posting their socials, having that time back, you know, it's not necessarily time to go and have a nap and to watch Ready Steady Cook, but it is time to do things that really move the needle.

Yeah, I totally agree. And I've had to really let go of this myself. And there's, there's two big things that I've had to let go of. The first is no one's probably going to care as much about my business as I do. And that's okay. Like you're going to care the most about your business. And the, the second thing that I think we really need to think about with this is you've got to allow your staff to make mistakes like they are going to mess up. And actually by stopping them from mistakes, you're often stopping them from learning. And I think that's the key of, you know, being okay with those two things means that you're going to be okay with letting go of things, especially the second one. Don't you think, Mel?

Yeah, yeah, most definitely. And it's a matter of, you know, we also fall into this trap of wanting to be liked all the time and wanting to be kind of perfect and not wanting to hurt feelings. And I think, you know, being, you know, a human about things is very important. Having sensitivity is very important. At the same time as the boss, there are sometimes going to be pieces of feedback that frustrate your, your team or anyone that's working for you or they might have to redo a task and think, oh, this is a waste of time. And again, you need to be okay with that. Like, like you said, Beckett, they're not going to love your studio the way you do. They're not going to necessarily do the jobs the way you do. They're probably going to take twice as long. But it's still like something that's taking twice as long is still saving you a lot of time.

Absolutely. And you can use that time to push your business forward. You know, we always talk about in SGC making sure that you're thinking about the needle movers. We have like Monday motivation on every Monday and it's literally doing that, talking about what are the three things I'm going to do to push my business forward this week, not get drudged down in the constant day to day, all of the things that we have to do. And we're certainly not here saying everyone go get a full time admin assistant. You know, we're not saying that either, but we are just saying as you do let go of tasks to then do other tasks that are going to push your business forward. Take the time to train, but then let them do it. And let, I think as well, staff love to have a little bit of input into what they're doing and they often are creatives as well. And if you let them have that input, they, they actually take hold of the job a bit bigger too. That's what I've found anyway.

Yeah, absolutely. It becomes their baby as well. And it can be something that's, you know, isn't hugely important. To you. But if they've got sort of that investment in it, it does make a really big difference.

Absolutely. All right, we're crushing this. Number four.

So number four, it does come along nicely from point three, because we are talking about people and human resources again. But one of them is, you know, really taking time as either the leader or if you've got sort of an operations director or a director, you know, hire team leader in your team as well. But really taking time to train and to onboard your team well. And not just kind of, you know, one trial class is not enough, you know, for a teacher. You know, walking your admin person through the enrollment process once is not enough. And a lot of the frustrations come when you don't invest that time. And you do need to look at it as an investment, not a spending of time, because it's. It's hard to do. It's really, really hard to do. It's really hard to think, oh, I've spent 20 hours on this team, I'm going to have to spend more. You know, that's. It's training. But you need to kind of put that time aside and factor that in when you're onboarding team members. And same with when you're off boarding people as well. You know, that's a really important part of it is to maintain those relationships for things like referrals or for future work as well. But so many people, you know, will hear this expression to be. To be faster. No, slow to hire and fast to fire. And I don't necessarily agree with that. I think it should be, you know, be. Be slow in taking this. This person through the process. And yeah, sort of similarly to that as well. I would say when you're looking at hiring and onboarding and training and really investing that time, I would really prioritize things like the culture fit and, you know, the person being just the right type of person because a lot of skills and processes can be taught on the job, but having the right personality type and the right cultural fit is really, really hard to find. So that's where time is. Is going to be really worth it for you.

God, I cannot agree with this more. Again, another big game changer, because as you know, I would just bring people into pause and be like, okay, go teach. And like, you know, not do any onboarding at all ever. Or, okay, here's the front desk. Off you go. Like, you know, and it was a disaster for so many years. And I really teach. That's exactly what I'm about now, is Staff training, there's just not enough of it in our industry. We don't value our staff enough. We're very happ to fire them when it gets to a point where they've failed so much that, you know, we, we're like, that's it. They have to go. So we're happy to get rid of them then, but we haven't actually done the steps along the way to help and support them. And I think, yeah, that's such a game changer. And it's something that you guys out there, if it's not something you're doing, it's something you really should invest in. Because I think, you know, there's so many horror stories we hear about this stuff, but it actually always comes back to you as a boss. And every time something goes wrong in my stud, which it does all the time, there's, you know, there's always things going wrong. That's business. But I always have to self reflect as a leader and go, okay, what did I not do here that this situation has occurred? And nine times out of 10, it's that there was something. Exactly what you're saying, Mel. That I hadn't communicated properly or that the team hadn't communicated properly to that staff member for that to occur. Or sometimes they do just mess up and you have to then pull them in and have a chat to them and explain why that was the wrong thing and then train them and then go back again like it's that constant thing. That's what being a boss is. You know, it's a privilege to be able to guide people. And I think we should really value that.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And it's, you know, it's so interesting. I, you know, hear a lot of, you know, podcasts and read a lot of business books and a lot of, you know, entrepreneurs or business owners will sort of openly say, oh, the worst part about this is being a leader. The worst part is managing people. I hate. You know, I could run this business so easily if it weren't for the people. And I immediately think, oh, God, I'd hate to work for you. Like, I can tell right now that you're not going to take time to train and to onboard. And so it's, you know, very much so. And if you are someone that's listening and that rings true for you, it doesn't mean you can't be a great leader. It means there needs to be a bit of time investment on your part around the mindset for that and the shift that you need to make so that it's, you know, it is not something that you dread or hate or whinge about and tell people that you're no good at it because it can all, it can all be learned. But it's one of those things, like you said, Beck, that once you've seen it and put it into practice, it's a huge game changer.

It is. I think it's learning to love confrontation. Like, you know, there's so many studio owners I meet that are like, I hate confrontation of any kind. Like they don't even like pulling their stuff up for anything at all and chatting to them about things. And I think we do a lot of training in tribe and SGC on that stuff. Like how to talk to your staff and how to. I always call it a sandwich meal. Like it's like, you know, but you know what I mean by that? It's like you tell them something really great like, oh my gosh, you're teaching so well. You know, I'm loving how far the kids are coming. I have noticed however that, you know, you're giving a lot of one on one attention and that means the rest of the class is getting a bit crazy. So it might be good if we can. It's just that whole sandwich. It might be good if we can fix that. Let's talk about some strategies towards it. But man, you're doing well. It's like good, bad, good, you know, and that just keeps that confrontation a bit easier. But it is the confrontation. They don't want to deal with it. They don't want to tell someone that they're doing something wrong and you've got to switch your mindset on that and go. People actually love feedback. They really do. It's like you said before, you know, you love that positive affirmation that you're cutting the music well or doing this well and your staff love that as well and they want the feedback and they thrive on it. And that's what I've found is that even your high end staff members, they don't get it from anyone else. So don't be scared to give them the feedback because they want to self reflect and get better as well.

Got it. That's exactly right. And what a gift for them to see that they're being noticed. For you to comment on something small like, hey, I love that combo you did, you know, that's, that's a huge thing to be noticed like that, you know, in a busy, you know, high pressure workplace, that's that's like the ultimate.

I love that. All right. Our very, very last, last thing is.

Well, this one is all about kind of knowing the, the metrics and numbers in your business. And again, I would say this is, isn't specific to studio owners. It is across a lot of people that are running passion based businesses. So gym owners, you know, dance studio owners, singing teachers, things like that. And that is not being across your numbers, not necessarily just your financials, but things like your retention rates, your churn rates, how many spots in your classes are filled. All of those kinds of things are really, really important to know. And I'm sure you've heard this expression that what gets measured gets managed. And if you don't know those things very well, if you're not looking at them constantly and kind of reflecting on that, it is going to hurt the business. Well, not necessarily hurt it, but not see it reach its full potential. And one example that I would give is that, you know, there are certain numbers that you should be able to know off the top of your head. If someone asked you immediately, if your accountant said, what was your, you know, what was your last quarter income? You should know that how many students are currently enrolled? You should know that your retention rate, those sort of big things. And again, you know, I'll kind of talk generally to the like, kind of the personality types of studio owners, but we're not typically that into numbers or we're not typically into spreadsheets and, and things like that. It doesn't necessarily come naturally to us who are a bit more creative. So again, just kind of like that leadership mindset that I talked about. It's really about getting a mindset around understanding the numbers and then wanting to know them. It's not just going to be suddenly, oh, I filled out a spreadsheet and now I know everything and I'm amazing. It's again, flexing that muscle, doing it regularly and just being across those, those key numbers.

Nathan would love you so hard right now. But like, this is so true. And it's what Nathan really tries to help our SJC and tribe members with. But it was again, a game changer for me because I never knew any of my numbers. And we have a habit now at Pause where every Monday we check in with studio numbers, revenue, preschool numbers, class placements, you know, all the things it's the first thing we do every Monday and it's the first thing we do in our team meeting. And you're right, it is such a game changer because, you know, we can see every single week whether we've dropped or gained students or class placements, we can see whether we've dropped or gained money. And when you're on top of it that much and your team's on top of it that much, you're all reaching for those new goals. New goals all the time. And it's how to really grow your business. But you don't have to be amazing at maths to do this either. That's the thing. Like most software systems that we have in our studios now, you can pull that info out really quickly and easily. And you know, just being on top of it and doing that on a Monday morning, it really sets your week off. Right. And it also allows you to self reflect. I think that's the biggest problem with it because when you don't know your numbers, you can't self reflect. And then you. Exactly what you're saying, Mel. You can't move forward, right. As a business, it's just too. Well, you don't know where you're at. So you don't know if you're moving forward. That's the crazy part about it.

Exactly. And I always sort of say that if it's not fun for you, like, there are ways to make it more fun. And so for example, if you're looking at numbers on a spreadsheet and going, this is no good, like, this isn't appealing to me, you know, put it on some colorful sticky notes or make a cool phone background that you can have it on your phone. So you're looking at it every day like a background on your computer. Something that makes it like appealing to you. You don't have to spend a lot of time on these things. But yeah, I'd rather, I'd rather look at some, you know, burger shaped sticky notes with my numbers on it rather than an Excel date any day of the week.

Me too. Absolutely agree. And you do have to make it appealing to yourself. And, and I, I know as well, a lot of studio owners just bury their head in the sand with it because they don't want to look at the harsh reality that you're potentially losing money. And you know, you need to, if, if that's you, and that was me as well, you'd really need to get out of it because once you do that harsh reality, you will change how you're doing business and that will be a massive difference in you being able to pay yourself and being able to know your numbers and therefore make smarter decisions with what you're doing within your business. I think that's the key. For sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Amazing advice.

Oh, guys, we have had the best time with you. Thank you so much. Mel, you are just so incredible. I absolutely loved every second of that. I'm sure you guys will hear from Mel again because she's such a rock star. Yeah, for sure. We hope you guys have an amazing week. Reach out if you are ever interested in tribe or sgc. We always love to hear from you guys. And yeah, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, everyone. Bye.

We hope you enjoy 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 two weeks free in Dance Principles United Tribe. We would love to see you there.