Art Education AND Business
Your dance studio as a profitable business:
You love the art of dance, you love children, you love to teach, and you work very hard. When you opened your dance studio you may have been happy and content to work hard and share your art with little or no compensation. Most of us were willing and had no other option than to dedicate several years of hard work with little or no pay to build our studio.
You may be teaching all of the classes yourself and when you start to show a little profit, the temptation is to reward yourself with a nice paycheck. After all, you've worked hard and sacrificed your time and money, and you deserved to receive some compensation. My advice if you can possibly do this is to first figure your expenses for the year, divide that by 12 months, so you see in black and white what you are going to need throughout the year. Keep in mind that the summer months can be a drain. Establish a separate bank account for your expenses. Pay your rent, electric, phone, mortgage, whatever from your monthly intake and then the portion you will need to carry you through the summer is put into that separate bank account. Then, what ever is left can be your paycheck. My first few years, I still worked as a choreographer, dancer, director and held down a day time office job. I didn’t have to depend on the earnings from my dance studio for my apartment rent, food, clothes, and utilities. So, During that time, I put any profit from the studio back into the dance studio for future supplies and a building.
We all have different circumstances, situations and opportunities when we first become dance studio owners. Whether you buy an existing dance studio complete with an established student base and teachers or you start one from scratch, you are making a huge investment of your time, talent, energy, and finances. You are also, as with any business startup, undertaking a huge risk.
Whether your business thrives or dives is not necessarily a reflection on your teaching skills. You can be a brilliant dancer and teacher, loved by all of your students, but because of poor business skills and practices, you may be one of the studios forced to close. If your whole focus is only on teaching, the business side can run away with you.if you are the sole owner of your dance studio, you owe it to yourself and to your students to learn everything you can about running a profitable business. If your studio closes due to mismanagement where will they go? Even when you have a trusted family member in charge of carrying out the daily business details, it is important for you to be aware of your gross income, expenses and net income. A partnership usually does well if one partner is the dance expert and the other partner is the business person. If you are like most of us, and are the sole proprietor of your business; the GOOD news is you can learn good business practices. Many excellent Dance Studio Owner/Teacher organizations offer business classes in best business practices for managing a successful dance studio. Make friends with other studio owners and share ideas that have worked. Reach out to some of the excellent FB Studio Owner groups. Bookstores also have many wonderful books on managing your business. Learn what you need to know to manage your studio successfully.
You love the art of dance, you love children, you love to teach, and you work very hard. When you opened your dance studio you may have been happy and content to work hard and share your art with little or no compensation. Most of us were willing and had no other option than to dedicate several years of hard work with little or no pay to build our studio.
You may be teaching all of the classes yourself and when you start to show a little profit, the temptation is to reward yourself with a nice paycheck. After all, you've worked hard and sacrificed your time and money, and you deserved to receive some compensation. My advice if you can possibly do this is to first figure your expenses for the year, divide that by 12 months, so you see in black and white what you are going to need throughout the year. Keep in mind that the summer months can be a drain. Establish a separate bank account for your expenses. Pay your rent, electric, phone, mortgage, whatever from your monthly intake and then the portion you will need to carry you through the summer is put into that separate bank account. Then, what ever is left can be your paycheck. My first few years, I still worked as a choreographer, dancer, director and held down a day time office job. I didn’t have to depend on the earnings from my dance studio for my apartment rent, food, clothes, and utilities. So, During that time, I put any profit from the studio back into the dance studio for future supplies and a building.
We all have different circumstances, situations and opportunities when we first become dance studio owners. Whether you buy an existing dance studio complete with an established student base and teachers or you start one from scratch, you are making a huge investment of your time, talent, energy, and finances. You are also, as with any business startup, undertaking a huge risk.
Whether your business thrives or dives is not necessarily a reflection on your teaching skills. You can be a brilliant dancer and teacher, loved by all of your students, but because of poor business skills and practices, you may be one of the studios forced to close. If your whole focus is only on teaching, the business side can run away with you.if you are the sole owner of your dance studio, you owe it to yourself and to your students to learn everything you can about running a profitable business. If your studio closes due to mismanagement where will they go? Even when you have a trusted family member in charge of carrying out the daily business details, it is important for you to be aware of your gross income, expenses and net income. A partnership usually does well if one partner is the dance expert and the other partner is the business person. If you are like most of us, and are the sole proprietor of your business; the GOOD news is you can learn good business practices. Many excellent Dance Studio Owner/Teacher organizations offer business classes in best business practices for managing a successful dance studio. Make friends with other studio owners and share ideas that have worked. Reach out to some of the excellent FB Studio Owner groups. Bookstores also have many wonderful books on managing your business. Learn what you need to know to manage your studio successfully.