For Shanna Kirkpatrick, owner of Chara Christian Dance Academy, the key to retaining 96.5 percent of her 1,000-student enrollment through COVID-19 has been communication: regular e-mail updates, mass studio text messages, personal phone calls and—perhaps most significantly—following up with Zoom no-shows. Kirkpatrick didn’t actually need to create any new protocol for this level of communication. […]
Silicon Valley Ballet announced in February 2016 that the company would close and file for bankruptcy. The closure included the school—and $250,000 in tuition money for the current school year and summer program was lost in the bankruptcy. But the collapse could not take down Dalia Rawson, the school director. A survivor who had weathered […]
Planning a recital pre-COVID-19 was enough to make even the most well-organized dance studio owner feel stressed. Add a global pandemic into the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for a nervous breakdown—not to mention a serious revenue shortfall. Good thing studio owners have resilience and creativity to spare: These three owners reimagined and restructured […]
Rachel Arnold is a studio owner who knows how to transform lemons into lemonade. Rather than viewing stay-at-home orders as something to just power through at her Greenville, TX–based school, Dance Prodigy Studio, she’s turned online education into a chance to offer students and staff alike enrichment activities and community-building content. “I wanted great ideas […]
When Houston’s beloved METdance lost its lease in 2019, artistic director Marlana Doyle struck out on her own to open the Institute of Contemporary Dance Houston. With a new building, school and performing company, Doyle had carefully set the stage for an April 2020 grand opening. “I wanted to create a space for everyone, from […]
When Genevieve Weeks opened her children’s dance studio, Tutu School, in San Francisco in 2008, she quickly figured out that she’d hit on something good. “By 2009, I’d opened a second location, and that one also did quite well,” says Weeks. “I realized that this studio could thrive in a lot of communities.” At the […]
Plan Ahead Marketing Idea: Boost Boys’ Class Enrollment How many little (or big) brothers are going to fall in love with dance once they decide to join in or watch an older sibling take virtual class? Strategize now how you’re going to get those cuties into the physical classroom! Plan Ahead Marketing Idea: Upgrade Your […]
Between forced business closures and general fear of contracting the virus, some consumers have begun to ask for refunds of services that cannot be rendered or goods that cannot be delivered. In some cases, some of your customers may be submitting chargebacks on payments already made as a way to obtain their money back without […]
Business leader Misty Lown convened (remotely) more than 700 dance studio owners to create an action plan in response to COVID-19 studio closures. ICYMI, here are the takeaways: Studios can deliver value to customers with online content. Owners can preserve enrollment with caring communication. The federal stimulus package is a strong short-term safety net. At […]
Please join us for a Virtual Town Hall with Misty Lown, owner of More Than Just Great Dancing, an affiliation of 300 studios worldwide, and Youth Protection Advocates in Dance. She’s also a dance studio owner of 23 years. Register here to join the call for Monday, March 30, at 1 pm CST (2 pm, […]