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May 05
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How to become a Zumba instructor

By Dance

Are you passionate about dancing? Do you enjoy motivating others? And does the freedom of working for yourself appeal to you? Well, then you have probably considered becoming a dance instructor of some kind. Perhaps you’d enjoy the dazzling workout style that is inspired by a variety of Latin American dance techniques? We are, of course, talking about Zumba.

If you’d  consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a dance instructor of some kind -why not teach one of the most in-demand dance classes out there? This Latin American dance is now a fan-favourite class across the world. We are of course talking about Zumba.

Zumba dancing is one of the most popular forms of dancing exercise today. In fact, about 15 million people take Zumba classes weekly. This high energy workout features high and low intensity intervals to improve fitness, enhance balance and enhance agility – and is perfect for anyone who is interested in turning their dance and fitness passions into a career.

As a Zumba instructor, your responsibility and duties include providing your class with fun, safe, high-energy workouts. You should be able to provide step-by-step classes for beginners as well as more advanced classes for experienced students. A great Zumba instructor has the ability  to help students reach their fitness goals effectively and safely in a fun and exciting environment. But it’s not all smiles and steps – you will also have to educate yourself and your students how to work out with proper form in order to prevent injury – and you will also have to have a strong business plan to guide you on the path to zumba instructor success.

How to become a successful Zumba instructor

The route to  certifications is through a variety of Zumba academies or Zumba instructor networks. 

Do your research and find a legitimate academy or training facility that is able to teach you everything from basic steps to advanced technique. Another aspect to consider is gaining a CPR certification. Yournetwork can also likely assist in working  with local fitness centres to find the best Zumba instructor opportunities for you.

Once you have become certified it’s time to learn the ins and outs of the fitness industry and put together a strong business plan to help you flourish in your chosen career path.

Building a career as a Zumba instructor

To build a successful career as a Zumba instructor you’ll need to build your very own business plan. Your business plan needs to lay the foundation for your successful career and should scale with your business as it grows. Whether you plan on doing classes at different gyms or you choose to launch or rent your own studio, your business plan needs to highlight everything you want to achieve and help guide you on that path to success.

1. Write out your mission statement

Before you dive right into the details of your business and your projections, highlight the basic information about your business goals. This is where you will outline your objectives and core values that will set the tone and focus for the rest of your Zumba instructor career plans. In this section of your business plan, write out a clearly defined mission statement that explains why you want to take on this role. Think about what you will offer your students and community and explain how you will proudly deliver on your promises.

Describe your company

Now it’s time to expand on your mission statement with the facts. In this section of your business plan you can dive into details about how you will contribute to the zumba and fitness industry on a local level and what sets you apart from your competitors. Expand on your professional experience and what makes you unique in your offering.

2. Analyse the market

When planning your Zumba instructor career path and putting together your business plan, you’ll also need to do some research. A good business plan should include a competitive analysis that is able to explain how your Zumba classes stack up against your competitors in the area. In order to do this successfully, you need to understand your target audience and be honest with yourself about any potential challenges – and how you can overcome them. It is important that you consider a creative selling point for your Zumba class.

Products and Services

In this section of your business plan you will decide what products and services you want to offer your clients.. Do you want to do in-person classes or online classes – or would you like to offer both? Do you want to work from home, in a gym or start your own studio?

Outline the different types of classes you plan to offer and how long each class will be and how you plan to divide them by level of experience. Provide information about the unique aspects of your classes and explain how your studio or classes stand out from the rest.

3. Management and organisation

You need to consider the best course of action when it comes to running your Zumba business. This means that you need to take bookings, classes, payments and scheduling into account. The good news is that we live in the digital age and you don’t have to do anything manually anymore. This means your time can be spent actively growing your business as opposed to running repetitive day to day tasks behind the scenes.

Gymcatch offers a complete and cost-effective  Zumba studio software platform that allows clients to browse, book and pay for classes in a single location. This platform also allows you to upload, manage and update your schedule anywhere and at any time. By investing in a Zumba class management tool no matter the size of your business, everything you need to run a successful business will be at your fingertips. 

Gymcatch also believes that great Zumba class management software shouldn’t break the bank and the platform offers a free monthto get you on your feet. Post the free month, you’ll also only be billed on a rolling, monthly basis. Gymcatch also doesn’t increase costs with usage and sticks to a simple price plan where you are billed for the base plan and then only the features that you choose to suit your needs. This means the platform is able to grow as your business grows – saving you time and money on the path to Zumba instructor success.

4. Workout your financial projections

In this part of your business plan you need to lay out your Zumba class costs and revenues. You need to lay out whether you have the money to start things up or if you require investment or a loan. Be very clear about how you plan to launch your business. Know what costs will be involved and consider any studio expenses, software or salaries.

You need to also explain how you will be charging your students. Don’t leave anything out when it comes to this section – it’s important to be realistic and understand what you can expect on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. 

Remember that this section – like the rest of the business plan – will change as you grow and learn. Nothing is set in stone.

In summary

While it may feel overwhelming, any fitness or dance studio owner or instructor knows that a strong business plan and the right management tools are vital for success. Creating this step-by-step can put you on a path to success.

Management technology and booking software can play an important role in the running of any modern business. An easy-to-use, scalable and cost-effective booking management software system is vital for any fitness instructor and Gymcatch offers the ideal solution. 

Get started with Gymcatch today.

Nov 01
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5 key considerations for managing block bookings or courses

By Dance, Fitness business management archives and news, Fitness industry archives and news, Gym and studios, Pilates, Yoga

In this blog, we consider when to sell sessions in courses or blocks, how best to maximise their operational efficiency, and block-to-block customer retention.

Are courses or blocks right for your customer?

A common theme in our business management content is to start with your customer.  We make no apologies for this, when thinking about your business model you should always start with an assessment of your customer or target customer.

When reviewing whether a course/block of sessions is right for your customers it helps to consider a few headline questions:

  • Do you assess your client’s progress frequently or set short-term milestones?
  • Is there a scheduling reason that courses/blocks may suit your customer better than other models (i.e. pay-as-you-go/memberships)? For example, are you targeting parents that have more availability during school term time?  Or kids where it’s often vice versa?
  • Can your customers afford larger one-offs, or twice over-term payments?
  • Would a perceived lack of flexibility in scheduling put them off?
  • What, if any, service would customers want when you’re not running courses?

When considering these questions, it is perhaps not surprising that many of our business customers who operate this model do so because:

  • They focus on parents as a demographic, effectively dove-tailing with school terms
  • The structure is particularly popular with Pilates and yoga modalities
  • Other programs where clear end results over a period are a focus often use them, with many personal trainers offering either 1-2-1 or small group training courses/blocks.

Your decision-making process can, of course, also be supported by considering whether alternative business models would work better:

  • In instances where courses/blocks make the most sense, it’s often the case that a membership model might be perceived by your customers as too long-term, or a waste of money (as regular commitments mean it wouldn’t get used for much of the year)
  • Whilst pay-as-you-go can supplement course income, running that by itself may also be seen as lacking a desired certainty of attendance for customers and, indeed, income for you as the business owner.  

How to think about retention

A reason we often hear for using memberships over courses is that the former encourages greater retention, as it doesn’t require a regular review / re-purchase. With this, it’s assumed that by surfacing the buying decision regularly you can increase the chances for the customer to cancel/not re-buy.

In our experience, and based on the data we see, this is not a valid assumption, and we believe it rests on some antiquated thinking.  Whilst memberships are absolutely a great model for many businesses, having a recurring, ongoing, payment does not in itself increase customer retention.  Customers are now, perhaps more so than ever, very aware of their outgoings and rights with regards to cancellation.  Just because a payment is automated does not mean that it is unknown or unnoticed.

In our experience, when businesses build a course-centric customer base the ongoing requirement to commit to the next course/block serves to increase retention.  This is because it introduces a ‘fear of missing out’.  This is to say that customers can be made aware that spaces are limited, the course is popular, and if they don’t recommit then they may lose their space with no guarantee they’ll get it back.  This in turn increases their propensity to turn up to sessions and make use of their allocated space.  It therefore actually serves to have a positive impact on accountability, far more so than with a membership where the available sessions are entirely optional/bookable.

In addition, you can increase the ‘fear of missing out’ by layering extra privileges on buyers of your past course/blocks.  For instance, you could offer a priority purchasing window for your next course/block that’s only accessible to those that bought the previous one.  This adds immediacy to the buying decision and, again, drives repeated attendance and accountability which will assist in retention (our industry-leading Priority Access feature can help here).

How to handle swaps and drop-ins?

One understandable gripe we repeatedly hear on our consults is the time it takes many to administer week-to-week swaps when courses/blocks are running.  Illness, transport, childcare, and holidays are common themes that can cause customers to miss scheduled sessions and want to swap into different courses/blocks’ weekly sessions.

Whatever you decide to set for your cancellation policy for sessions, if you’re offering a swap/credit, the process needs to be easy and manageable.  Ensure you find a system (e.g. Gymcatch) that can handle the customer canceling and rebooking of their spot (where there’s availability) across courses/blocks without having to contact you.

With regards to drop-ins, these can be a nice way to both enable swaps, but also boost income if your course isn’t full.  The main thing here is to ensure that you’re not opening up too many spots too early (i.e. too far before their start time).  It’s important to remember that for every drop-in you sell, that reduces your total course capacity (until that session is complete) by one.  So drop-ins at premium pricing are really best used either when they’re made available close to the start date of the session, or if there’s considerable excess capacity in the course.

What to do outside of course term time?

Where courses/blocks are run across school terms, we see two approaches to non-term time.  One approach is to leave the calendar clear.  This can give customers a break, and the flexibility to manage childcare without feeling like they’re missing out or, guilt for non-attendance.  This can also give the business owner some valuable time to refocus on pre-marketing the next courses/blocks and general admin that’s difficult to do during the period of delivery.  If you hire space and variable business costs, it can also mean that you don’t necessarily continue to incur in-term overheads.

The second option we see deployed successfully is for a more flexible set-up over the period.  This might be where you allow only pay as you go, or class pack / bundle-bought sessions.  This can be a great way to boost non-term time income and gives those that want to maintain their routine the ability to do so, all without in any way prejudicing those that can’t.

How to launch or migrate to a new booking system?

If your booking system doesn’t allow for all of the above, then there’s potentially a decision to be made to migrate to one that does.

If you are moving from pen and paper, then planning a launch in between courses/blocks is no doubt a good strategy and can ensure everything kicks off with minimum disruption.  If you’re not digitally confident look for 1-2-1 onboarding as part of the offer.  At Gymcatch, we pride ourselves on ensuring that all customers receive the onboarding support they need.

If you are migrating from a system that doesn’t provide these solutions, or that you’re over-paying for, then thinking about the following can be helpful:

  • When are you going to switch?  Again, in between courses/blocks can make a lot of sense, but equally the system may be able to import/add customers to existing courses/blocks, which may make for a gradual switchover while you’re still seeing customers regularly face-to-face to smooth the inevitable (if hopefully infrequent) questions that come up.
  • Can you import customer data and create their accounts for them?
  • Is it easy for customers to claim their accounts?

We hope you found the post useful.  If you would like to speak about the above and discuss your online booking software needs, your fitness bootcamp booking software needs and our £10 / $ 10 per month system, please book a free consultation here or if you’d like to give Gymcatch a go for free for 1 month, please get started here.

Jun 30
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Image for Referrals blog post

How to create a referral programme

By Dance, Fitness marketing and social archives and news, Gym and studios, HIIT and group, Pilates, Yoga

A referral programme is a very cost-effective and low risk way to reward your loyal customers for recommending new ones. It’s a very powerful marketing tactic to get existing customers to talk about you and help you acquire new ones.

According to a Nielsen report 83% of people trust their friends’ opinions. Although an old cliché, people buy from people, and that’s because there is immediate confidence and credibility to their testimonial. Led by trust, these future customers have the potential to quickly convert.

In summary, these are the key benefits to a referral programme:

  • Turns customers into loyal ones
  • Helps you build on your testimonials
  • Expands your reach and awareness
  • Converts leads into customers faster

If you are now ready to set up your referral programme and are looking for ideas, this blog is for you, and to make it easy we’ve broken it down into a 4 step guide with inspirational ideas you may want to consider.

  1. Set the goal you want to achieve with your referral programme

    Before you get started, decide on what you want to achieve with your programme. You want this to be clear and measurable. Acquiring new customers may not be your goal or what you want by the end of it. Some businesses will be looking at increasing sales or loyalty to get more advocates and improve on retention. Once you have decided on your goal, think about how you will be measuring progress and what are your referral sources.

  2. Decide on your incentive or reward

    The most successful way to get this right is to encourage insight from your customers to determine what incentive or reward will motivate them. Non-cash incentives such as in-store credits or priority access boost customer retention and sales. You don’t want to spend endless hours tracking and calculating incentives manually. Instead automate as much of this work as possible to save yourself valuable time. Choosing a conversion event, for example, the reward is applicable once the customer has booked a class or session with you and made full payment. This will eliminate any doubts and set the boundaries for when claiming a reward.

  3. Decide on your advocates

    The most critical part of the programme is choosing customers that are as passionate as you are about what you do and know your brand. Share your mission with them and draw some parameters. Work out the tags or hashtags and key messages you want them sharing.Consider the following:
    Who do you want to target?
    What do you need them to do?
    How can they achieve this?

  4. Promote your referral programme

    Tell your customers about your programme, chances are they aren’t aware and/or need reminding. Your most loyal customers should be your first place to get started. These are people that love your classes or sessions and have probably already advocated your business more than once before. However, make it easy for your customers to share your services and get rewarded. Social media has become a popular channel to share information and get the word out, but it has to be a simple process for both the referrer and referee, or they will lose interest.

A referral programme creates a win-win situation for all. Your existing clients get rewarded, feel valued, and you get quality leads for new customers. The more customers you get to tell their friends about your classes or appointments the more opportunity for new business you create.

Need inspiration?
Take a look at what some brands are doing!

Uber
Uber’s referral programme has 2 parts. Uber gives drivers and riders a unique referral code to share with friends interested in creating a driver or rider account. When a referral is successful a payment reward is made.
In parallel, they run a user referral programme too that works very similarly. When a user shares their code with a friend and that friend signs up they both get their next trip for free.

Dropbox
Dropbox allows you to earn extra free storage space when you invite friends to try it out. Basic accounts get 500 MB per referral and can earn up to 16GB. Plus accounts get 1 GB and earn up to 32 GB per referral.

How do referrals work on Gymcatch?
There are many ways to use Gymcatch’s features to run a successful referral programme and reward your customers. Our Discount Codes bolt-on, for example, allows customers to invite their friends and family at a fixed amount or percentage off. This is great when wanting to encourage loyalty and improve retention.

You can also use bundles and make them available for purchase for a limited time and remove it from sale at the end of the offer period. These are included as part of the base plan and although mean a little more planning are very easy to set up.

Our own referral programme means customers get rewarded with 2 free months and receive a cash reward when referring a new business. The referred business gets an extra free month directly into their account when registering with us.

For more information on Gymcatch and how it can help your yoga, pilates, dance or personal training business. Get in contact to book a demo or start a free month.

Apr 27
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How to become a dance instructor

By Dance, Fitness business management archives and news

It’s International Dance Day today and what a better way to celebrate than sharing some of my top tips on how to make the jump from dance enthusiast to dance fitness instructor.

Moving towards a new career or class concept armed with rhythm and a desire to make people feel amazing, can seem like a dream come true for many. It was for me over 10 years ago now, when I turned my dancing career into fitness and took the giant leap to become qualified and gain a few group instructor licences under my belt. The journey has come with some challenges, like for most, but I have managed to overcome these and gone onto launch my own business and support hundreds of group instructors with their fitness business.

Here I would like to share my top 5 tips on how to get started with becoming a dance fitness instructor.

1. Find your vibe

There are so many different styles of dance and dance fitness as well as a whole host of teaching methods. If you have a passion for a certain style of dance or music then this will start to pave the way towards a certain brand or creating your own class around a specific theme.

There really is something for everyone in dance fitness – for instructors and participants, which is GREAT because we are all so different with what we love and are truly passionate about helping people stay active.

2. Connect with your clients and potential clients

It might sound basic, but what is your market really looking for? This will help shape how you construct your class if you are going freestyle. If they are after something upbeat with a higher intensity then that will let you know what bpm or movement patterns you might look at. Do they already have experience in dancing? Could this be the first fitness dance class they have ever done? Then that will change what you might add in too. The same goes for branded concepts. Choose something that fits you AND your target market will make it a lot easier to sell as well as to connect with.

3. Make sure you have the right qualifications

Ensure that whatever qualifications you have extend to the concept you wish to cover. The first port of call for someone with no fitness or dance background would be to look at a group exercise qualification. Being qualified in the style of class you want to teach will also help you to pick up cover work at a gym or studio which will help you hit the ground running.

4 Reach out to local instructors

If you are looking to teach but you have no experience, why not attend a variety of classes whilst you work out what it is you truly love. Let the instructor know that you’re intending to train up and they will no doubt be able to point you in the direction of other places to go locally or centres to reach out to that might need extra cover.

5. Think outside of the box

If you’re looking for cover work, then sure, it makes sense to offer a class that’s popular in your local area. But if it’s your own class that you’re looking for, perhaps it would be better to stand out in a busy market than offer the same style or concept. There is something magical about not being afraid to be yourself and teaching a class that makes you feel confident and your clients will feel exactly the same when they connect with you.

If you decide to start a career as a dance instructor, you may want to consider investing in fitness management software like Gymcatch to help you manage your schedule, clients and payments.

Apr 21
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How to start a dance studio

By Dance, Fitness business management archives and news

Has the question on how to start a dance studio ever crossed your mind? Or, have you already began researching how to start one. Maybe you have wondered whether you have whatever it takes to start and run it and make it prosperous. Does any of these sound familiar to you? Here is a post for you! Below is a guide on how to open a dance studio, from the first step to the grand opening of your studio.

Track a studio or proprietor you admire

Do you recognise another studio director that you admire or respect? Do you like a local studio in the city or another town? The perfect way to learn how to start a dance studio is to work in it. If there is a local studio that has existed for a while, fix a few hours to visit the studio daily and take notes. Or get a studio owner you like and ask whether he can be your mentor.

While you are there, you can volunteer to stand-in the diverse jobs or roles where they require assistance so you may see the way things work from every angle. This gives you clues to significant challenges in dance trade and the way they are fixed.

More significantly, ensure you enjoy your work! Starting a dance shop is a great way to segment your love for a dance with a wider audience, but it is not for everyone and that is fine.

Get ready for the roles you will take on

In addition to understanding the commerce, you also require a clear picture of the diverse roles you take on being the owner. Past choreography and teaching lessons, you are to manage many fragments of your business. Some of the roles include:

• Manager: You will ensure that daily schedules and activities run smoothly. You must have the ability to convey what you need, what you require to improve and make sure your workforce is focused on the objectives.
• Mentor: you will represent the attitude and work ethic you presume from staff and students.
• Entrepreneur: your job does not stop at the opening of the studio. You ought to advance and come up with new dance studio plans. Being an entrepreneur, you will also be deeply involved in community outreach, marketing, customer service, event coordination, and more.

Find out from the beginning which of the roles comes naturally from within and which is best subcontracted to another reliable teacher or employee.

Build a title for yourself in the community

Dance studio Holders often go with confidence knowing that they have enough followers to take classes from the start. In case you don’t have enough followers yet, find them in the following ways:

• Offer dance services to the local gyms, schools, and churches
• Offer discounts for individuals who refer the classes to family and friends
• Advertise your classes at close businesses which are not entrants but have a clientele interested in dancing
• Share your approach to dancing on social media and personality so that others in the community can know you better

This is a long step you should accomplish before searching for a location or drawing up the business plan, as it consumes time. Fortunately, you may work on this while performing your other initial dance studio opening tasks.

Make your business plan for the dance studio

Your dance workspace business plan refers to a document that describes your business objectives and how you want to attain them. It lays a firm base for your studios for years ahead. Here are some of the essential sections you should include in the business plan:

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Market analysis
• financial estimates
• Marketing summary

Find the perfect place for your studio

Once you have found out how the business will work and what your monetary position is, you may start finding a good location. At this stage, the question “how much does it cost to open a dance studio” comes to mind. Find out the amount you have for renting and what additional costs come with the site you choose.

Dance studios have their unique requirements. Ask yourself the amount of space you will require. Do you need a room or several studios in your location? Also consider an office, a lobby, storage, commercial space, bathrooms, hallways, and a waiting room.

Also do not ignore things like:

• Parking Options: Do space have enough parking space for the number of learners you expect to attract?
• Security: Parents must feel safe and comfortable when taking their children to your place
• Visibility: It might cost extra to be in a visible place, however, it also allows passive marketing

Develop your processes and systems

It is time to come up with a plan on how to run your studio when it opens. This is more detailed and separate compared to the business plan, however, it is very important.

Also note that the more structured your process and system initially is, the lesser the persons you will have to hire. This is the reason why so many dance studio holders use management software for a dance studio. For instance, Gymcatch provides a dance studio management software that helps you manage your payments, classes, customer communications, and bookings. This plays a great role in saving time and reducing labour costs.

Arrange your studio room

Things like mirrors, floors, and dance Barres are an integral part of a ballet studio. Ensure you set up in a really attractive way. Do not stop there. Be sure to set up your dance studio such that it invites movement and creativity.

Employ your dance studio personnel

You may not require a lot of staff, especially if you are just starting. Please note, however, that you may not have much time to teach many lessons when you initially open it. As the owner, there might be many chores on your plate at first. Hence, your first employee might be someone who can train your classes, most likely short term. A different one can help with administrative tasks and front office.

Market your dance studio

You possibly have a great collection of individuals ready to register for your lessons. Still, it is important to inform the public about starting your ballet studio.

For starters, your website is your primary source for recruiting new students. Here, parents see your location info, contact details, positive feedback, teaching hours, and more. With a website, you can link directly to the Gymcatch website which helps you save time, increase revenue, promote communication with clients, and promote customer experience.

In addition to your website, ongoing advertising tasks include:

• Increase word of mouth promotion and referrals
• Build your presence on social networks
• Expand your email list
• Compilation of positive feedbacks on social networks and Google
• Develop partnerships with other local companies and charities

Once you’ve set up the above tasks, it is time to promote your official opening. Here are some ideas:

• Hang a large poster so that people can see that you have completed your “Grand Opening”.
• Keep an open house
• Place ads on social media and in local newspapers
• Have your learners perform at occasions in the community
• Find small commercial events to take part in
• Hang brochures at sociable local companies

Finally, people don’t open a dance studio for administrative tasks. They open for the liking of their profession. Offer yourself the chance to relish the dance studio you start. The above guideline will help you if you still have a query on how to start a dance studio. Go through it and you will never regret.

Managing your dance studio will be much easier with Gymcatch dance class management software.

Book a demo and get in contact with Gymcatch today.

Mar 30
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Dance studio advertising: How to draw in more clients

By Dance, Fitness marketing and social archives and news

You have a beautiful dancing studio, and your primary concern is how to attract a substantial client’s base. Running a successful studio requires excellent work since the competition is tight, and you are not only competing with other dance studio owners but also with every other fitness and leisure ventures in your area. Here are dance studio advertising ideas that could be helpful.

Use social media to gain clients

In this digital era, people spend most of their time on several social media platforms. You can use the platforms to make people aware of your schedules, special classes, and to provide other relevant information. Note that social media management is an art that requires great mastery to bring out business success. First, determine your target groups to decide the platforms you need to use. For the younger generation, use Instagram, but Facebook is a popular option for their parents. To reach millennials, use YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or twitter.

The key here is consistency and ensure that your platforms are always active in providing consistent information about your brand. Update your pages with the latest news to entice returning visitors. Also, share high-quality photos of your studio sessions, clear audio, and stable visuals and share promotional links on your platforms.

Plan an open house

Introduce your business to the world by allowing your potential customers to walk into your studio and meet people behind studio dances. Let them gauge what you have to offer and see the spaces they will be dancing from. Interact with them by answering their questions, offering demonstrations, performances, and easy lessons.

Keep in mind that fostering a human connection is one of the most important marketing ideas for dance studios. Run open house sessions and allow your current students to bring along their friends and family for a fun dancing time together. It is a great chance to encourage enrollment by offering discounts and gifts for already registered students.

Uphold email marketing

Sending direct mails is a compelling way to deliver relevant information and reminders to your clients as you attract other potential customers. However, you need to come up with great mail strategies to ensure that you provide informative content to avoid spam. You can resend the mail to those who didn’t open it or send reminders to those who missed out.

Keep the message short and clear with attractive email design and include your brand logo. Also, ensure that you include a call to action to advertise a new class session, to attend an event, register or get more information.

Use print media

You may be relying heavily on digital marketing methods, but you still need some traditional techniques. Give flyers to your clients, both new and existing, and encourage them to share with their friends. Post some around town, and take others to areas where your potential clients hang out. Ask a few local shops if you can leave some flyers or brochures there and display others on supermarket community boards. You can also extend to the local newspaper to increase the coverage.

Offer discounts and promotions

It’s evident that people like getting free hampers; thus, the main dance studio advertising idea is giving out discounts. Give your clients a certain percentage off a given number of lessons such that they won’t pay the whole amount or give them a free experience. Make sure that you impress everyone since anyone who walks through your door is a potential client.

During registrations, offer free give away items or an incentive on the registration fee to those who pay the whole amount. Come up with referral codes for your existing customers so that they can get a discount when referring their friends. You can also take advantage of the school holidays and hold a promotional event to attract new students.

Develop a website

Think about those potential customers who may be searching for new dance studios on the internet. If you have a good website for your studio, the chances are that your target clients will reach you easily. You should, therefore, come up with a website to do your marketing and utilise search engine optimisation to generate substantial traffic. Create web integration and ensure that your searchers have a seamless experience on the site. Include your location, type of instructor offered, studio name, and contacts to convince your potential customers that you stand out in this venture, and they will be a click away.

If this sounds all like a lot of work, set up a Gymcatch account and we can get web page live for you which can be shared across various platforms.

Participate in dance competitions

Do you want to show the world that you offer the best dance classes? Take advantage of the dance competitions that may be happening around and showcase your potential to target customers. Ensure that your established dancers are on top of their game and develop winning routines in both group and solo events.

Give your team beautiful attires which clearly show your logo, dance name, and location. Ask your other dancers to invite their friends to watch the rehearsals and competitions. You can also opt for free dance performances, which will attract large crowds’ attention.

Visit schools

Schools have a lot of potential customers; thus, establish a relationship with the tutors in schools, daycare centres, and youth centres by making them aware of your studio. Request them to inform their friends and parents about your venture. Give them some leaflets or brochures of your services, location, and contacts to help spread the word.

You can also teach some dance styles, if possible, to entice them and make them want to be your next clients. Ask the school administration if they hold dance competitions where you can showcase your talents and leave them with your studio contacts.

Team up with local businesses

Visit other companies around you that relate to your venture to reach out to an extensive customer base. They could be athletic clothing shops, dance supply shops, and dance shoe stores. Ask them to post your flyers at their store and post theirs at your studio for mutual benefits.
Team up with them to hold joint promotions where you can reach more potential clients. Don’t be afraid to partner with those that are not complementary like restaurants; ask them to hang a poster during peak seasons.

The demand for great dance classes is high, and the above tips will help you market your studio, making it attractive. However, you need to dedicate your time and effort to pull new customers into your studio and help them stay forever by providing the best experiences for all ages. Create an environment where various types of individuals can learn and grow by ensuring that your entertainment type suits your target demographic.

To push your dance studio business even further check out dance management software features.

Mar 18
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Dance studio business plan: Push your business to the next level

By Dance, Fitness marketing and social archives and news

Running a dance studio calls for a lot from you. Not only do you need to have a knack for dancing but also for business. Considerable capital is also required as well as a keen attention to detail.

However, the process doesn’t have to be as overwhelming if you reach out to Gymcatch.

Ideas on how to push your dance studio to the next Level

When running a dance studio, there are many tasks that require your time and effort in order to attain success. They include managing your customer relationships, coordinating payments and billings as well as running custom bookings and register information.

You need to have more than just a passion for dance in order for your business to thrive.

There are some ideas and suggestions that you should keep in mind in order to be a successful dance studio owner. They include the following:

First become an apprentice

The surest way of learning how to become an established business owner is by learning the trade through an expert. By observing how the industry works, you’ll be able to observe finer details that you can adopt in your own venture.

Getting such hands-on experience enlightens you on technical aspects that can help grow your business.

It also ensures that you are not completely clueless when you get to run your business. The transition of pushing your business from one level to the next will be much easier.

Create a name for yourself

Having a reputation that precedes you really helps in boosting the growth of your dance studio. By occasionally performing in the dance studio, you will prove that you are also a student of the art. Your clients will relate more and notice that you are not just in the business for profit.

Generate extra income

You should get out of your comfort zone of only holding dance classes at your studio. How about you organize fun events where new hires get to interact through dance? Getting creative will allow you to generate extra income and grow your business.

Hire qualified and trustworthy people

No matter how much you love your studio, it will be difficult for you to perform all the tasks on your own. Hiring people that are nearly as invested as you are in your studio operations will be necessary. Your staff can either make or break your studio which requires you to be careful.

Do not forget to network

Rather than solely spending all your hours in the dance studio, you can go out there and network. By joining groups comprising of other dance studio owners, you will be exposed to many more profitable ideas. It’s also a good way of having people on your speed dial to call on for advice.

How to develop a dance studio business plan designed for success

Developing a perfect business plan will require you to tap into the knowledge you’ve gathered as an apprentice or observer. A formal business plan of your dance studio will be an important counterpart to your passion for dancing. The scheme of the business plan will involve elements such as:

Vision and mission statements

Outlining the core objectives and values of your dance studio set the focus for the entire business plan. Identifying the ‘why’ behind your dance studio helps in keeping you on track with your short-term and long-term goals.

Business description

The business description expounds on what your dance studio has to offer students and the community at large. The best way to drive the message home is by explaining the qualities that set your dance studio apart from the rest.

Market survey

You should be well aware of the type of customers your dance studio will serve. Are you targeting couples, adults, teenagers or kids? Extensive research should be done on your target audience. That way, you can develop effective marketing strategies to grow your business.

A well-written business plan will include a competitive analysis of the target market. Which is critical in ensuring your studio stands out from its competitors. Other questions that may assist you in analyzing the target market include:

· How many studios are competing against you for students?

· Which strategies are your competitors successfully implementing?

· Which challenges will you encounter in reaching your target market?

Business management

A clear layout of the respective authorities in charge of your dance studio is important. Which should preferably be done in a flow chart describing the duties and responsibilities of each employee.

It’s also important to disclose the type of business your dance studio will be. Will it be a partnership, limited liability company (LLC) or another type of business structure? The structure of your business may affect the paperwork you ought to file in registering your business.

Products and services

You should be able to elaborate on the products and services that your dance studio will offer.

What are the different types of classes that you will offer? Will you host any special events? Be specific about the aspects of your dance studio curriculum.

Budget

Running a dance studio requires you to set aside a certain amount of money to get started and maintain the business.

Consider the various costs that will be involved such as your employees’ payroll and advertising or marketing campaigns.

You will also need to disclose the structure through which you plan to charge your students.

Will there be an annual registration fee on top of what each student pays per class? How much will you charge each ticket for special events that you host?

Marketing strategy

The marketing strategy outlines how your business will find new customers and increase sales. Potential investors are usually interested in analyzing the marketing strategy of your business.

You can adopt the 4Ps concept which entails your product, promotion, price and place.

When writing the marketing strategy section of your dance studio business plan, you should strive to make it relevant.

There are certain things can help you in developing a plan and breaking down its cost:

· Showing your uniqueness: Through the unique selling proposition (USP) of your business

· Knowing your clients: By conducting a market survey

· Being flexible: Such as using social media to promote your business physical location

· Conducting extensive research: Based on your competitors and industry reports

· Using visual aids: Such as graphs, charts and images

Appendix

The last section of your business plan is the appendix. It convinces the reader of your business plan that you have paid keen attention to your great business idea.

You can include supporting documents such as licenses, contracts, resumes and marketing materials.

Conclusion

Developing a business plan for your dance studio may not be easy. However, the fulfilment that comes with pushing your business to the next level makes all the effort worthwhile.

Managing your dance studio will be much easier with Gymcatch dance class management software.

© 2022 Gymcatch.

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