A Ballroom Dance Studio Can Be an Incredible Business to Own

Music, Movement, and Money

Entrepreneurs are always experimenting and trying to create businesses that will take off and make them wealthy. Some accomplish their dreams, while many fall to the wayside in bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, starting a business of any kind is a crap shoot due to the many unforeseen variables. This is why many investors choose proven methods and formats, such as franchises to begin a new business. Even then, there are no guarantees.

A good businessperson will always try to hedge their bet in one way or another. Therefore, if the economy goes sideways for a while it can withstand the downward swing.

I have been in the ballroom dance industry since 1977. I began teaching ballroom in Denver, Colorado, and have gone from a lowly trainee to being the owner and manager of a the top studio in Reno, Nevada.

I know how to build a successful school, and I know how to ruin one as well. I should, because I have done both.

Now, when I teach people to be managers of a studio or anything else, I remind them that mistakes can be very expensive, and the consequences can destroy your business.

Yet, this is not failure! Because mistakes are the teachers in our life.

We never learn from our successes. By the time we do succeed in something, we have probably made a ton of mistakes to learn the right way to succeed.

My motto is,

“The only time you fail is when you quit trying.”

When I walked into the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Denver to start my first day of training, I was hooked within a few minutes. Now, almost 50 years has passed and I’m still up to my neck in teaching the box step using the interrelated system of teaching.

I love the ballroom dance business but from a business aspect it is a risky venture. So many variables come into play when trying to keep a studio afloat, especially during down times in our economy.

If there is a recession, a person’s spendable income usually lessons. There are people who can continue to take lessons but many people have to save to pay their necessary bills.

Ballroom dance lessons are not as important as making a mortgage payment or keeping your lights turned on. Often, this is when many ballrooms owners rely on just a few wealthy students to keep them open.

This is bad business because overselling lessons in a dance studio will reduce the value of the business itself. It piles untaught lessons on the books, this massive liability decreases the studio’s value.

I always look at my studio as the primary product; a sellable item. I want my business to have a consistant profit from my proven method given its worth.

Regardless who would buy the business, as long as they follow the methods the business uses to create a consistant income they too should be successful.

This attitude toward your business creates a stable business and a stable enterprise should not have to resort to poor business practices during a recession if they plan ahead.

The magic of the ballroom dance industry is the amalgamation of music, movement, and money. The problem that I see is that most people do not partnership dance anymore.

You do see partnership dancing in different genres like country bars, Salsa and Latin clubs, and ballroom studios. Yet, this is but a fraction of the people who love music. Many people would find partnership dancing as addicting as I did, but have never had the opportunity to learn.

This is why my business, Amazing Dance Solutions, have designed a new business model that will help all forms of dance studios triple their active student body count and help them survive the hard times without overselling or closing their doors for good.

I take *payroll out of the equation for staff and offer more free classes to fill all the dead time in studios. I offer new ideas to give students more reasons to dance and take lessons.

I show how studios can reach out into the public and create new revenue sources and not just by selling wedding packages. Studios need to find more ways to create income other than selling just dance lessons.

Selling retail is nice but it can be a pain keeping things in stock or having items that never seem to sell. Anyway, with the big companies like TEMU, they make it impossible to compete with them.

Students can spend a third of what a studio has to charge to make a slim profit selling accessories and shoes.

It is smarter for owners to become affiliates with these online stores and make extra income that way instead. There is no investment for the owner and students will be happy to spend less and get more. This also leaves more money for them to spend on dance lessons and events.

One big change schools can afford to make is using gamification techniques to give students more reasons to dance. Gamification is being used in many different fields to help people learn.

By using challenges and awarding quality prizes, people learn much faster and will stay with whatever they’re trying to learn longer. Businesses are using gamification more and more in training their staff.

We are used to challenges when playing computer games. This is how these games keep players playing and spending money. Even though the games are free to download and play, they also offer in-game purchases of game related packages so players can advance in the game faster.

This is one of the most brilliant marketing strategies ever derived for monetizing computer games. What is even better is this same strategy holds true in other businesses.

These games would be somewhat of a snooze if it wasn’t for the challenges. Learning to dance is great but having a reason to dance is what makes the lessons worthwhile.

I have created several different challenges for studios to offer to their students and what the rewards could be. I have them seperated into two different categories:

1. Personal Challenges
2. Team Challenges

I love the idea of making instructors the team leaders and then to let them create teams of students. I also have rewards for instructors to inspire them to have outstanding teams.

Challenges can be a lessons challenge; adding up both group and privates taken. This is something they do anyway, just now they are being rewarded for the efforts. Usually students will step up the number of lessons they take just to get better prizes.

Another goody is the exchange lesson challenge. Simple things will always get the best results.

My favorite challenge is one that rewards instructors. It is called, “Show Your Instructor Some Love” challenge.

I think it is great if the instructors have a challenge for them. For students to place in the challenge, and earn rewards for themselves, they must tip their instructors a modest amount. This how they show their love to instructors that can always use a little extra incentive to keep them excited to teach.

All of the challenges can be Personal or Team oriented.

I think more studios need to find a dance business center they can use like the a franchise headquarters. Their new HQ provides pressure-free procedures to help organize their business and create consistent profit.

The center provides online training for staff and managers. Members connect with other dance studios using our site. We have a professional page to find new instructors, coaches, examiners, and job board.

We have our sister business, Amazing Dance Excursions. Here you can book competitions, trips, and cruises. This service great for studios and independent instructors to take advantage of.

The dance competitions and workshops, trips, and cruises make it is for studios and instructors to have more to offer their students. Special packages are setup for just one studio as other packages are combined with other studios.

If you are an independent instructor who book competitions through Amazing Dance Solutions, you will be seated with other ADS members at the competition.

Amazing Dance Solutions is in its infancy yet, it will blossom because there is a void in the ballroom business for independent studios and instructors. This is the solution and we are filling that void.

If anyone wants to know more about how they can get involved in the most magical business in the world, and become a ballroom dance studio owner, consultant for ADS, or how to become a member then contact me and I’ll tell everything you want to know.

H. Mikel Feilen

Peace, Love, and Unconditional Happiness!

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