I’m 21 years old, and I founded a dance studio three years ago. The goal was to gain business and management experience while I was in college for marketing. We just hit year three and crossed six figures in revenue, but I only take home 10-20% in profit.
I made a lot of mistakes when starting the business, but thanks to trial and error (plus great networking), I know what I have to do now to move the company in the right direction.
While we’re currently working on improving our client’s experience, the biggest “goal” is moving to a better location. Our current space only has one studio with no walls, no comfortable lobby, terrible parking, and no street visibility. I’m looking at moving to a new space nearby with ample parking, storefront visibility, multiple studios, a lobby, an office, and possibly a dressing room. The new location would improve our clients’ experience and also allow us to offer more programs/classes for additional revenue (something we can’t do at our current location).
The problem is I’d have to sign a five year lease, the rental rate is higher, and I’m looking at approximately $60K in build-out and impact fees; it’s a big time and financial commitment.
My biggest issues are:
• It’s a constant struggle to find qualified, reliable instructors. I want to be the CEO, but I’m still teaching six days a week. • Dance moms are incredibly demanding, high maintenance, and judgemental. • When it comes to the classroom, you’re not just teaching dance; you’re juggling young girls’ emotions and drama. It feels like the reality TV show Dance Moms at times.
Apart from the interpersonal struggles, I don’t take home a huge percentage of revenue now, and no guarantee making the “right” iterations will put more money in my pocket. It’s hard to put up with constant shit when you’re making little to no money.
I’m at a crossroads because I don’t want to get labeled as just a “dance studio owner” and lose out on job opportunities in my marketing. I also don’t want to waste time in a dance studio if there are better (less headache/more money) business opportunities out there. Moreover, I spent three years building this business; I don’t want to start from scratch on another venture if this is just part of being a business owner.
My options are:
- Keep pursuing the dance studio for the next five years. If I want out, I can sell it once we grow and perform better financially.
- Start applying to jobs in my major now and accept an offer that’s the right fit. I’ll delegate my studio responsibilities and close the studio at the end of the season (May 2024).
Based on your experience or the information I shared, do you have any advice on the path I should take?
Do you want to ultimately be a dance studio owner? I mean if you don’t use your marketing degree right away, almost zero chance you will except to promote your own studio. That area is hard to get into in the first place.
Personally do not know anyone that has a dance studio that does not run the majority of classes. What do you want to do?
The average studio is run by “creatives” who don’t know how (or don’t want) to scale a business to that size; however, I’m networking and taking advice from the mega-studios with over 1,000 students.
If I could build my business to have thousands of students, full-time employees, and place myself as a CEO, I’d be thrilled running the company! These large studio owners I know pay themselves 300K to 1M per year.
My dilemma is that the average dance studio never reaches that type of success. Is it the people running most dance studios (creatives), or are most dance studios just not profitable?
You’d probably need someone else to be the “owner” but maybe look at a dance studio franchise will likely be easier to scale