Need some help dance teachers? Part 2: Making some more money
Here's 7 tips of how to make and keep some more of your hard earned money in your dance school.
1) Go though your bank account and plug up all those money leaks. Are you paying for a monthly service you no longer use? Do you just automatically renew your insurance without looking around first? Spending 10 minutes looking for a new quote could save you money every single year.
2) Can you sell something extra to your existing customers? It is a well known fact it costs more money to recruit a new customer than to sell to a existing one. Is there a complimentary class you could offer on the back of an existing class for an additional fee. For example when I was teaching Zumba I had an additional toning class for 30minutes and £3 extra after the regular class. About half of the class stayed for this extra class making me some more money when I was already out of the house and paying for the hall hire.
3) Does your show cost you money or is it making you money? Honestly? After all those extra hours you are putting in are you in profit? Places like ticket source can sell your tickets for you (which was always the job I really hated). How about finding advertisers to sponsor your tickets or programmes? That cost could pay for them meaning the actual money made on them is a nice little bonus for you. If you are near to Pink Pointes we would love to buy an advert in your programme!
4) Go paper free! One of the best things we did. All our our communication with parents is now done via email, text or phone. The amount of money I have saved printing letters has improved my bottom line no end. Think of all that paper, ink, printer wear and tear. I'm pretty sure I saved an entire rainforest (Well maybe not but you get the idea).
5) Where are your new customers coming from? Are they cold or warm leads? First let me explain the difference. A cold lead is someone who has properly never heard of you. Ever! If you see a new brand, or in this case dance school, it takes a while to build that trust. Just putting leaflets though doors or cold calling people is not likely to get you too many customers these days. You need to build up trust with your potential customer before they will hand over their hard earned cash to you. The best way we found to get new customers is through word of mouth. If you need a haircut and your friend just walked in with amazing hair and can't stop talking about how friendly their new hairdressers is, that they got an amazing cup of coffee and biscuits and walked out feeling like a million pounds you would want to go right? So you need to create that buzz with your customers. Not only will your customers telling their friends help get your name out, these people already trust their friend so are more likely to buy from you quicker.
6) Is Food and Drink available at your classes? Could it be? You can buy large packs of water or sports drinks from wholesalers and sell at a small profit in your class. I can guarantee someone will have forgotten theirs. What about offering a meal deal between school pick up and dance class starting for parents who don't have time to cook a meal in between. Is there a caterer nearby you could get in touch with who can provide meals direct to your venue?
7) The most obvious one is, up your prices. Prices should never, ever be based on what someone else in charging, you need to work out your own value. If you haven't put up your prices I am sure something you are paying out for is going up. Remember your class fee should cover your hall hire, insurance, music, stereo, teacher fees, membership fees, PPL, PRS, Pro-Dub licences, petrol, uniform and leave you a bit on top to live off of.
Join us next time for some tips of how to reduce stress in your life.
