Getting ready to reopen your dance studio – Top 5 things you can be doing during lockdown

For so many of us, just a few short weeks ago our entire lives were turned upside down when we were forced to shut down our businesses literally overnight. After a crazy few weeks getting in the swing of what you have decided to offer/not offer during this time I feel like the dust is beginning to settle and everyone is just about getting to grips with things and have started to come to terms with what is happening.  

Now, as disruptive as this whole situation has been, I just wanted to start by saying CONGRATULATIONS. However you have dealt with this mad situation make sure you take a minute to breathe and give yourself a huge pat on the back. Whether you have switched to an online schedule, pre recorded classes and content for your students or started sending out weekly tasks/challenges/activities…well done! As a collective of dance business owners we have acted fast, been creative and most importantly are giving our students something to look forward to during a very uncertain and unnerving time. I am personally very proud to be part of such an awesome community of dance business owners. 

So what now? Well none of us know how long it will be before the situation will change, and lets face it even if lockdown gets lifted gradually, we will not be the first businesses they will be encouraged to open again. However, things will change at some point and we WILL open our doors again. Don’t be the person that concentrates so much on troubleshooting what’s going on right now that you don’t take some time to plan for then. 

Your students will need you more than ever and so will lots of lovely new students that will be desperate to move, dance and socialise again. Keep reading for my 5 top tips on getting ready to re open. If you follow and action these top tips I believe it will strengthen your position for a super successful reopening. Imagine being ready with all the tools you need, so as soon as we get the green light you are good to go and feel more confident about success than ever before!

1. Strengthen your community now

Community has never been more important than it is right now. People are craving connections so there really has never been a better time to build yours stronger than ever. Reach out to your members and parents as much as you can. Keep them informed with what’s going on with a weekly email update or if you can, video updates. If you don’t have a Facebook group already then create one and encourage all of your members/parents to join. Use it for updates but also to share great content with them. Always think about how you can best serve them and add value to what you offer. Have you thought about doing a weekly virtual social or quiz night? We have started doing this and the feedback has been amazing. I have had people that have been members of my ‘real life’ studio for years saying this is the most connected to our community they have ever felt! Another idea is running a weekly Q+A. You could just be there to answer questions or concerns or could theme them with different topics to be discussed each week. 

2. Build your online presence

Everyone, and I mean everyone is online right now! Now is a great time to build your online presence. Have you reached out to all of your current students/parents to see if they are following you on whichever platforms that you use? You might be surprised at how many aren’t. Before, they could ask questions in class and keep up to date that way but now is a great time to make sure they are following you online. There is a catch here, there is no point in building your following if you aren’t sharing awesome value adding content. Your content may also need to change to make you more relevant with what is going on now. Think about what people will want and need to see right now. Not sure? Ask them! Pop a message in that Facebook members group or on your Instagram and ask people what they would like to see more of or what they need help with at the moment. I would then highly recommend you ‘batch’ create content. This means instead of logging in each day and wondering what to write about and it feeling like a big chore, spend a couple of hours once a week to create posts and content for the whole week. To give you some ideas my clients have asked for help/content with the following…

Staying motivated in lockdown

Stretching safely and effectively

Learn the move tutorials 

Info on history of relevant dance styles 

Show make up and hair tips/tutorials 

How to get into a daily routine 

Also post about all the awesome stuff you have already done/achieved at your studio as a reminder of how awesome you are (throwbackthursday). The fun stuff you are planning when you can open again (more on that in tip 5) and gather some testimonials / success stories and get them up as well (testimonial tuesday or success story Sunday?!) 

3. Have a marketing plan and your marketing copy ready

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a clear marketing plan in place as well as the copy you are going to use written and the images picked out. This will save you so much time and stress later as well as just making the whole sales process easier for you. Really this topic is a whole separate blog post as there is a lot to think about here but here are the key things to keep in mind. 

Only spend time, energy and money on marketing where you know your clients will be. There is no need to do a marketing plan for Instagram, for example, if you aren’t sure that is where your ideal client hangs out. 

Pick one or two places to market. The key to successful marketing is to focus your energy on one or two platforms where you know you will find your ideal clients. You don’t need to market everywhere. I know personally that my idea clients hang out on Facebook so that is where I focus all of my marketing efforts. Ideally you will already know what works best for you (again, if not ask your current clients). I would strongly recommend, if you haven’t already, it is time to scrap flyering! Yey, I hear you scream! The exception to this rule is if you know they work for you AND you are tracking your numbers properly so you know where to distribute them, the conversion rate and therefore the ROI. If you are, like I used too, just giving them out with no idea if they are working to get people through the door, permission to stop. You can reach more people, more effectively on Facebook from the comfort of your own sofa (really useful at the moment too!) 

Once you know where you will do your marketing it is time to write the copy. The key to effective marketing copy is making sure it resonates with your ideal client. This means actually using the words they would use. The biggest mistake people normally make with marketing is talking about themselves and what they can offer. Instead, I urge you to find out the actual words your ideal clients use to talk about the problem that your solution can solve for them and use them in your marketing. 

4. Build some key systems into your business 

If your whole business is already built on solid and documented systems then feel free to skip this point. However, if like me, until more recently most of the systems in which your business runs and depends on live inside your head then there has never been a better time to start writing them down! This may seem like a huge, never ending task and feel so overwhelming that you’re already sweating, believe me I know, that was how I felt too! The key is to start small. Work out what are the most important systems in your business and start with those. A good place to start would be your sales process and your follow up process. These can literally take the form of simple bullet point lists that you can build on as you improve and add to them. I can’t stress enough how much this will change your business. It will help you to hand tasks over as you grow, add consistency and will also add value to your business. Once you get on top of this, document every new process/system that you add and build it into a manual. This has totally changed my business and allows my whole team to complete tasks at the studio with complete consistency…and more importantly without having to ask me how! 

5. Plan to launch something new

I have already congratulated you on being so quick and creative at dealing with the current crisis and moving your business online. Now it’s time to channel some of that awesome creativity into planning things you would love to offer once you can open your doors again. Get people excited. I know this is a difficult task with no time frame but it doesn’t mean you can’t get planning some exciting workshops, camps, events or maybe think about launching a fresh new class, anything that you can start posting about now. This will help to keep you focused and excited and your students…and new found followers engaged and even more keen to get back to your studio. 

Bonus Tip – depending on what you have decided to offer during lockdown

6. Decide if you can leverage whatever you have created online and make a plan

For some of you that are already completely over offering anything online and can’t wait until you never have to do it again, this won’t be relevant, and that’s ok! For others it may be worth thinking about. If you have built a new site/platform or now have pre recorded content, have a think about if there is a way to continue to offer this to your students at a low monthly cost once you are back to ‘in person’ classes. It may be something that will be easy and cheap for you to upkeep and could add valuable monthly revenue (which, let’s face it, will be very much welcomed after all this!).  

Hopefully this has given you a few ideas so you can make the best of the current situation and prepare for a successful re launch. 

Stay safe and stay home. 

Sarah Kleio