The Choreography of Money In a Dance Academy
Dance academy owners face cash-flow challenges not unlike other business owners but at the same time, unique to their industry. With seasonal registration, deferred revenue, cancelled registrations, costume deposits, exam fees, competitions, recitals and more, how do they keep it all straight and have a solid plan of action for handling the money?
Something that’s specific to the dance academy owner’s circle is the huge influx of cash at specific times during the season and then the droughts that leave them wondering how to pay the bills before the next season starts.
When you look online there’s a ton of information about adding more classes, hiring better instructors, diversifying, charging more for classes, etc. But what about getting a firm handle on the money that you have now; having a behavioural way of telling it where to go BEFORE you start looking at all the other ways to increase revenue streams? There’s a lot of truth to Dave Ramsey’s statement “If you don’t tell the money where to go it will leave you” — I deal with it every day working with countless business owners that are at their breaking point because the money has “left them”.
SO TELL YOUR MONEY WHERE TO GO! You quite literally need to choreograph how the money dances through your business. Intentionally and sustainably, so it doesn’t leave you.
I have a very firm belief (backed by real experience fixing it) that if you don’t get your “core” strategy right, adding everything else only complicates and exacerbates the problem. It’s like building a house — would you build it on quicksand? Of course not! You’d start with a solid foundation so you can add as many floors above as you need. Once that foundation is set, THEN we look at the floors above.
It really isn’t difficult, in fact it’s quite simple. Simple, but not easy to implement. When I teach this “core strategy” to entrepreneurs, they all feel like their business is “different” from everyone else’s. And while I appreciate they feel that way, the principles are the same. But dance academy owners are a breed all their own — and while these same principles apply to them, they do have specific nuances requiring tweaking these principles even more just for them.
Having had a lot of dance academies looking for help land in my inbox lately I’ve realized they really do need a program specific to them. There are so many of them struggling with the same issues. I get it — I see the same issues over and over again with dance academies and I know how to fix them. And since the principles of what I teach can be tailored to different industries, why wouldn’t I create something just for them?
So that’s what I’m doing. Taking my program for entrepreneurs and tweaking it specifically for dance academy owners. I get your pains, I have the solutions. If you want to be part of this new community I’m building go to my main Facebook page and just send a message that says “dance” — I’ll make sure you get access to the community specific to dance academy owners. Not on Facebook? Drop me a line via email.
