Your mindset is your collection of thoughts and beliefs that shape your thought habits. And your thought habits affect how you think, what you feel, and what you do. Hence why it’s very important in regards to running your business. Your mindset shapes the direction of where your dance business is going. Here are three key shifts that every dance instructor needs to work through on their journey to build a successful and profitable business:
From Selling to Marketing
Nobody likes to be sold at. Nobody! So please stop doing it. “Hey, what’s your name? Btw do you want to learn how to dance? You can come to my classes every Thursday.” It’s like asking someone to marry you right after you just met them – it’s not the natural process, you might even scare them away. People only buy from sources they trust. And how can people trust you? By patiently nurturing the relationship and showing them that you’re there to help them solve their problem. We need to shift our thinking from ‘trying to sell our dance classes’ to ‘trying to see how our dance classes can help people solve their problem’.
Today’s Marketing is about helping people become what they want to be. In our case, people might need us to help them to be more social, to be more active, or to be able to dance, for example. Focus on how your dance classes can help make your student’s life better, rather than trying to sell them something they might not even want. People want what they want and don’t want what they don’t ask for. So let them discover you on their own, or by having their friends refer you to them. And when they do find you, make sure you’re there and ready for them with a clear message of what you do, who you do it for, and how you can help them. You can attract people to your business by making your best impression, by being fun and entertaining, and by being generous. Do that and you’ll have a lifelong relationship.
From Improvisation to Strategy
In the beginning, many of us are probably just making it up as we go along – trying a few things, taking a few chances. At some stage in your business journey though, making it up as you go along is no longer a viable approach if you want to keep growing your business, especially when you’ve started adding more classes and more team members. Having a more stable strategy would make your life as a dance business owner a lot easier. A Marketing Plan, for example, will give you control. It provides directions and goals for your promotional activities. It gives you a timeline which can help you focus on your resources, especially if you work on a limited budget. This mindset shift will help you in the long run. Move away from creating random promotional efforts and try to work on your Marketing Plan and have a System in place instead.
From working IN your business to working ON your business
As a business owner, your focus needs to shift from day-to-day operation to the big picture, steering your business forward by identifying and removing barriers to growth and putting in place the things that your business needs to move forward, ie. the right people, the right culture, a clear system, and the right marketing strategies. This can be tricky if it’s just you in the business but doable, and you definitely should do it. One way to make this possible is to allocate a set time when you can regularly map out your plans and strategies to build the best business possible. Don’t get too bogged down with the tiniest details of your daily tasks and start thinking like a business owner.
Building a successful and profitable dance business starts with adopting the right mindset. If you want to know what the next steps are in order to grow your business, have a look at our signature Marketing Course for Dance Instructors. We will guide you step by step, starting with your mindset, and you will have created your own marketing plan when you finish with the course. You can click the link here to learn more.
