We borrowed these tips (but slightly revised them) to grow your studio in 2023 from Patti Komara: a leading consultant in studio growth and owner of Tumblebear. We love Patti and the tips she has to offer!
- Review your class offerings. Analyze your sales figures from the last 12 to 18 months and figure out which classes were your best. You don’t have to be all things to all people. What do you do better than any other studio in the area? Next, look at adding complementary products or services to the mix while focusing on your most successful classes. People already love you. Sell them a second type of class. Offer preschool dance, preschool yoga, swimming, and an educational preschool.
- Sell products Online. According to Forrester Research, e-commerce sales grew to $200 billion in 2011. The same study also predicted online sales would continue to grow from 7% of overall retail sales to nearly 9% by 2016. If you haven’t added e-commerce to your website, now might be the time to consider it. The Internet has made it easy to reach retail customers around the world—without opening a traditional retail store. Thanks to third-party processing companies such as PayPal, small businesses can accept credit card payments online without expensive shopping cart programs. Put your school’s apparel online. Dance Studio Web Design can quickly build you an e-commerce store that will integrate with your website! The only monthly fee you will pay is to your hosting company. Or you can register for Shopify or Volusion. Need help setting it up? Dance Studio Web Design can do it for you for a small fee.
- Offer Discounts. NCH Marketing’s annual consumer survey claims 80.6% of consumers reported using coupons (or discounts) regularly. They also found that more than a third of respondents said they used more coupons in 2011 than during the prior year. And while traditional print coupons still dominate 3 to 1, the use of digital coupons has been growing.