Thread: Building Your Business means Building Your Network

I have had dancing somewhat on hold for the last few years to focus on building my retail business, and during that time, I have been studying, getting coaching and whatnot so that I could learn to be a better business person.
The thing is that if we want to be "successful" as a dancer, we really have to be good at 2 things - dance and business. When I was focusing on dance, I was definitely lacking in the business skills department, and marketing was almost a 4 letter word to me. When I did market my dancing, I really was focused on just getting new students or customers with very little effort given to maintaining my current relationships or even building my network. I know that when I get back into teaching, I will have a very different approach.
So, what do you all do? Would any of you be interested in learning about a great way to stay in touch with and build your network? For the last few months I have been using a system for my retail store that I think is fabulous.

sounds interesting....

Share share share!!!!!

I would love to hear more!

do tell!

I think you bring up a very interesting point. But you are right, this is a business and as dancers we have to further educate ourselves about the business world (marketing, networking, etc). Relationships are key, because will go back to and recommend dancers they know and feel good about!

I would definitely like to learn more!!

Originally Posted by ocdancer80

I think you bring up a very interesting point. But you are right, this is a business and as dancers we have to further educate ourselves about the business world (marketing, networking, etc). Relationships are key, because will go back to and recommend dancers they know and feel good about!

I would definitely like to learn more!!

Yes, building your relationships keeps people coming back, and it helps with referrals. Also, you just never know where a new contact may lead to. You may be able to help that person or vice versa, but oftentimes that opportunity doesn't present itself immediately, and it never will if you don't make the effort to develop a relationship.
I used to have a very short-sighted point of view in that I would assume that I didn't have anything in common with the average person (whatever "average" means). Last year I went to a week-long seminar with Jack Canfield, the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and we did all sorts of exercises with partners. This attitude kept presenting itself as I would glance at my partner before we even started to talk. I might be paired with a very straight-laced looking man, thinking he was involved in some profession completely unrelated to dance, and then I would find out that he was an artist or married to a dancer or something like that that would make me realize that somewhere down the line, we did have something in common, and maybe we *could* really help each other out.
Anyway, can you see how if you view the world as your potential network, you create possibilities? In my coaching, there is a saying that your network equals your net worth. So, yeah, relationships are important.
The question then poses itself how do you do this in a way that doesn't become completely overwhelming. I have started sending out cards to people for their birthdays, for thank yous, for nice-to-meet-yous, and for totally unexpected reasons, and I can't tell you how many times I hear back that I have made the recipient's day. In fact, last week I sent my yoga teacher a belated birthday card (because I found out after the fact), and in class today, she thanked me several times and told me that I made her day and that I also made her husband's day with the personalized card that I sent to her. I use a system called SendOutCards that is super-easy, quick and more affordable than regular Hallmark cards, but the best way to understand how great SOC is would be to see how it works, so if anyone is further interested, feel free to PM me or email me at centerstagedance at qwestoffice.net .
Also, there are many ways to develop a marketing approach, so if anyone has some other great ideas, please feel free to post them here.