Thread: investing in business material

so,

if all goes well 2011 will be the year in which
- i quit my day job
- use the thus freetime to
* finish the damn phd
* build on my bellydance empire

years ago i started a "studio fund", a savings account for should i acquire my own studio, to have enough money to get proper floor and mirrors in right away; I'm pretty sure now the studio is not going to happen because a/i've looked for years and the real estate market here just wont let me find something affordable b/many conversations with other studio owners have made me relish my relative freedom without one, freedom to travel, to teach less or more etc c/i now have a small home practice space anyway to cover my immediate needs d/ being recognized as a city sport club gives me cheap acces to sports accomodation anyway that is probably better than anything i could by or rent fulltime.

so. i think i should invest a potentional portion of this "studio fund" in promoting myself and my business rather then letting it sit in the bank.

any ideas.
my list is
- flashier website
- photoshoot
- a promotionial DVD/promo clip?
- adds on bellydance website/in bd magazines

anything else?

has anyone done the promo clip? used it for what? youtube? to send to artist agencies and to workshop sponsors? or? how do you find someone to make it for you? all i seem to find is either amateurs, wedding videography, or huge production companys that make tv adds and charge 20.000$ or more. and although i'm willing to invest a couple of 1000, that's just tooo much.

is there nothing in between?

Personally, I find promo clips useless and boring. Obviously somebody likes them, but most of the ones I've seen are more of a fashion show under mixed-quality lighting conditions, than a well-lit and -edited showcase for the dancer's talents.

Invest in your dancing. Take private lessons, travel to study with a master teacher, pick up some skills in another aspect of stagecraft or a different movement discipline, whatever will give you the most improvement for your money. You don't necessarily have to spend it in a big chunk, either.

When you put the money into your craft, it makes you the teacher that students will travel to study with and the performer who will get quality gigs and repeat jobs. The nuts and bolts of running a business are important, and if you don't have good publicity, it makes it harder for potential students and customers to find you, but those things aren't what build your reputation and move you up the ladder.

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

Invest in your dancing. Take private lessons, travel to study with a master teacher, pick up some skills in another aspect of stagecraft or a different movement discipline, whatever will give you the most improvement for your money. You don't necessarily have to spend it in a big chunk, either.
.

hehe, you dont wanna know how much i spend on that every year already ;-) ;-) ;-). i have had two jobs for the last 8 years, and have spend the bulk of my dance income back on dancing and studying. and i think it's been paying off, was well worth every cent (ok; a chunk also went to costumes).

most of what i do so far is word of mouth from people wanting to study with me, and i'm not complaining, business is booming on the teaching front. my beginners classes are suffering from the economy, but all my other classes are very full.

i would like hower also get back into the corporate gig world, and they seem to be wanting dvds, so do the entertainment agencies, so do some workshop sponsors, so do new students.

but yes, i'm not sure about the promo clip, how much it's worth it, but i somehow do think i need to "up" my promo material. i'm wondering if it's worht it for our big events, like the summerschool, the festival. all festival websites seem to have "last years events" promo clips.

I think a promo clip is an excellent idea - something that you can send to prospective clients, put on youtube and your website. Prospective clients often want to see your dancing before they hire you, and if you don't have a regular restaurant gig, it's tricky to arrange. So a short promo DVD that you can copy and send as needed would solve that problem nicely.

If targeting the corporate market, I'd probably couple it with a DL-size promo card - I have one with bio type info, photos in various costumes, dot-points of services I offer. To be honest, I'm not sure how much business mine has generated, but it wasn't expensive to have designed and printed and it's a nice glossy thing I can hand to prospective clients, or leave after gigs.

One thing I have had made-up that is always useful is a DL card that is mostly-blank on one side. ie: glossy photo and contact info on one side, then on the back it has design around the edges with lots of blank space. I can print onto it with my bubble-jet printer (often with the timetable), stick a stamp on and post it. Also useful as a voucher or note-card, and looks nice enough to leave in coffee-shops.

What about investing in a shopping cart system on your website? Do you have that already? That could save you lots of labour with enrolments.

I think it depends, Artemisia, on who your primary target market is.

1) women in the community who've never taken a class before but might start out as beginner?

2) Local/regional dancers who might come to you for advanced instruction?

3) National/international workshop organizers who might sponsor you for workshops?

4) People/corporations outside the dance community who might hire you to perform for events?

5) Something else?

@ lauren, haha, ALL of that and 5/ is "dancers attending my events".
i have "products" now for all those categories