Thread: Please, I want to make myself a business of Belly Dance

I am 25 a 10 years belly dancer, and having been working as a belly dancer instructor in Brazil, I have been living here for 5 years, I have been focus on belly dance trainning and now i want to get back on stages, and start a business of this.

Please someone who is able to share ideas I will be veru greatfull.
I wonder to know if i need professional photos, if I need videos, if I need website, business card, add myself in a loca newspaper.

any ideas and informations of marketing a business I will happy to hear it.
I also would like to know some restaurantes in Austin to dance.


Kamilah

i'm not sure about the bellydance scene in austin but a website is always a great start. people do most if not all of their searching on the internet these days. business cards to hand out are also a good way to start.

I'd say that a website, a professional photoshoot and bussinesscard will start you off. People search the internet first nowadays, which also means that people get to see a LOT of pages from bellydancers. You need a page that grabs people's attention and professional pictures and a good design are good investments.

I'm going to try to post my response again...I don't know what the hell happened but it's totally not showing up. Here it goes:

1) Find and talk to the community leader for the belly dance community. Ask all sorts of questions: Who's who, who dances where, what the average is for restaurant gigs/private gigs/weddings/classes/etc...

2) Talk to all the local teachers and ask the same questions. Ask for advice, they should be happy to help you.

3) Research local dance studios with rental space and local recreation centers

4) Go to all the local community belly dance events, haflas, lunches, workshops, etc...also check out the local restaurant scene and go see all the dancers and strike up a chat.

5) Get some advertising out there. Flyer's, business cards, internt listings, local newsletters, local papers and publications.

Good luck!

Sorry to say, but Austin is really the wrong place to be if you want to start a career in belly dance. There simply are not enough venues to support a full time dancer there. There is one restaurant that I know of that has regular dancing, and they have a full roster, and the pay is not stellar.

That being said, there are some great people in Austin, one of whom is Bahaia, "Belly Dance with BAHAIA". There are also the Sabaya Dance Collective, Sabaya Bellydance Collective, which includes, Rania, Rania Egyptian Bellydancer, Stacey Lizette, Stacey Lizette the Belly Dancer in Austin, Texas, Lily, Lily bellydance -- http://www.lilybellydance.com, Yasmin, :: Yasmin :: Middle Eastern Dancer ::, and Maribel (sorry I don't have her web info).