Thread: making a living as a dance teacher - question about studios

hey,

for those of you that make a living (or almost ;-)) as a dancer, and your income comes mostly from teaching (i know there is some of you that make a living performing, but that's impossible here, not enough restaurants/gigs etc)... my main income would be from teaching weekly classes, supplemented by workshop teaching (and i'm working on increasing that) and gigging.

so, if you make a living teaching:

- do you have your own studio (you own it/are paying off a mortgage)
- do you rent studio space by the hour (where you organise your classes yourself, self employed)
- you get paid by the hour teaching at other peoples studio's/community centres?
- do you lease a studio (hello Lauren!), so you rent but it's yours 24/7
- a combination of the above (renting space for you classes plus a small home studio for teaching private classes etc)
- other?

what works or doesnt work? any stories to share? you did A but switched to B and why? or vice versa?

do any of you have NO home studio/barely enough practice space at your own homes? that's what my situation would be... i'd have a practice room kind of/but that would also be chris's office, so there wouldnt be a place where i could teach private classes or anything. i would have one of the studio's where i teach very near buy and can rent there in the daytime for my own use too.

Artemisia

Hi,
I used to teach for studios as an employee but I stopped doing that because:
~ I had alot of students and was only getting $20 an hour
~ I don't make a very good employee, I don't like being told what to do at all

So, I now lease space at a studio.
I get to keep all the money, with just my rent as overhead, can teach when I want, take off when I want, etc. etc.
I get to keep my own student database, and be my own boss.

I also lease space at the studio for my company rehearsals.

yeah, i wouldnt want to teach as an employee either, crap pay.

but i'm mainly worried about doing this on a lease basis, and not having my own space, and wondering if it can work that way? that's how i am doing it now, but now i'm just teaching 5 classes per week, and i would be upping that to about 10 to 12 classes, at 3-4 different leased locations. so i'm wondering whether or not it would be a "better businessplan", to get a studio? or whether that studio will eat all the money...

Originally Posted by *maria*

Hi,
I used to teach for studios as an employee but I stopped doing that because:
~ I had alot of students and was only getting $20 an hour
~ I don't make a very good employee, I don't like being told what to do at all

So, I now lease space at a studio.
I get to keep all the money, with just my rent as overhead, can teach when I want, take off when I want, etc. etc.
I get to keep my own student database, and be my own boss.

I also lease space at the studio for my company rehearsals.

Originally Posted by artemisia_danst

... my main income would be from teaching weekly classes, supplemented by workshop teaching (and i'm working on increasing that) and gigging.

I have nothing constructive to add at all, just that when I first read this sentence I thought your main income would be supplemented by workshop teaching and giggling...I was curious about how I could get into this supplemental income giggling. Clearly I haven't had enough sleep. .w.:

if giggling made money, i'd have loads. hihi.

I work it several ways; I rent by the hour for some classes, work for a split of the fees at another studio and work for a flat fee at a Seniors Center. I also do workshops for myself and other organizations. I have a large living room so sometimes I rehearse my troupe at home but, I won't do regular classes there because of the area's strict zoning regulations.

The classes I run myself (the hour rentals) I set my own schedules, do my own advertising and registrations. The studio's I work for let me have a say in the scheduling and set up of the classes.

Not all gyms and schools pay crap (but many of them do). So if you decide to look into working at one make sure you have a say in how the class is handled and negotiate for a good rate. However, they are good ways to build you clientele. Think of it as a way to market yourself.

I used to have my own studio but, found that I reached more students by holding classes in different locations. Plus I didn't like the fact that I spent 80% of my time running the studio and 20% dancing. Don't get me wrong I'm not afraid of administrative work. It's just not nearly as fun as performing or teaching.

One of the of things I'd suggest considering before your decide to rent a studio is where your students are coming from. Are there enough potential students close by (15-20 min) to fill 10+ classes a week?
Will you have the time, energy or resources to pay someone to do 15 hours of admin work per week?
Is there another instructor you could share the space with?
Also, make a super conservative business plan to figure out how many students you'll need to pay your expenses.

After you answer these questions you'll be better able to make a decision.

Hope this helps - Audie

The way I have seen it work here is that a Bellydance teacher rents/leases a place as a studio and runs a "studio" business parallel to the bellydance school.

The bellydance school gets first pick on times and the rest gives sold to other dance style teachers like hip hop, tango etc

The majority of my teaching pay comes from venues where I do a split per student. It's a 70/30 split in my favor, and they handle the class space, advertising, enrollement and payment. I only worked hourly once and I was definately operating at a loss for those hours.

I also have a studio in my home that I teach privates/semi-privates out of. The key to the sucess of teaching out of my home is to have a very strict per-payment and cancellation/lateness policy.

I hire out space by the hour in three locations (well, just cut back to two, but looking to open in another location) and work for myself ie: I get all the money, but also do all the advertising and admin. I think this is gives me the best result financially - if I do a good job of getting students and keeping them, then I can earn a reasonable living. I can't physically handle more than about 8-10 hours of teaching a week, so doing it for a fixed wage probably woudn't be enough to make a living.

I started by working for other studios, or in gyms, etc, and I think this was a great way to build up experience, but ultimately I feel like I do the best job of 'selling' my classes (because I'm the most enthusiastic about doing so!)'and keeping all the admin in order, so I now like to do it all myself. However, that's not everyone's thing, and I know some teachers would much rather just turn up and do what they do best (teach) and be paid a fixed wage for that.

I did investigate hiring a single space on a commercial lease, but the only way I could see it making any money was to be teaching huge hours per week, employ lots of other teachers, and run several classes at once (need more than one classroom). I'd have to work so much harder just to get by, and you really need to employ other staff to manage that size studio, and I didn't want to do that. And, as mentioned by Audie above, it's much harder to build up enough demand in one area, compared to holding classes in several locations.

thanks for all the stories people!

what i have done so far; i've taught at someone elses studio for three years,
then i started on my own and for the last five years, i've rented space by the hour (and do all the admin etc myself). however, i'm finding it hard to grow, not cause i dont have the student base, everything is always full and i could easily add several classes, but because it is impossible to get more studio hours at more or less decent locations and times

that's why i started looking into having my own space

however; well, the businessplan thing! after lots of calculating my business seems to be healthier when we dont have to deal with the huge overhead/expenses of running a studio, renting by the hour is so much cheaper. i really dont want to take the financial risk. space is really expensive here and my morgage would be HUGE.

so i havent bought the studio, we bought a medium sized townhouse instead and i will continue renting studio space by the hour.
am figuring out whether or not i could turn the spare bedroom in a small homestudio for teaching private classes out though. being able to teach private classes would be a really nice addition to my income, and it's also a new challenge. i get several requests for them but so far have always turned them down.

artemisia

Hi Artemisia !!
I think i'm the only one till now answering from Europe where we have the same laws with Belgium - Greece over many things according to the European Union.

I rent with contract a studio for 5 hours (we are at the first year now).
I found a partner, (she is a lisened actor to act and teach acting) and we have it together as Dancing & Acting studio (Oriental Expression) the name of it.
This way we share hours and expensess.
Things that are monthly to pay:
The rent, the goverment insurance for teachers, light, phone/internet, heating, water. Plus these (but optional) insurance for students, advertisement, etc. In general we have a standard of 800 euro per month to pay.
In the first time (because we put a lot of money to make the place also 15.000 euro) its not giving back, but I had a name already as a teacher and Anna (my -partner also) so we have a lot of people that bring others also, as we do good job.
You can ask for the law that European Union have for helping business from women under 40, we used this also, and we will get the cost of making the studio back (the whole ammount !! ) within 1 year and we dont have to give it back.

Maria Aya wishing a new big start

Hi, Artemisia!

As you know, I lease my space. It's not a 'real' dance studio, just a small retail space where I added mirrors and such -- and I'm moving next month to a bigger space in an office building where the rent per square foot will be even cheaper.

If I lived in a bigger city, where rents are high, I probably wouldn't be able to make it work. Because I live in a small suburban city, I can get space for as little as $8/sq ft/year. That makes it do-able.

By the time I moved into my own space, I was already teaching five or six classes a week. (remember, I teach yoga, too). So I did the math and realized that if I moved my existing student base into the studio, I wouldn't be losing any money at that point. Paying the rent and utilities came to about the same amount as the cut the other venues were taking.

I didn't give up teaching at the other venues, though. Instead, I use that time when I'm out of the studio to have other teachers offer other classes (like Tai Chi and Swing Dance). The beginning dance students from those other venues then feed into level 2 and above at my studio. That helps.

I wish I'd held out for a bigger space in the beginning. It's very hard to earn a living when your class sizes are terribly limited.

It's wonderful to be able to host other teachers from the area and bring the community together to learn from each other. I'm working up to hosting another local teacher nearly every month, plus offering some special topic classes on my own (though those are mostly yoga at the moment).

I now teach 14 classes a week. I can't do much more, physically. Bigger classes is the only answer.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Hi, Artemisia!

I didn't give up teaching at the other venues, though. Instead, I use that time when I'm out of the studio to have other teachers offer other classes (like Tai Chi and Swing Dance). The beginning dance students from those other venues then feed into level 2 and above at my studio. That helps.

Slight thread-jack...Hey Lauren, that's an excellent idea to keep the 'satellite' beginner classes that feed into the next levels at your studio. A question - what sort of proportion do come to your studio? I've always found it frustrating that many beginner students won't drive 15 mins away to attend a class that's more appropriate for them (such as intermediate). Hell, I can't even get them to swap weeknights, and sometimes even timeslots on the same night! I'm interested to know whether you've managed to successfully migrate a good proportion of your students. Are bribery or threats involved???..g.: