The Business of Bellydance
Whether you are a full time dancer who is planning or has made a career from dance, or an enthusiast endeavoring to create a part time income from dance, your business success is largely a result of good planning. Many people in the business of dance with whom I've spoken tell me they originally began teaching because someone asked them to - that their progress into progressive teaching was somewhat organic. In this case, many successful teachers and performers have found their way into a dance career that for the greater part was uncharted territory. For a shortcut into the world of dance enterprise, here are some helpful guidelines for expanding an established dance business or planning a new venture. By Keti Sharif
Step 1: Realistic evaluation of YOUR dance skills

Just because you love dancing and want to go into the business of dance, successful business is not going to emerge from this passion alone - it takes tenacity and work. You must look at the reality of the situation. How good are your dance skills, how knowledgeable are you in both the basics and the intricacies of Middle Eastern dance styles, how do you rate in the overall dance scene in your local area? What can you offer that is different, inspiring or focused? Bellydancing is no longer a mystery now days, as it has been in the past. Bellydancing's increasing popularity has lead to wider cultural accessibility, availability of information via the internet and a higher standard of teaching and performing emerging in all areas. So, if you want to create a dance business with a competitive edge, you must do your research as a teacher and perfect your skills as a performer. Schedule time for updating and improving your skills.
Where do you need to update your skills - technique, safety, cultural knowledge, history, musicality, rhythms, teaching? List the areas you are doing well in and see if you need to improve your skills before marketing a product - ie: to teach people how to dance either following your own style or remaining faithful to cultural or contemporary 'tradition'. Wherever your skills are lacking and could benefit from study, make enquiries about where to go for that study. You should know how you learn best and what fits in with your budget and lifestyle. Choose from enrolling into courses, workshops with master teachers, reading books, doing internet research, studying dvds or gaining hands-on travel/cultural experience.
Step 2: Customer Analysis

In your area, who are your potential or existing customers? Are your classes generic or do they target a specific market - eg: seniors, professional dancers, children or beginners? What is popular in your dance community at the moment - but more importantly, where will it lead participants in the near future? Forward thinking is imperative to successful business - you must remain a step ahead to create new business, even if your regular work methods are in use. Balancing the two is a fine art in itself. For maximizing your customer relations and creating a 'bundled' business strategy you must get creative and aim to interlink your efforts so each part has a further reaching goal.
For example, you are teaching teenagers who might enjoy modern music with hip-hop elements. Teenagers usually want to have fun and often aspire to emulate their idols in the media world. Some of these participants may go on to perform at a local dance arts event, so you open a choreography class plus offer a film session for all participants to make a group 'mtv' style video clip. The clip would be fully funded by the participants and serve as an inspirational souvenir, which gets shown to more people (potential clients) and also is a great marketing tool for future dance events. Teenagers are busy, flooded with ideas and changeable so keep an eye out for 'what's hot' and integrate it. Don't expect long-term commitments, but do anticipate short bursts of high energy and focus on single projects.
Professional dancers who's goal is to become as good as they can - and get performance work - would be interested in things that get them closer to their goal. Offer focused workshops, organize master trainers to teach, give one on one assessment, mentorship and opportunities to take part in high profile performances. Professional dancers enjoy their image being glamorized - it makes good business sense to invest in their dream and actively help create "success stories". Organize photo shoots, high-end performances, troupe work, travel and tangible reward for serious practice. Dancers of this caliber are willing to invest a high proportion of their income into 'making it happen', so costumes, accessories and music are also areas you can explore when teaching at this level.

Professional dancers are committed and are grateful for opportunity and support. They are also an asset to your business, even if they start their own. The worst business mistake dancers make is ostracizing students who outshine them, because of the student's success makes them feel insecure. Celebrate their success! View their success as your success. Imagine how much more business their dedication is generating for you when you have been their mentor and supported them in their development. This open-mindedness is contagious - they will follow your philosophy when they in turn train another talented dancer, and you'll always be connected to your student's students, which further strengthens and expands your business.
Seniors are different again - their income may be lower and they come to lessons for fun, exercise and friendship. So your focus may be the social aspect of the dance with fun dance events. Short day trips, morning classes with refreshments and occasional dance soirees with a guest performer and eastern catering would keep them interested. Offering opportunities to perform is a good idea, as long as the performance level resonates with the confidence level of the participants. Seniors often like routine and once committed become loyal students. So offering discounts and giving some special attention would be part of your business plan. Dance would be a highlight and exciting topic of conversation for their friends and family - seniors usually have more time to chat with people and often do so with a good sense of humour, so you could offer a talk or demonstration at their place, if they can bring along their daughters and friends ... you never know where you will meet your next clients.

Beginners prefer the information you offer about classes to be simple and clear cut with set dates, times and an indication of exactly what they will learn and how much it will cost them. They will normally come to a dance class because of a friend's suggestion or from a local advertisement. They will usually have a general idea about the dance but most often see it as the exotic, if not homogonous art known as 'bellydance'. Don't complicate things by offering them too many choices until they are well versed in the basics. Attempting to teach them too much can frighten them off - after all most hobbyists want to be involved with something simple, fun and achievable. If beginner students get weighed down with a plethora of cultural styles, names and terminologies - classes may lose their enjoyment. For beginners keep it simple and touch on the variety available, but don't make them feel inadequate because you feel the need to sound ultra-knowledgeable. Keep it clear, keep it easy and keep it fun. They will let you know if and when they are ready for more. Some of your beginners will stay, possibly for years - and some will move on. Do your best in creating a pleasant environment, but don't take it personally if bellydancing wasn't their 'thing'. However, your chances of keeping these customers increases when you offer genuine communication - take an interest in them as you get to know them. It doesn't all have to be about dance either...
Step 3: The Marketing Plan, logistics and communications

Business needs to be affordable to work for you. Over-committing yourself to expenses you could do without or time you do not have, will be counterproductive in the long run. Budgeting is the cornerstone of sound business, so the smartest way to manage real-time growth whilst planning for future expansion is to budget properly from the beginning.

Classes require a venue so you must add up how many classes you can realistically manage to do in a week - classes that you know will run (not just by hypothesis) by taking into account existing students and potential students. If it is cheaper to hire or share a studio/room as a business venture then look at all the ways hiring a studio can be maximized; can you rent the space out, offer discounted rehearsal times, run weekend workshops or get others to hire your venue to run workshops or classes. How can you make other people pay most of your venue costs for you? If you rent hourly, either get premium time slots so you know people will come, or off peak timeslots only if the rate is very low. The venue should have mirrors if possible and good ventilation, appropriate dance flooring, a good sound system and easy parking. A simple, pleasant venue is multipurpose and offers the potential for a variety of dance and fitness classes. Do not attach yourself to your venue unless you own it. View rental venues as business premises and keep a clear outlook, don't over invest time and money elaborating rental property, keep it simple.
Advertising can be created in many ways - the cheapest and most far reaching forms of free advertising are media press releases and write ups. So organize an event and invite the local paper - do something new, interesting or topical! Media scouts are always on the lookout for unusual stories, especially ones that feature photos of attractive women. For paid advertising, local papers are better for targeting your local market than bigger papers, and they are much cheaper. A series of small classified adds works better than an expensive one-off photo add. Regular classified ads get people familiar with your services so if or when they're ready, they will remember seeing your add many times. They'll assosciate your business with dependablity and success due to the ongoing advertising - so they are more likely to call. Or they might refer you if the topic comes up in conversation, knowing exactly which part of the paper to go to rather than trying to remember which issue to look for. A logo or interesting name will get you noticed - avoid using the boring old "bellydance classes for fun and fitness". Be more specific, coin a term and make it yours! Leaflets, flyers, business cards and website should have a consistency in photographs, colour, text and fonts. Start with a few of your favourite pictures of yourself in costume and portrait shots - or if you prefer not to use your image - choose drawings or artwork that you feel best describe your dance style. Stay as consistent as possible with advertising and promotional imagery.


Contactability is going to bring business or deter it. People usually hang up on voice messages. They might call back if you specify the exact times you are available. If you are not available at consistent hours or are not particularly 'phone-friendly', either use a paging service with a live operator that delivers messages, or use email. Note, not everyone is inclined to make enquiries the cyber way, but choose your options - phone or email. In the cyber world, people usually want to see what they're getting, so get a website that answers all their questions! Remember, consistency in material - photos, terminology - reinforces your professionalism and makes your 'signature look' instantly identifiable. Scheduling your courses, events, product launches, demonstrations and performances takes forward planning and research. Avoid pulling random dates from your diary - check first with others - school holidays, other events or holidays may interfere with your best laid plans. So work forward at least three months in advance for large events and courses - this is where the website comes in handy and again, try to work some consistency into your classes - the length of time per session, the course length, the length of breaks if you have them and the proximity of events - do you aim for two events in relation to each course? Schedule with insight and consistency, giving adequate lead up time.
Step 4: The X Factor

What keeps business flowing is a balance of structure, planning and logic combined with the X factor. The X factor is personality, commitment, integrity and all those things that are felt by your clients rather than seen. In business the client is the most important part of your business. Understanding their needs and making that the cornerstone of you business is what makes your business successful. Customer needs change, especially in the dance world as people develop and search for new and stimulating options. You need to be aware of what they are looking for before they go out and find it elsewhere. Maintain regular communication with all your clients.
20% of your clients will give you 80% of your business, so the experts say - so it's worth offering incentives and special services to your loyal customers. In a dance sense, you will benefit because the customers will speak well about you and demonstrate by example what they learn in your classes and how you make them feel special. Friendship grows from genuine, generous interaction and goodwill. By keeping up with their progress and offering discounts or special tuition and products, your customers realize you are interested in supporting them with their dance. Keep your loyal customers in mind when it comes to events - offer them the opportunity to show what they can do - people want to be useful, they like to offer their expertise in turn for acknowledgement or some form of payment. Again, stay a step ahead by thinking "what extra can I give my existing customers?" Time too, is a valuable asset that you can give people - handouts, research, poetry or taking your students to a special event.

Step 5: Listen to feedback and ideas

The most important factor in successful relationships is the willingness to LISTEN. Take the time to stay in contact and never underestimate the power of face-to-face, genuine communication from one person to another.

To paraphrase all of the above;

1. Your success in the dance business is the end product of a well researched business plan, knowing your customers and taking the time to communicate with them.
2. Deliver your best by maintaining a realistic perspective of your current skills in relation to your locality and dance focus, updating your skills when necessary.
3. Keep your advertising and promotional material consistent and be contactable in a consistent way - either by phone or email.
4. Stay a step ahead by anticipating the changing needs of your students/customers as they develop in dance technique and appreciation and plan events or courses accordingly with enough lead up time.
5. Offer initiatives and maintain contact with all customers, rewarding loyal customers with discounts, personal attention and special opportunity.
6. Listen to your customers.
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