{"id":1673,"date":"2014-02-05T03:01:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T04:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/?p=1673"},"modified":"2025-04-08T15:36:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:36:44","slug":"5-steps-to-ensure-your-students-return-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/05\/5-steps-to-ensure-your-students-return-2\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Steps to Ensure Your Students Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>It\u2019s Time to Prepare for Next Season\u2019s Enrollment!<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">By Paul Henderson<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Everywhere we go this question inevitably comes up \u2013 \u201cHow do you get your students to re-enroll for next season\u2019s classes?\u201d Seems odd to be thinking about this in February, right? But, this might just be the most important topic and the most important article you will read this season. Here\u2019s why.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The bulk of a dance studio\u2019s revenue comes from tuition.\u00a0Also, it\u2019s common knowledge that, for any business, it\u2019s much less expensive and easier to service <i>existing<\/i> customers than to recruit <i>new<\/i> ones.\u00a0And, whether you like it or not, your business is competing for students with other dance studio businesses in your area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So, it makes sense that the most important long-term financial concern of your business, other than a great faculty and an excellent curriculum, is year-over-year student retention.\u00a0One could argue that a great curriculum and fantastic teachers will guarantee that most students will re-enroll, but there are other forces working against your studio at all times.\u00a0You need to be aware of these forces that cause attrition and act decisively to counteract them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Forces you must acknowledge and deal with:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Other activities, such as soccer, gymnastics, softball, music lessons, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Economic\/financial pressures on parents<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">School<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Vacations<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Other dance studios in your area!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Knowing that you need to act decisively to retain your students is the first step. Implementing and carrying out a good plan is a different issue. Here is the plan that we use at our seven studios.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Give written or electronic \u201cevaluations\u201d to each and every single dancer for <i>each<\/i> of their classes in your studio. The dancer evaluations are like a report card.\u00a0They make your studio more professional and they make the dancer and their parents feel special. They help each student feel valued and noticed, and they help with student improvement and focus. Yes, they take time, but isn\u2019t each student worth about four to five extra minutes each season to ensure they return next season? Just do the math. Would you spend three to four minutes to earn $500-600 in tuition?\u00a0Of course you would!\u00a0We hand these evaluations to the dancers a few weeks before the schedule is published.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Be the first studio in your area to publish your summer and fall schedules.\u00a0For us that means February for the summer schedule and late March for the Fall schedule.\u00a0Some studio owners fear that publishing their schedule before the other studios in their area exposes the schedule to the very people they are competing with.\u00a0That\u2019s okay! Remember, you are going for RETENTION here, not new students yet.\u00a0You <i>must<\/i> make sure that your existing students commit to <i>your<\/i> schedule first. This means beating everyone else to the punch.\u00a0It\u2019s absolutely critical.\u00a0Plus, it makes you appear more prepared and professional. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aggressively promote a \u201cRegistration Day\u201d to your existing clientele. Registration Day is the first day where you will accept registrations for the new season(s).\u00a0This internal promotion via email, posters, signs, social media and instructor\u2019s in-class announcements starts the dancer\u2019s parents thinking about next season. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Provide a special discount for students who re-enroll.\u00a0For us this means that on Registration Day only, the registration fee is waived. For brand new students, the registration fee is discounted, but not free.\u00a0You will be shocked to see that 50-60 percent of your students will all enroll on the first day that registration is open and a lot of new students will register because they\u2019ve heard via word-of-mouth from their friends who are already enrolled.\u00a0Since classes are \u201climited\u201d in size, the first day of registration is the only way some students can ensure they get the teacher and the class day and time that they want.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To reduce\/eliminate the possibility of a student enrolling in the wrong class level do two things:\u00a0A) Manually enroll your \u201cperforming company\u201d dancers into their ideal classes, but don\u2019t charge them until they\u2019ve given you the go-ahead.\u00a0B) Provide \u201crecommended classes\u201d for each student in which to enroll next season. The best way to deliver this information is via the \u201cdancer evaluation form\u201d mentioned in Step 1 above.\u00a0Simply list each class that you offer on the form and then \u201ccheck mark\u201d each class in which the student could\/should enroll.\u00a0Also, on the form, provide clear instructions on how a student can re-enroll.\u00a0For us, this means reminding them of the first day of registration, the \u201ccall-to-action\u201d promotion (i.e. Registration Fee Waived on such and such date), and a link to a page on our website where enrollment and payment is handled via our studio management software online\/automatically.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">With some planning, you too can ensure next season is your best ever, but you have to start now.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10836\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10836\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10836 lazyload\" title=\"Paul Henderson\" alt=\"Paul Henderson\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Paul-Henderson-1.jpg\" data-srcset=\"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Paul-Henderson-1.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.danceinforma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Paul-Henderson-80x80.jpg 80w\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-10836\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Henderson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><strong>About Paul Henderson<\/strong><br \/>\nPaul Henderson is an expert on administrative technologies for the dance industry and has been around the business for almost 30 years. His sisters were elite state champion gymnasts and dancers and his mother owned a dance studio and eventually a dancewear store. He managed the dancewear store for a few years before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. He and his wife, Tiffany, currently own and operate <span style=\"color: #888888;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.TwinkleStarDance.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Twinkle Star Dance<img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"\u2122\" class=\"wp-smiley lazyload\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" data-src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/15.0.3\/72x72\/2122.png\"><\/span><\/a><\/span> &#8211; an online choreography and curriculum system for recreational dancers ages 2-11; seven successful dance studios in Northern California (<span style=\"color: #888888;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tiffanydance.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #888888;\">www.tiffanydance.com<\/span><\/a><\/span>) and one in Southern California. Tiffany\u2019s Dance Academy\u2019s annual enrollment of over 4,500 students caused Paul to invent ways to automate most of the day-to-day business transactions that take up so much of a studio owner\/instructor&#8217;s time. Paul&#8217;s goal has always been to smooth out the business side of the dance studios so that his wife can spend more time in the studio doing what she loves\u2026teaching. Automating online registration and monthly automatic tuition payments was achieved eight years ago but perhaps the most revolutionary invention is his web-based application &#8211; <span style=\"color: #888888;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.CostumeManager.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #888888;\">CostumeManager.com<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><strong>About <a href=\"http:\/\/www.CostumeManager.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">CostumeManager.com<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong>For the past six years, Paul Henderson has worked tirelessly with most of the major costume and dancewear manufacturers to consolidate their catalogs into one searchable website. Developing relationships with these companies has been crucial to the success of CostumeManager.com and his efforts have paid off for studios all across the United States and Canada.<strong> <\/strong>By creating one searchable website, it is possible for a studio owner to browse all catalogs simultaneously, assign items that they like to a dance class, establish their profit margin, create an online store or print a color worksheet for dancers explaining how they can order their required and or\/optional items online or via toll free telephone. Dancers purchase their items securely online and CostumeManager.com orders, receives, sorts and ships the individually packaged items to the studio owner. The studio owner or instructor cashes their &#8220;commission&#8221; check, hands the bags of goods to the dancer and goes back to teaching.<strong> <\/strong>CostumeManager.com eliminates 90% of the work and all the worry associated with distributing costumes and dancewear to dancers while preserving all of the profit margin\u2026if not more.<strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\">To connect with Paul Henderson and CostumeManager visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.CostumeManager.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">www.CostumeManager.com<\/span><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.TwinkleStarDance.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">www.TwinkleStarDance.com<\/span><\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.TiffanyDance.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">www.TiffanyDance.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Photo (top): \u00a9 Antoniodiaz | Dreamstime.com.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danceinforma.com\/2014\/02\/05\/5-steps-ensure-students-return\/\">5 Steps to Ensure Your Students Return<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danceinforma.com\">Dance Informa Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Time to Prepare for Next Season\u2019s Enrollment!\u00a0 By Paul Henderson Everywhere we go this question inevitably comes up \u2013 \u201cHow do you get your students to re-enroll for next season\u2019s classes?\u201d Seems odd to be thinking about this in&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1676,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673\/revisions\/1676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}