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Small town pole studios, is it possible?
I’m currently stuck in a rut. I have been poling for 3 years now and I live in a small town that didnt have a pole community nor a studio. so after two years of making an 1.5 hour commute to my favorite pole studio, a friend suggested that I should start teaching in my county. That way I could build a community and continue to do what I love. I have been fortunate enough to meet a woman who owns a dance studio and has allowed me to “rent space”. Unfortunately her studio is gigantic that offers multiple types of dance classes for children and adults..but she has a huge monthly rent fee on her part that she never was able to afford in the first place. And as a result no one really gets paid. there are other dance teachers that teach dance as their hobby and have desk jobs, but i do this full time. I find myself investing more into her studio than she does. I havent been paid in 6 months, but dont worry my last day will be in July. I feel bad because I have gained students and have developed a report and watched them advance. They have been loyal to me and see the problems with the studio but they want me to stay. So here it goes, I have found a beautiful space in my small town that could double as an apartment and business with only $1000 a month rent. But ideally I would like to hire other instructors, and I dont know how hard that would be according to where I currently live. My second option, is I have been considering moving to another state, a big city and look for work at a studio else where. Im currently torn, but Im not afraid of relocating, but should I feel guilty of abandoning my students.
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13 Replies
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Could you teach from home temporarily? You would have to go through getting permits and liability insurance (which often isn’t much). Or offer on location training, where you go to the student’s residence? Just until you have enough clientele and revenue to open independently.
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Students often will follow… Especially pole students! We become family and bond, especially if the other dance studio doesn’t offer pole.
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Hi from Germany!
Me and my friend started off very similar: There wasn’t a studio around us that was close enough and that we liked, so we just opened our own. We are renting a quite affordable room in our home town and it’s going well 🙂
We just do it as a side job so there wasn’t a huge risk besides losing the money we spent for paint, floor, mirrors etc., but the bills of the running costs were paid from the first month.
And we didn’t have students before. Now we have 20 and the number is currently growing.So I’d say:
YEAH, GO FOR IT!
Even in small towns people like to pole dance, and the cost for rent is a lot less. If we had a studio right in Cologne (a 1 million people city)we would pay 4 times the price!
1000 Dollars is not much for studio + appartment! It’s about as much as I pay, so, yes, it works.
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I think the apartment + studio sounds like a great solution. I’m sure a good part of your students will follow you, and maybe you can get some new students from the small town too! I have a 40 minute bus drive to the studio I go to, but it’s totally worth it! Maybe some of your students will progress a lot and can help you with the workload by taking a few classes. I know that a lot of the instructors at the studio I go to, and the other studios in that “chain”, are old students. 🙂
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Sorry, I’m gonna be the bearer of bad news. Home studios are a bad idea. Main reason being, when you teach at home, you are merging your home and business into one entity, so if a student sues you, they can take everything you have. You need to keep the business separate. Separate location. That keeps it as an entity on its own, and if you get sued, they take only the business assets. Liability for home studios is just too much.
Second note, some areas only allow you to have one client at a time in a home office, so classes are out.
Keep searching for a more affordable place to teach.
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You have great ambition! But, I would definitely seek out a plan B. Teaching out of your home for pay is a very BAD idea!
Some people are very sue happy, even if they dont come off that way.
Please be careful and you will definitely be successful. Talk to a lawyer for advice 🙂 -
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA.gov/) provides information on starting and managing a business. Some local offices offer workshops, classes, and mentoring.
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AerialGypsy, I didn’t know about that it is that way in the US! Sounds pretty stupid to me. Maybe she can have split the appartment and rent the “studio room” seperatly and have two contracts, one for the appartment and one for the stuio allthough it’s in the same building?
If this is not an option, maybe just look out for another small room. Our room was a baking factory before. We had to put in a lot of money to make it a studio, but the rent is really low and most students don’t care if it’s in the major shopping area (where rents are incredibly high) or a little outside in an industrial zone.
If you want to take a look, here are pics of our studio. The very last pic ist what it looked like when we moved in: http://www.star-poledance.de/index.php/studio
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I suggest you call the govt and insurance companies to see if that situation applies in your area. Also find out if splitting will make a difference legally. I am not familiar with the laws in your country. Just be careful. I ‘d hate to see you get in trouble.
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Law student here. You definitely would need to check your local laws on “live/work” spaces. In many places it’s not legal to live in a space that operates as your principal place of business, sometimes it’s legal but only if the two spaces are on seperate levels of the building, etc. I also second everyone else’s concerns about teaching from home. Most people find owning a studio to be more work than they realized. It takes a lot of money resources on the owner’s part for the first year, I’m talking tens of thousands at minimum.
On another point no one has mentioned. Opening a studio will probably not help you feeling stuck in your pole progress. I can tell you right now that good studio owners really struggle to find time to work on their own progress. I’m just an instructor and I have a hard time finding time to do my own thing.
If what you really want is personal growth and more activity in the community, you might be better off using your resources to move someplace where you can pursue those goals for YOU, and then when that itch is satisfied you will be in a much better place to decide where you want to go.
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What poledanceromance mentions is definetly true.
I still progress, but in a different manner than before. Since I teach a strong & flexi class 3 times a week I really see a progress in flexibility. I’ve always been lazy with that (because I actually hate stretching and the progress is so slow), but having to teach that class forces me to. So that’s a good point.
Another good thing is, that I so much more focus on propper form, because of course I want to teach everything not only safe but also pretty!So I have a plus in flexibility, fluidity and form.
BUT! I don’t have much time to practice on new tricks. After class I’m often too tired and keep it simple or just go home.
I’m trying to do a workshop or a private or at least a jole jam with fellow advanced students once a week. I sometimes really miss being a student. Well I never took classes regularly because of the lack of a good studio in my area which was ok, but now I’d love to have a place I can go to every week and have someone tell me what to do.
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Have to add, it would be a lot easier if I didn’t have a “regular” job. This consumes at leat hours a week. But of course, it gives a lot of safety so I won’t quit that.
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oh my god everyone will hate on me for this but DON T DO IT!!
studios in small town don t last, you will loose money! Try to rent from a place that will let you have your classes for a day or two a week with removable poles and pay by the hour. Pole won t make you good money youll barely break even.
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