Countdown to Summer – Tips to Survive & Thrive!
With convention/competition season in full force, year-end shows just around the corner, summer camps yet to plan and, lest we forget (ha!), schedules and registration for next season…our dance-year calendars seem to travel at the speed of light! We all have to work hard to not be so bogged down in our current chaos that we forget to look ahead and capitalize on great opportunities that lie in front of us. In an effort to help preserve your sanity, we’re revisiting helpful highlights from some of our recent (and most popular) blog posts and condensing them into one, easy-to-digest post focused on planning. It is our hope that, with some of these tips, we can help make life a little easier for you and allow you to survive and thrive!
Plan Now for a Successful Summer
Launch your summer camp registration now!
The earlier you can announce your schedule, the better your enrollment will be!
Make summer dance fun with Camp Confetti!
To really relieve some summer planning stress, consider purchasing a few Camp Confetti Summer Dance FunPacks! Think of Camp Confetti as summer dance camps in a box…we provide everything you need to plan, promote and execute a super fun-themed summer dance camp! We have 8 themes to choose from, including:
Preschool/Kindergarten Themes
- Mermagical Mermaids & Shimmery Swans (ballet)
- Sparkleberry Fairy Garden (ballet and tap)
- FancyCloud Face-Off (hip hop)
- Twirltopia Princess Academy (ballet and tap)
- DJ Dino’s Hip Hop Stom (BOYS hip hop)
Elementary Themes
- #dancecampREMIX (jazz and hip hop)
- Marquee Mix-Up (jazz and musical theatre)
- Boho Desert Bash (jazz and hip hop)
You can read about each of these in detail in our recent blog post and shop for them on the Camp Confetti tab of our website.
Host a Summer Fun Beach Bash to Boost Summer Enrollment!
Sometime this month or early April, host a winter (or spring) “beach party” and invite kids for a sneak peek of your summer camps! Offer camp registration specials for attendees who sign up early! Include fun + festive summer touches like a lemonade stand or popsicles, offer fun branded items for giveaways (like mini beach balls!), have a summer craft station and encourage everyone to wear bright summer colors or bathing suits! This is a perfect time for your company dancers to perform. They can even lead some interactive dance games to fun summer tunes!
TIP: It’s quick, easy and FREE to make a fun invite to share on your social posts by using the Canva app (or Canva website if you prefer to work from your computer rather than your smart phone). You can select from multiple free social media templates for all your favorites: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even Pinterest! They make it super easy to upload your own logos and photos, then, using their design templates, create a very fun and professional graphic to send to your customers!
Plan to attend Dance Teacher Summit in Long Beach, California this summer: August 4-6!
You will be doing yourself and your studio a GIGANTIC favor by investing in yourself (and your staff!) to attend this fantastic, not-to-be-missed event! We take many of our staff members each year, and the return we receive from what we all learn is invaluable! We promise you will leave with tons of ideas to execute and feeling more re-energized than ever to make your studio better! The classes range from marketing to business to dance classes and so much more. Every major dance vendor/partner you can imagine will be in attendance as well, so it’s a great time to learn about innovations in the dance industry and see sneak peeks of what’s coming.
If you are a Studio Owner, make sure to plan to arrive one day early for the Studio Owner’s session which will be held on August 3rd.
If you’ve attended any Break the Floor conventions/competitions this season and registered at least 10 dancers, you already have a free registration! You receive another free registration for each Break the Floor event you attend! You can read all about Dance Teacher Summit on their website and register for the event from there as well! We will be there and would LOVE to meet you! Not only are we ambassadors for the event, we will also have a Confetti on the Dance Floor booth with all our fun products for you to see in person! So come join the fun!
Planning for 2017-2018 Season
Grow your recreational Preschool/Kindergarten program with Twirl
If you aren’t already a Twirl studio, you should be! Twirl is a preschool program that adds sparkle + merriment to your existing curriculum. In one of our recent posts about Twirl, we walk you through all the details of this fun + fanciful approach to dance class and how to make it work at your studio!
If you don’t think you will add Twirl to your 2017-2018 season, you can easily be adapt it into a summer camp and condense it into a week or a mini summer session! You simply build the costs into your summer camp fees and, voilá! You can check that off your list! If you are or plan to be a Twirl studio throughout the year, however, we don’t recommend offering it as a summer camp. Again, if you are looking for fun summer options, Camp Confetti is the answer!
Check Your Branding
Remember that when it comes to your brand, first impressions are KEY! Think about your website, your studio lobby and your social media presence. When was the last time these were updated? Are they cohesive + consistent? Do they reflect the image you want to convey? Your customers and prospective customers should feel like they are visiting the same place no matter where they spend time with you…virtually or IRL. Now is the time to start thinking of how your brand image is conveyed and consider any adjustments. Here are a few fun tips for giving your brand a boost:
- Your brand is not all about your logo, but it is a very important part of your brand. Invest time (and money, if possible) to create a logo that reflects your brand and helps you stand out. In addition to your logo being prominent on your website and social media, make sure it is also has a presence inside your studio.
- Create an exclusive hashtag for your studio. Encourage dancers and parents to use this hashtag when they are posting pictures on social media, and make sure you do a good job of communicating it to them. Share your hashtag often via email, in your newsletters, on t-shirts and throughout your studio. Simply typing the hashtag into a search will easily pull up all the photos and posts associated with it. We recommend creating one hashtag for everyone at your studio to use on an ongoing basis, but it’s also fun to create additional hashtags for events. It’s important to always create a hashtag that is original. We suggest doing a search before deciding on one so that you know you are using a unique hashtag.
- “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This quote by Simon Sinek says it best…be authentic! If you fake it, it will show. Know and understand your core values, and communicate them through everything you do.
- We can help give your studio’s brand a fun + cohesive boost with our Confetti Branding FunPacks. Choose from seven unique design options to best match your studio’s vibe! Each FunPack will be customized with your logo. You can read about them in detail (and find out what is included) in our blog post or in our shop!
It’s no easy feat to juggle the tasks and manage the level of detail required of studio owners on a day-to-day basis. Hopefully, by putting some of these tips to work, you can ease down this road a little more smoothly and make it to that summer vacation (ahem, yes, you need to plan that, too!)
