How One Studio Added $60,000 Revenue in Open Week

Hello friends, I'm Amanda Bar, and I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan, and welcome to Dance Principles United, the podcast. Together, we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio. Join us as we talk everything from marketing, system, studio culture, motherhood, life, and everything in between. This is the Dance Principles United podcast.

Hey friends and welcome to a Dance Principles United Podcast. I'm so excited to be in Penmouth with you today. Are you excited to be in Penmouth? That's a real question.

I'm excited to be with you. Beautiful love. We did actually have a nice lunch. I do love the log cabin.

It's out on the water. It is very nice. It is lovely and you know it's been a while since we've been up here. We've been busy.

I know you've had some guests up here without me. I missed you. I didn't get to be with some of the incredible guests that you've had on the podcast recently. That's true.

And I missed out on all of that, but I'm excited to be back into it. So we've got a whole series that we're doing today, right? We have I, if you're watching this back on YouTube, I'm in my exercise gear today because I'm about to go teach for four and a half hours because all my staff are in Europe right now. How can Euro Summers?

So jealous. Why are they all getting to do the Euro Summer and the studio your own dozens. That's the big question. To be fair, Amanda, I was in Euro some of the last two years running.

Yes, you were. I was not. That you were. It's fine.

Just leave me to run the business back here. You go enjoy Euro summer. Don't worry about it. But absolutely right.

I feel like so many students are feeling that though. The teachers get to jet off and we're here picking up the pieces because I know you're teaching and covering them teaching so much at the moment. It is insanity. But that's all right.

We just have to do what we have to do sometimes as a studio owner, don't we? Absolutely, and it's that thing, right? Like, no one cares as much about our business as we do. And not should they.

True, not should they. Like, I get it, you know, some of those teachers it where, you know, talk about that, they're 25, go and have fun, I get it. I also could cover myself, but I also want to win the next competition coming up. So, you competitive as far as who would have thought it.

That's shocking revelation for the podcast. But we thought we'd update because it's been a while since we've been on the pod together. It has been a very long time, I feel. I feel like it's been ages.

I don't know. We haven't actually got the numbers on that, but it feels like a while. Yes. So we thought we'd update on a few things that have been going on in our lives, so much going on, so much exciting shit going on, right?

Oh, well, there's something we can't quite tell you about yet, but something that we are working very, very hard on behind the scenes. it is going to be where we feel super epic for studio owners and for studios. So that's like a big secret but we're, I know, it's a bad day. We really can't tell people about it yet, but we'll just tease it out there.

We'll leave you with the crush, but that's taking up a lot of our time at the moment because it's exciting. It is exciting. And it's incredible. It's going to be incredible for every studio.

On Earth, really. But anyway, That's our goal, is it? That's our goal. We're going to take over Earth, maybe take another planet next, we'll just keep going out into the whole solar system.

No, but I'm genuinely thinking he's a game changer for everyone. Absolutely. So now that we've just left that prompt, you're wondering what it is or if you've got some guesses, let us know in our DMs, we'd love to know some guesses. Oh, I wouldn't know the guesses.

Yes, same. That's interesting. Yeah, that'll be fun. I wonder what people are going to say.

They're going to say random shit. Yeah. Yeah. But we'd love to know, we're excited.

We're just going to drop those crumbs there and then you'll have to come back and listen to the podcast after we've kind of sprinkled some crumbs. But we're gearing up for so many live events as well, which is so exciting, right? Yeah. We've got our retreating Fiji.

Oh my gosh. SGC Studio Growth Club Retreating Fiji coming up in two months. Two months? Yeah.

Two and a half months. Oh my god, that's going to be incredible. That's coming up really soon. Then we've got retreating January.

Yep. And then we've got expo. We haven't actually announced. We haven't even put on our socials yet that we Our expo dates for 2027 so excited 17th and 18th of April in Sydney new venue new venue, which is gonna be epic We went and looked at it and it's so I mean, it's it's bigger, which is great because we need more room It's getting so crazy now.

Yeah, but it's gonna have yeah all the bells and whistles but I think better location and better venue. Yeah, and some more surprises for you. Oh yeah. So make sure you put that in your diary now, 17th and 18th of April.

It is going to be incredible. So, so exciting. We've been doing a lot with our studio growth club members too. They've in the middle of running a big open week competition.

That we're kind of running internally. I love the studios. Like, have you been a fun competitiveness against each other? Well, we ran it last year for the first time, because your idea.

Yeah, and then I traveled to rural Queensland because of it and we look at some of our members who are killing it This time as well, and they are again quite rural and what I love about these and you know when I jump on calls with people We just had a new studio during this week Who is even more rural than Can imagine that and when I jump on with them and they don't think that Facebook ads are gonna work and then we get their Facebook ads working and they kill it or, you know, they don't realize the power of what we can do for them, just seeing people like that accelerate is insane.

But one of our rural, very rural studios has done the most insane results so far. So it's not over yet the competition. The competition's not over and for those of you who are listening, we run this open week project release and we do that as a way to teach our members ways to really go all in, go all in on their marketing, their conversions, and give it their all for an entire week, which I think is an incredible, incredible thing. However, doing that, you know, it's exciting because sometimes it's fun to have a bit of internal competition with the studios and we like incentivize them and stuff and to see what some of them are capable of is so incredible, right?

Can I say something about that though? because I feel like people think that you get success just because you're lucky or you're like, no, I've heard it said about my junior in Penn Red, like they're like, oh that pause has all of their kids or like it's just like actually I work my guts out for that and these people who have got insane results from Open Week have worked their guts out. Yeah, they didn't just put one little Instagram post up and that's the thing like you can see that that success is because of damn hard work.

Yeah, one of our regional studios. She is super regional, you know, and not a big studio either, right? Like not a huge issue. Yeah, but like, you know, some of these, when we're talking about some of these figures, you know, we're not talking about studios that are doing $2 million a year.

We're talking about, you know, a very like normal size studio, right? And so when we're changing these amounts and talking these amounts, like how huge is that for them? Like, you know, one of these studios, you know, for example, she is doing an extra $2,090 a week. Just from Open Week.

Just from Open Week. She added that in one week in fees. So just to be super clear, that's in fees alone, that she's added on top of what she was already doing, which if we're like looking at for the 20 weeks remaining in the year, that's about 41,000 extra for the second half of the year, but that doesn't include uniforms, costumes, tickets, you know, any of those sort of things on top of that. Isn't that f****** incredible?

41,000 additional in the year. Crazy. So proud of her. So so incredible.

And then we've got people like, she is added so much money into hers as well. She's increased her class placements like a huge amount And she's doing an extra just over 3,000 a week in additional fees 61 over the year like the second half of the year Isn't that just nuts crazy and also I think studio and is don't realize that at this time of year You can make that sort of money because I think you know We all just think it's in January that we're gonna get all the new people in and then we're not gonna have any more growth Right.

Yeah, it's not true And so what is an open week? Okay, so an open week is definitely it's a marketing event because to me it's all about a marketing event. It's how you really go all in on marketing and converting new students and current students to upsell them class placements, right? And like anything like, we've talked about before, Black Friday, you know, click frenzy, any of those retail events, they're a made-up event, right?

They're a made-up event that gets people excited and they feel like, like, hey, I've got to buy now or I'm going to miss out. Have you ever felt like that about Black Friday? Like, oh my God, I've got to buy it right now or I'm going to miss out. Oh my God.

We just hit my house when three packages are going to live it in the space of two hours. It's not Black Friday today. It doesn't even need to be that. What is it at the moment end of financial year sale?

I have bought so much shit, it is a joke. Yeah, absolutely. Because we get that, it's the marketing, right? Right.

It is all about good marketing. We were just talking about this budget. We need to talk about this. Yeah, yeah, go.

So you actually introduced me to this brand called Contempi, and then is that what it's called? I think that's what it's called. Yeah. Why are you looking at me strange then?

No, because I was like, I think I told you that I'd ordered and then I don't actually have them. So I don't know if I never ordered. That's why I'm thinking of looking at it strangely. I'm like, I feel like I had it in my head or it was in my cart and I never checked it out.

Okay. So then I've been getting the 5,000 different flower shop, you know, byavars and flowers. Yeah. And their marketing is out of control.

So good. So then they had some sort of a sale on and I've been looking at it for a good what three months now and I was like, f*** it, I'm going to buy it. So then it turned up and you saw it this morning, it wasn't bad, those fake flowers, Amanda, were, They were a little bit sad. They could have been more.

They were like $120 for those fake flowers, and there wasn't a lot of them. No, the vase is nice, but really for $120 for those fake flowers, I feel like I was a bit ripped. But it's good marketing. Insane marketing and they make the flowers look so perfect and they tell you that the flowers are perfect and they're not going to do anything about it.

In fact, you know what my solution was, I'll buy another $120 thing of flowers so it looks more full. I'm not joking, that was my solution. So what we're saying is marketing is worked out and when people say to me, you know, oh This studio is just bigger because they're getting more kids Will they're getting more kids because they're better marketing at marketing than you that is literally all it is Contempi is better at marketing than anyone else in their space So therefore I'm going to buy from them and that's it's that simple Absolutely, and that's what all the big brands do and that's what the bigger studio in your area does is they market Better than you at the end now do they need to have a good product?

Yes, am I probably going to opt into that product again? Probably not. And we just told everybody just now on the podcast, PS, if you have good flower brains for us, please drop us a do you know what I'm saying? Absolutely.

That's the thing, right? So you're going to buy from them ones and you're done. Okay. And that's the other problem.

And this is what something I said to the SGC members when I was doing leadership month is, you can have the best marketing in the world. But if you don't actually have a good product, you can get people into your studio but if the class isn't great or if the teacher is not doing a good job and that person doesn't convert because of that then that's also a problem. That's a whole other podcast. That's the problem with this flower brand is the marketing was insane.

We've opted in. Yeah, the product nuts are nuts. You're good. So tough.

And, you know, to me, an open week event is about the marketing. It's about the hype. It's about the FOMO. It's about the one week only.

Let's go really hard for one week and and push huge numbers, like, you know, we've had clients. Another one of our regional studios has 240 registered to trial this week. Yeah, that was insane. Like, f*** me, isn't that crazy?

Yeah, it's like so, so crazy. So many of them 100, 120, 130, like absolutely crazy numbers. And that's because of great marketing, great FOMO. Could they have got those kids over a 10 week period?

Yes, probably, but it doesn't have that same excitement and that same height. Yeah, and I still don't think without great marketing they're not going to know absolutely not and so you know getting them in the door is one thing Yeah marketing getting them to sign up The great product is another but it's also converting them on the spot And you know, we're very big on incentivizing on the spot conversions Because you if the people have to go home and think about it You're adding extra money to them because you have to pay whether it's yourself or an admin in person, you have to pay someone to chase them.

You have to pay someone to pick up the phone and go, hey, I just want to check in how your trial was yesterday, or, hey, I notice you haven't enrolled yet. He's the link to the whatever that is, but that's costing you money, whereas if you could sign them up on the spot, number one, the excitement's better, the vibes better. It keeps that momentum going, and it's worth sometimes incentivizing it a little bit. Yeah.

And we did this year with pause, which we haven't done before, which was your idea, a season 26 pack. This worked so well. I'll tell you the reasons it worked well is one, and you were worried about this. You were like, I'm not sure if it's going to work because people won't think, what was it?

Something because it's season 26. I don't know. You have that issue. I had concerns, yeah.

I didn't want you to spend too much money. I think it was more my biggest concern, but yeah. Look, I think the season 26 thing worked because people thought we were starting the season midgie because like, how do they know when a dance season starts? Nobody knows.

like soccer season starts what turn two random like random yeah like who knows but yeah so they thought it was a new season so we got heaps of people in for that wow new season let's start dance and it kind of is right like you're starting your interview routines after finishing your routines yeah yep um so we did a little tote bag a t-shirt that we specially made for it a butter a squishy. I'll talk about that in a second. A poor needle, a fidget spinner. And then we did like 20% off uniform, 20% off a birthday party and a free workshop in school holidays.

The free workshop in school holidays got a lot of people over. So with Open Week, you're not just marketing to new people coming in, you're also marketing to people within your studio. So then what we do at pauses, we start the hype. So we put like, you know how the Easter show, they have the boards with like, he's your showbag, your showbag, like what's included.

Right. So we add that up at both studios, two locations, both studios up. So as soon as they walk in, they see it, we at every class did the big hype, mostly me doing the big hype, but going in and being like, and you get a butter squishy, and the kids are like, oh, now they can go by a butter squishy at the P and Centro for $15, but they were that excited about the stupid butter squishy. Yeah, that's all they cared about.

I'm not even kidding. Parents loved the free workshop in school holidays. That was a big seller. But then when my staff are on the phone talking to people for open week, when they're gonna come in, new people, they're like, wow, I can't believe we get so much out of open week.

So that really incentivized everybody to join a new class. So good, so good. What were your results? Uh, 161 class placements.

New class placements. Correct. In seven days. Correct.

I think it's about three and a half hours an extra week. Exciting news. We made it to 45 K a week. So excited.

That's so incredible. And really this. So for those people listening, 45 K a week reoccurring revenue on your tuition every single week. Tuition only, right?

Correct. Yeah. Class piece. Yes.

Yes. So you made an extra three and a half K per week just from open week, which was insane. It's not amazing. Yes, great.

And snaps to you. But we, oh God, we did all the things. Like, you didn't go half-hearted. No, no, I'm exhausted.

So we did invitations out to every child with that they could give their friends, which they could write on and say come and join us. We put on, because a lot of our kids do all the classes. Yeah. So we put on a new adult class and we did like a champagne before the adult class with Justin and I.

So I want to come to that. 39 people turned up to that. Shit. Is that insane?

Yes. We did flyers out to various primary schools that we worked with. We did a competition on social media where people had to tag and repost the fact that it was open week. Yeah.

We did flyers on every seat at mid-year concert. And I talked about it at mid-year, like we did. Everything. On top of that, obviously ads.

It's so much on ads so much huge spend on ads also a very seamless booking process That they could book into specific classes to SBC. Yeah, yeah follow-up process a You know a warming-up process once they've done that like a don't forget you've got your trial Plus a phone call the taxi emails want to expect like it's a huge amount of work But 160 class placements so So for those of you who are listening, like there's some studios that only have 160 class placements in total for a week, we've added that, you know, and obviously you've got a big team.

But God, that's huge. That is life-changing to some studios and anyone could do it. We would look at it. She doesn't have a big team.

Yeah. We just talked about her. Yes. She did similar numbers.

And she outdid me. Yeah. Numbers class placement wise. And she's done it mostly herself.

Now did she probably work in say now was like I said to my team because it was in say now is for them I said to them. It's two weeks of hard and then you can take it easier take a bit easier But it was well worth it. I gave my main team members a bonus because they deserved it because they did great Numbers And they knew that beforehand. Yeah, so yeah, so cool And all the kids rocking the season 26 shirt.

Yes, and one of our So, baby has created this trend in the studio where you cut t-shirts up, right? I'm not joking. So, a pair of t-shirts have, you know how you can do the real cool cutting of t-shirts? Have you seen this?

No. I am not that cool. Well, you need to be. No.

So, she's like, Stop cutting your clothes. They're expensive clothes. I'm not lady. You know, the old man that's like, there's some holes in your knees of your jeans.

She started a trend and everyone now cuts their t-shirts, but one of the mums made the t-shirt into like a halter neck. It's really cool, like a tight fitting. So they all have, yes, there is a lot of them rocking the season 26 t-shirt, but they're all cutting it up because that's apparently what you do because baby is so cool. It's one of be just like a, It's interesting, though, talking quickly about that.

Yeah, okay. Sorry, it's off topic, but let's hear it. I want to hear it. When you bring your uniform in, the best thing you can do is dress your coolest kids in that uniform and give it to them for free and the coolest teacher, 100% because everybody wants to be like them.

So if babies wearing something and her posse, like not just baby, yeah, you know, all those little, and then your junior teachers plus your junior dancers, all of those 16, 17-year-olds, like, yeah. And we will bring an item in and Justin will say to that group, will you wear it? And if the answer's no, we won't buy the item. Yeah, because we know If they don't wear it, no one else is going to wear it.

So interesting, very. I am so excited for the rest of our open week competition. Yes, I am too. We've got another two weeks to go in the competition.

And then we're going to have to announce our winners. I feel like we need to announce it on the podcast. We might have to have some of them in. We did that last time and they did some, you know, podcasts with us to celebrate their successes.

But how good. I'm so excited for somebody about SGC Studio. It's so excited. And it bags here on the New Zealand.

What? I just bags it. Goat bags, go to New Zealand. I want to go to New Zealand.

One of our studio owners that it for sure is going to win as a New Zealand. I've never been. Have you been? Maybe.

Okay. Shotgun. Shotgun. You went out worse last time.

Did you have to go on to play with the fellas on the outside? No. But I was in Harvey Bay and stuck in a storm. There was a cycle.

Not as bad as the old cyclone. Do you know what? It's not even up to us. It's our studio and it gets inside and it goes right to this.

Let's all just go everywhere. It just sounds like so much more fun. Yeah. Yeah, let's go together.

That will be more fun. What a vibe. All right. I hope you've enjoyed today's podcast.

You know, really think about, you know, what are you putting in to get out? You know, I think that's the biggest lesson for open week. Whether you're running the open week, you know, same as what we're doing, whatever it is. None of these studios were luck.

They worked their cuts out. They absolutely worked their cuts out. And they reaped the rewards. and congrats to them, right?

No one successful is luck. What do I always say? Beyonce is probably one of the hardest working people on Earth. Absolutely.

Like, that's how she's got her success. Yeah, it's not luck. It is absolutely not. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed today's Dance Principles United Podcast.

Find us on Instagram, say hi, reach out. We'd love to hear all the things from you. Thanks, Beck. Thanks, friends.

Bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United Podcast. If you'd love to learn more from us, We have a special offer just for our podcast listeners. Go to the link in the show notes right now to get two weeks free in Death's Prince West United tribe.

We would love to see you there.