ABOUT THIS EPISODE
What does it actually take to build a dance studio with more than 1,000 students?
Is it brilliant marketing? An incredible teaching team? A competition program that wins everything? Or something much simpler?
This week, we're coming to you from Fiji, where Beck is joined by one of our wonderful Studio Growth Club members, Katrina, the owner of Townsville Academy of Performing Arts (TAPA).
Katrina has been running her dance studio for 27 years. She bought the business in 1999 for $10,000, when it had around 50 students, and has since grown it into a thriving studio with more than 1,000 dancers, six purpose-built studios and a building the business now owns.
But what makes this conversation so interesting isn't just the size of her dance business.
It's how Katrina thinks about growth, teaching, studio culture and the people who walk through her doors.
Because after 27 years, she's still learning.
And she still genuinely loves what she does.
In this episode we discuss…
- How Katrina bought her dance studio for $10,000 with around 50 students
- The old-school flyer drop that helped grow enrolments to almost 500
- Why rapid dance studio growth means your systems need to change
- How TAPA has maintained more than 1,000 students over the years
- Why preschool programs and dance studio retention are so important
- How Katrina maintains high technical standards without a large competition program
- Her clever approach to organising concerts for a huge student base
- What happened when a car drove through the studio's front entrance
- Why dance studio owners need to stop copying their competitors
- The importance of continuing to learn, even after decades in business
