My day starts by checking email and responding to questions from current and prospective families.

The next part of my day is the administrative part of the business: sending out a weekly newsletter, updating my website or social media, choreographing dances, planning classes/performances/competitions, costume or prop repair/creation, etc. I am also a part of a coaching/networking group for dance studio owners, so I have about one call with them per week for troubleshooting or professional development.

I teach classes for about 4 hours per night, Monday through Friday. During the fall I also run rehearsals on Saturday for 6 hours. I teach all ages (3 through adult) and ability levels (beginning through advanced).

Pros

• Able to be creative: choreography, creating new productions
• Get to work with a lot of different ages of clients
• Get to watch my students grow up
• Have control over the length and timing of my summer vacation
• Knowing I have made a difference in the lives of my students
• Getting to introduce ballet to a new generation, help dancers rekindle their love of ballet or fulfill a childhood dream of learning ballet
• Seeing the excitement on the dancers’ faces when they see their recital costume for the first time, start learning a new dance, etc (this is the adults too)

Cons

• I currently don’t have staff, so there are certain times of the year when my to-do list can be overwhelming. Sometimes I can have volunteers help with things, but other times it has to fall on me.
• If a student doesn’t want to be there (meaning taking ballet was their parent’s idea), they can sometimes be difficult to handle.
• There are always a few families who don’t read the newsletters or write important information on their calendars and then miss meetings or deadlines.
• I occasionally have to deal with a parent who thinks their dancer is more advanced than they are, or who thinks the studio should be planned around what they want. (Luckily this doesn’t happen very often.)

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