Journey of a studio owner....location location location!

I know this blog of my journey in opening my studio is late, but I have been very busy with it - and with good cause. Here is what I have been up to in the past year with this project...piece by piece...

Late last year, my mentor, a fellow dancer and I talked about our dream to own a studio. We all agreed it was the route we should seriously pursue. The studio where we were renting from was in an unknown state and we were not sure if we would be there in a few months or so... Our own group of dancers, students, and performers were growing so fast and that we were running out of room to hold classes was proof enough of our expansion needs. We NEED a new studio!

In January, we seriously put this thought on the road and take off with it. It was going to happen. The place where we were renting was still in uncertainty and we had to do what we had to do to protect our business.
First things first, file for official business, get a bank acccount (actually several), make a business pan, do ALOT of research, outline what we need to do for our classes and....we need a location.
It only looked easy as we saw many gorgeous buildings and potential locations. Then it hit us...the price - seems that these gorgeous buildings also had a steep price...even in this economy. Prices ranged from $1.59/sf to $3.95/sf - we were looking for something much lower per square foot. Looking for a lower priced place was another challenge - industrial areas offer plenty of room, low overhead, and fairly easy access. This too, also had it's limitation; the city's zoning where we were located prohibited a dance studio to use a comercial zoned area. We needed to look for a mixed use building that would comply with the city use zoning. Just as we found something that was mixed use, low overhead, and easy access, issues with each of our locaion searches had their own set of problems such as lack of parking, extra utilites charges, and lease issues that would leave us at the mercy of the landlord. Because most of the buildings in our area are older, we encountered our share of rickety buildings, sloping floors, lack of handicapped access, the strong smell of mold & unmentionables, odd floor plans, and really weird retrofitting. Dozens and dozens of locations and leasing agents later, we needed to look beyond our city since they are not mixed use friendly. This meant our search and research will need to start all over again.

It's no wonder why there is a high rate of small business failure in our city.

Blog Hiatus=Room to Grow + Procrastination

It's no secret I tend to procrastinate in certain areas....blogging is one of them. I'm old school and like that personal contact more than the electronic thing. I also have that Face-thingy that keeps me in touch with long distance friends, family, and dancers all around the world.
Someting had to be compromised. This was one of them. Hopefully, I can blog at least once a month - ha ha....we'll see how this goes.

OK, round two...

What has Etoile been up to in the past two years???

Aside from classes, performing, and dancing, I have been rigorously trained under Aziza Sa'id to improve my dance, develop and apply my previous dancing skills both on the floor and behind the scenes. This process she projected will take a few years to fine tune, but I had all the necessary skills and leadership to be successful. With three of my closest dance friends for the past four years we intently listened. We were the grasshoppers of the master - just like that show Kung-Fu.

Late last year, all of us decided to branch out and be on our own - by way of OWNING our OWN studio. It would be three of us heading this business. Talk about being breathless...the ride of being an owner is much more thrilling than a roller coaster ride. You feel every emotion - thrill, elation, fear, anxiety, joy, nausea, all wrapped up with a scream. I cannot begin to tell you the challenges we encountered building this business up. Aside from our dance skills, I had strong marketing skills , sales skills, business skills, my business partner had mad technical skills, admistrative skills, and Aziza of course was the uber master of skill that were not covered between the both of us....seems like a piece-of-cake? Uh, no.

Things like Zoning, location, accessability, permits, contracts, etc. I'm just pulling out the main subjects....getting into details will be as long as our 32 page contract. Get the picture? The business is till in the final stages. More on that later.

Jumping to spring of this year, our world was jolted harshly when an unexpected emergency happened and Aziza had to move away. Now she was miles and miles away, giving us direction remotely. Now not only did we have first line of defense with the entire business by ourselves, but we also took over all the troupes and classes. I felt like I was diffusing a bomb and having the expert give it to me via a staticy radio two miles away that I could barely hear. Aziza's responsibilities are huge. She too has a job out there. We forget she too has a life to maintain, not ours. She cannot live our lives for us, and she has to live hers. Communication between a two hour time zone isn't easy....and she's a busy woman. We take it as it comes. Period.
Things were rough. People compared us to her, people dropped out because they had no faith, people left because they listened to rumors. I heard the good things and the not so good things. This saddened me.

I felt like I was pushed out of the nest too early - I didn't need this....feeling almost discouraged with what I saw and heard.

Just....

Then....

As I started to question myself....

It. Hit. Me.

We had been trained all along. We already HAD the info and knowledge all along. We had been trained effectively. It was there all along and we are already doing it. What happens happens. What choices am I to make today that will affect my tomorrow? I asked myself, does the forest only contain 100 trees? NO! There are more...and new ones grow every day. I needed not to stand in the compost, but to plant the new seeds to make it grow to it's full potential....
So, it's time to get off my duff and recollect to become the new Phoenix.
What we have now is the dawn of a new era. Composed from the old...and reborn anew. The forest will be green again. I shall conntinue to dance.

Lesson learned again. Listen to your dreams and aspirations, don't listen to or let others discourage or put down what you aspire to do....

Just as I tell my students, I will never allow anyone to quesion or discourage what you love to do.