Spotlight On Studio Management
Running a studio is more than just choreography and technique. It requires strategic planning, effective leadership, financial planning - and juggling skills. Let’s talk about how to really streamline and simplify your business so that it's sustainable in the long run.
The list feels overwhelming of the things we have to do every day and sometimes we become paralyzed and don’t even know where to start. That isn't conducive to us building a business that feels simple and sustainable. Let’s step back and create a business that feels streamlined, that feels simplified, and which will allow it to be sustainable. If the business feels chaotic and you're being reactive and you never really laid the foundational pieces, that is only going to get you so far. And then you will either crash and burn or you will get to a place where you cannot run your business like this any longer.
I grew my business to a place that financially was doing really, really well, but the back-end systems, how we executed the deliverables that we were delivering, the programming, and the service were no longer feasible to run it without some foundational systems and SOPs and really dialing in how we need to turn this into a well-oiled machine. It was kind of haphazard and very reactive. While I'm not saying it didn't work for us for quite some time and it did well for us and it allowed us to do certain things, we got to a place where running it that way was no longer an option. If I wanted to reach past that plateau and be able to have more time and freedom for myself, I had to build a business that wasn’t very dependent on me being in it all the time and being the answer for everyone.
Do you guys feel like you are in a place where everyone comes to you for all the answers for everything? Sometimes that happens because you are carrying around all the systems, all the SOPs, all the how-tos in your head. And while it's easy for you because you've been doing it that way for however long, nobody else can read your mind. This is why one of the first steps to creating a simplified and sustainable business is to create systems and SOPs.
This is where we have to become proactive. We have to carve out the time for this because this is important. If you want to grow, you have to stop being the bottleneck in your business. Systems and SOPs are important if you are trying to get time freedom and also if your long-term goals are to sell your business. Your value is in your systems. This is why people buy franchises; all the systems are in place already.
The second thing that we need to do is get right with our time and our calendar. Time blocking allows you to focus on those things that are important and what you focus on grows. You need to be intentional with your time and block out time on your calendar to do high-level leadership things. You will find time for the things that are important to us. You have to lean into blocking out and protecting this time on your calendar fiercely because this time is what's going to actually move the needle forward in your business to get you to your big goals. Be intentional. And then you have to really utilize that time well and not let other things steal that time away. The amount of work that you can accomplish in a short amount of time when it's uninterrupted and when it's laser-focused, is crazy magic. It almost blows your mind how much you can get done in those moments.
The third thing is figuring out your 3 Ds. Do a little audit into your three columns. Make a list of everything you have to do. Now, sort them into three columns (your 3 Ds): Delete, Delegate, and Do. Column 1: the things from your list you can delete completely from doing ever again. Column 2: the items from your list that need a system and SOP so you never do them again but they do get done by someone else. Column 3: the things that only you can do.
Successful studio management is all about being proactive versus reactive. It's about getting really crystal clear on what you want for your business and focusing on these goals.
