Amanda Barr 0:00
Hey, friends, and welcome to the dance principles United Podcast. I'm so excited to be back with you Bec. We've missed you the last couple of episodes. I know you've had so much on but it's so good to be back on the mic with you.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 0:35
I am here I have had a crazy few weeks. I feel like lots of studios have though. It's that crazy time of the year. We've got concerts. I've been doing a school musical. We've got all the things happening. And I think, yeah, thanks for covering for me for a few weeks. But I'm back.
Amanda Barr 0:52
Oh, absolutely. I'm so excited. Because there's nothing better than I love jamming with you. We've got to start by telling our listeners, how many hours have you been working in a school in a primary school, we're talking a primary school each week teaching
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 1:06
18 hours. It's just crazy. Like they had their little dress rehearsal yesterday. And I just I love it because you affect kids who never get to actually be onstage during that. And Amanda, you know, I never cry. But when all of them were out there singing yesterday, I actually teared up. And like you just I honestly like you look, if you have the time, which I really don't. But if you do have the time to do that, in a school, it is a great way to get extra students into your school, we have so many of them on our priority waitlist for next year. It's crazy. But also like it's just such a rewarding experience. Oh,
Amanda Barr 1:52
that's so lovely. And that's why I wanted to share that as well about the 88 hours. Like, it's a lot of hours. It's a huge commitment. But you know, you're never too big. You're never, you know, too big a business or have had your studio for too long to roll up your sleeves and get in and do it. And sometimes, that's what we have to do as the best business owners is roll up our sleeves and do it right.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 2:13
Yep, absolutely. And I had someone else that was, you know, meant to be doing that. And that all fell through. So then sometimes you just have to step up, suck it up and do it. And that's life. Right?
Amanda Barr 2:24
Absolutely. It's the life of a small business owner, something we've all got to do. But that is not what we're talking about today. But I just thought I'd start with that, because I'm so excited to have you back. But what we are talking about today is reenrollment. Because you know, it's that time of the year where it's all happening, re enrollment. And you know, I think Gone of the days like in the past where we used to not think about enrolling kids until after Christmas, right? Did you used to do that? I
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 2:55
did. Like it wasn't really that long ago. Still doing that, to be honest, it was probably only five or six years ago, but I had so much anxiety over that time. And when we talked to car owners, you still do that? That's exactly what they have. They have the anxiety of it. Are they coming back? Are they not coming back? Am I gonna be able to survive next year? And you know, that's, that's scary, right? Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 3:21
And it's a lot of weight on your shoulders over that Christmas New Year period. And I know, you know, you know, I wonder if that kid's gonna come back, oh, my god, am I gonna have to cancel that class and combine it like, there's all of those things running through your mind and weighing on you over Christmas over, you know, a period of time that we should be having a bit of a break with our families. And so if you're still doing that, it's not too late to change it. You know, if you're listening to this podcast in real time, it's not too late. You can get it together and try and get everyone enrolled before the end of the year. I think there's so many benefits to re enrolling by the end of the year, right? Oh, absolutely.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 4:02
And it does take your workload down then in January because you know, you don't have to be trying to re enrol them all last minute or like I just remember that first week in February Amanda being so crazy in our waiting area because we not only had all of our new kids coming in who didn't quiet but we also then were trying to re enrol everyone who didn't turn up to the January re enrollment day like we thought it would be the parent who would turn up to the January window and
Amanda Barr 4:31
just show up to the first day of class right?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 4:33
Ah so we used to be in undated and then people would get cranky that they were waiting for so long and I just think it's a game changer to do it now. Totally. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 4:43
The other big thing I think is really beneficial is if you want to grow your studio and take it to the next level is your spending December, November December focusing on re enrolling students so that it frees time up so that you can spend January focusing on On new students, not worrying about those other ones and trying to pull their classes back and emailing them going, you still haven't re enrolled blah, blah, blah. But you can actually spend, you know, free some time up so that you can spend January actually try to, you know, jump to the next level. And, you know, find new students market for new students run the ads, you know, go to the community fairs, go to the shopping centres do all the things but focus on new students rather than, you know, existing students.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 5:25
Yeah, totally. And look, you know, I know everyone's really busy at the moment with concert, I totally get that photo day, all of those things that we all do. And a lot of our studio owners that we've been working with a Mandor have said that, you know, we're so busy with other things. Absolutely. What we like to say is really both of those should be equally important, right? Like, yes, your concept is important. But planning for next year is really important as well. And parents are busy. They want to know what they're doing. Now, I know a lot of our preschool parents at our studio, they want to know what day they're putting their kids in preschool and what days we've got available dates and what days they're doing it like they actually are planning it now.
Amanda Barr 6:05
Absolutely. You know, last year was my last year with a child in daycare. And they moved when they put their enrollment forms out. Because I'm in regional area. The daycares are hard to get into. And there's huge waitlist on daycares. And they started putting out their re enrollment stuff in August. Can you believe that? Like, I thought we were good when we started thinking about it in October, but like, August is really early, and you had to have the form filled in and choose your days. And I was like, oh my god, I'm not ready for this. Like, it's so early.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 6:38
But that's the thing, like and parents will if there's other activities that their kids are interested in, and you're not putting your timetable out, and you're not doing all your stuff, they're gonna book those other activities in and then you're gonna be their last choice, instead of you want to be their first choice.
Amanda Barr 6:55
Absolutely, you want to be the first one that they don't go, oh, actually, I would have loved to have dance. But I booked soccer on a Tuesday and swimming lessons on a Wednesday. And so all I've got left as Monday, you know, Mondays or whatever that is, you want to be there first go to so that they can book your classes and prioritise your classes. Absolutely.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 7:13
So what are our best tips for everyone out there? My first one would be, you know, put your timetable together now, right? Like Put your timetable together now, so that those parents can get that together so that they can get their lives together. They know what they're doing next year, they're committed to it, and get it out to them,
Amanda Barr 7:32
get it out to them as soon as possible and create some FOMO around it. You know, I had a coaching call this morning where I was talking about a deadline on the right enrollments, you know, it doesn't mean that you're not going to take them afterwards. But just giving people like a period of time, hey, this is our re enrollment period, it goes for two weeks is really like rather than an open ended thing. It works so much better that FOMO around it, right.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 7:58
Yeah, I love that. I love that. And I mean, we do that, you know, we're going to re enrol our current students for two weeks, and then we're going to open it up to other people. I think that's fine. As well, yes. Like, absolutely. Exactly. Absolutely. They're
Amanda Barr 8:14
like, yeah, and I think you know, no matter how you do it, it's that deadline. And obviously, I you know, I spoke to someone the other day, and they're like, but I would always take you know, so and so my favourite student from my 14 strip. Yeah, of course you would. And it doesn't mean you can't keep enrolling them afterwards. That's not what we mean by that. It means just, you know, really just trying to be like, You need to have your forms back by this time so we can organise our classes, you know, or whatever that is. So I think you know, really getting your timetable out as soon as humanly possible is so so important.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 8:48
Yeah, I think that's a great tip. I think like, you know, people can really overcomplicate this process, and I think you could keep it quite simple, especially if you haven't done any work towards it. And that can be as simple as sending an email out exactly what you're saying, Amanda? Hey, guys, enrollments are now open for the next two weeks. Here's the link to re enrol for next year, whatever you're going to do, like it doesn't have to be this big overcomplicated thing, right?
Amanda Barr 9:16
No, absolutely. Like whichever way you decide to run. It is great, but I think it's putting the deadline on it. Creating a little bit of FOMO is always missing, you know, and just really creating some excitement in it. I put a try post up this morning, but can you probably haven't seen it cuz it was only about an hour ago and you wouldn't have been on Facebook. But I put a tribe post up, you know, at the studio my girls go to which is where the studio I've just sold. They gave out their timetables on Saturday last Saturday. Now the pretty pieces of paper. God that works a treat. You know, we've talked on the podcast before about design and the importance of design and making it easy for parents to use and all of that. However, my girls got their three pieces of paper. And I keep putting them back next to the fridge where we keep, you know, the pieces of paper. You know, we all have that spot. They keep moving them, because they want to look through it. They you know, even my five year old this morning sitting at breakfast, looking through it go, and can I do that class? And can I do that class? And what about that class? God, that's powerful, right. So
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 10:25
powerful. And I think we forget that those pieces of paper right now, I think they're game changers. I say this to the tribe members all the time. Like, I think there's so much noise with emails, there's so much noise with social media, but there's not a lot of noise with that in the hands kind of stuff. And you know, at Phoenix's school, they're still giving out pieces of paper stuff. I don't know if you've got that. But they've just done like a Christmas raffle, same thing. He's all about the Christmas raffle. That's pretty it looks fancy. And you know, he wants to be involved in that he probably doesn't know what a Christmas raffle is. But he wants to be involved in it, because he's got that cool piece of paper. So I think we forget the power of that, for sure.
Amanda Barr 11:07
I love that. Absolutely. The pretty piece of paper. And, you know, so literally what happened this morning was my eight year old had her pretty piece of paper out. And she's like, Hey, Mom, I was wondering what you thought about me doing those extra classes on Thursday that it says I can do? And I was like, Well, you already did six, six days a week, and what are we doing? That is not how the conversation went, I went, of course, baby, whatever you want. But you know what, if that was emailed to me, I wouldn't have told her about those Thursday classes, I've got to be honest, because I didn't actually want her doing an extra day of classes. But even for me, who knows dance and stuff, you know, the fact that my daughter asked and like, of course, no problems, maybe like it works. Oh, it
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 11:58
totally works. And like, I've, I talked to you about SJC members about this all the time. But it's like, you've got to get your staff talking about things, you've got to get that hype in the studio happening, you can talk about it to the random people you see. But if every staff member is onboard, every staff member is getting the kids excited, and you can get the kids excited about something, you're gonna get so much more traction on it.
Amanda Barr 12:22
I love that so much. And, you know, look, I'm going back to what happened with my kids this week, because it's, you know, it's pointing out and it's working. You know, my eldest daughter came home from class yesterday. And she's like, Mum, did you know that the Point class is actually for kids that like, you know, she was going through what she'd been told in class from her teacher. And she wanted to repeat that. So she'd actually had her ballet teacher talk to her about the timetable. She'd had her technique teacher talk to her about the timetable. She had also had her jazz teacher explaining what the different classes were, why they'd be so good for them, why they should do them. So you know, she's had three teachers in one night, tell her exactly, and she wanted to tell me exactly what the Point class was about. And, you know, you know, whether it was pre point or like, you know, and have explanations on the whole thing. And that really just goes at all the teachers are talking to them about that. And that's the whole studios focus is really, you know, focusing on getting those kids re enrolled in the amount of class as possible.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 13:22
And you know, what I love about this, she's going home and educating you as a parent. But like, I don't mean you as an individual. I don't know the things that like, just think about that with parents who don't get it like, you know, we've got a really high end little ballet boy in our school, and he hasn't been dancing that long. Only a few years. Mom's never did, she has no idea. He's just got into the ballet. That's how elite this kid is like, he's just so talented. But she earlier in the year wanted to pull him out of his technique class, because she said, he's not really like, I just think it's an extra time that he doesn't need to be in there. But then when I explained to her why that class was so important, she just was like, Oh, thanks. I didn't realise that that was an important class. Like she doesn't know. But don't know. Yeah,
Amanda Barr 14:12
absolutely.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 14:13
And if your kids are going home and educating you, I'm like, That's smart. If those teachers are telling the kids and then the kids are going home and educating the parents That's really clever.
Amanda Barr 14:24
Absolutely. And the fact that my 11 year old felt that I needed to be educated about a plan but she knows perfectly well that I know what I'm talking about like this but she obviously it had that drilled into her because she knows that I know what a club like the classes are. She knows that I was in there like you know talking to them about the timetable going through I know exactly what upcoming classes, but she felt still felt the need to tell me all about it. So obviously they've done a really good job because it is it's they've obviously said go home and tell your parents about what this class involves and whether it's right for you. No, like it works. So make sure you're doing that in your studio, right like I And the absolute key is making sure your whole team is on board. You know, I know once again talking about what happened at our studio yesterday, is that every parent that walks up, have you re enrolled here? enrollments have open. Here's the timetable. Have you written on? Oh, no, you haven't here take a piece of paper? Or you haven't, I'll make sure you check your emails, oh, I couldn't do it now for you. But every single person in the studios, their focus was on re-enrolling. So is that happening for you at your studio? That's a big question to you.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 15:27
Yes, I can say yes, for mine, because we're so honoured. And I think it's, I think as well, it's setting goals for your staff and checking in with him. So my staff in the mornings now are saying, like messaging on our slack and going this is how many people we've enrolled this morning, this is what happened, and they're getting excited about it, you know, like they want to see those real enrollments coming in. And we're like doing our little tally every day to see where we're at. And I think getting your stuff motivated about that, too. It's definite key. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 15:58
And like, it's been so incredible, like, you know, obviously, we follow a lot of dance studios on social media, and we see what everyone does and all of that, like, you know, we started a whole new process with like a VIP reenrollment with a gift and a priority waitlist. And we've been doing that with our studio growth club members and going through, like, it's a really big process. It's a really in depth process that we go through with them. And they're having incredible results. But so good to see that, you know, some other studios are like following that lead and taking that on board. Like it's so great to see that because all we want to see is those studios succeeding and then you know, doing what they can to get enrollments early. Like if you can get them in at November, it's so great.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 16:40
So, so good. And like how insane of some of those results being like people enrolling like 180 190 kids and students in one day with like, over 1000 class placements, like, that's setting you up for the year, you know, or people in re-enrolling like 30% of their kids are not even a week yet. Yeah, like that's, that's crazy results. And when you look at that, and then how successful their next year's gonna be, it gets really exciting, right? Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 17:12
And, you know, we've had all of our studio growth club members are kind of going through the process at the moment, but like, last weekend, we found that most of them were enrolling about 30% of their studio in about two hours. Which was incredible, and it's like, just that like driver, and then the week following, they were trying to get up to like that 5060 70% of kids enrol. But like, you know, we even had one of our new members shout out to Jess, from our parks, and parks down centre, and, you know, she enrolled like 50% of kids in one day, almost like, Isn't that crazy, like, you know, a smaller younger studio, but 50% of people in like, you know, like, two hours. And that's because she created incredible FOMO. And really, you know, made sure that everyone was educated about what the process was, and why they had to come in and really, you know, pump up the enrollments, which is incredible.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 18:08
Yeah, I love that. And I love seeing the success of this. And, you know, like, guys, as Amanda said, at the beginning of this call, it's not too late to do this, you know, absolutely a timetable together. You know, get it out there reenroll your students get them committed to you and, you know, make it happen, because it will be a game changer for you guys for January. And I think it will be a game changer for your school, then setting you up for 2024.
Amanda Barr 18:33
Couple of Absolutely. Oh my gosh. So if you haven't already really prioritise it. To me, I actually think that it's just as important as concert planning, if not more so because a great concert doesn't mean that everyone comes back next year. What guarantees that they will come back next year is that they've re enrolled. And also, like Beck said before, don't overthink it. You know, you know, I feel like some people like Oh, but do I charge them the enrollment fee? Or do I not? Or do I, you know, like, either one is fine. There's no right or wrong answer in things like that, but it's just about really, you know, getting them excited about it, creating that FOMO and getting it out as soon as you possibly can. I think that's the biggest key, right?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 19:16
Absolutely. So if you guys go ahead with this, we'd love to know how you go. Reach out to his DMS and let us know and yeah, we hope that you have a really successful re enrollment. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 19:28
Hey, and we also want to share before we finish up on the podcast today, we have a whole new segment called No bullshit business tips. Which we are super excited we recorded a couple of weeks ago right there.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 19:42
Yeah, we are so pumped about these. I like I like the name of it because I feel like that is what Amanda and I try to do is actually give you guys practical tips that you can use, you know, and we're both we're both a big no bullshit girls, I think absolutely.
Amanda Barr 19:59
Lately, so if you're interested, there are short, you know, three to five minute episodes with actionable tips that you can take right now to grow your studio. You can check them out in our free group on Facebook, if you jump in. It's the dance principles united group. So check that out. Join us there and we're also going to drop them on the podcast each week as well. So you can just listen wherever you like, but we cannot wait to have you let us know we'd love the feedback on it as well. We'd love to know if this is something you're enjoying. So yeah, reach out, let us know. Thanks
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 20:29
so much, guys. Have an amazing week. Bye bye
