Start your own: Dance school

What is it and who is it suited to?
Planning and preparation
Franchising
Marketing
Rules and regulations
Start-up costs
How much can I earn?
Tips for success and useful contacts

Start-up costs

The main outgoings for a start-up dance school are renting venues and paying teachers. The cost of these will vary greatly according to the region you operate in, but the good news is that both should be payable by the hour. In Hampshire, for example, the total cost of hiring a venue and paying a teacher for a one-hour class is around £30. By contrast, in London you'd be lucky just to hire a venue for that amount, with prices typically ranging between £30 and £50.

The flip side of that is, if you later acquire a dance studio of your own, you can hire the space out for the same price to other dance teachers in London – whereas on the south coast a competitive hire fee would be closer to £13 an hour.

If you plan to provide your teachers with any kind of props to use in classes, that is another start-up cost you need to factor in (about £300 per teacher). If you are going to provide refreshments, there will be a one-off cost to buy relevant equipment and minimal ongoing expenses, to replenish teabags, milk and sugar.

Then there are the practicalities. Quotes for Public Liability Insurance will vary but should be around the £120 mark (per annum) and a Public Performance Licence (PPL) is about £100 a year. Expect to pay around £15 per year for your website’s domain name and a similar amount monthly for web hosting. If you need someone to design and maintain your website for you, this will cost more, but there are plenty of basic web-builder tools online, which are free to use for a basic site, or cost up to around £25 per month for more advanced features.

In terms of marketing and staying in touch with customers, there are some costs that are inescapable. These include telephone contracts (if only mobile) – and outlay on printer ink, paper and other stationery can, even conservatively, reach £1,000 a year. You may also want to budget £300 to have some posters and leaflets printed professionally.

If you are going to send out newsletters, promotional offers or product orders by snail mail, expect to spend another £300 on postage. But, don’t forget that to build a brand you need a professional and compelling logo for your letterhead and other branding. Unless you spent your past life as a graphic designer, you need to budget for this and you may also want to invest in a copyright application, to protect your brand.

However, as your business grows, you may want to expand your marketing budget, perhaps hiring a freelance consultant to provide occasional advice and help you gain press exposure. If you can afford to put aside £1,000 a year to promote your dance school, you’ll be giving yourself a great chance of growth.

Start-up costs at a glance