The business side of running a studio

You do not have to figure out the business side alone

Most people who start a studio are dancers first. This is the roadmap I wish somebody had handed me: what to set up, in what order, and which parts we build for you versus which parts are simply advice.

Email me about your studio See the roadmap

Why I will actually help you

I run a studio. Aatma Dance, in Atlanta. I have done every one of the things on this page for my own classes, badly the first time and then properly the second time. The Google listing, the prices, the ads that quietly wasted money before they started working. I built Studio Momo because none of the software I could buy understood any of it.

Here is the part most software companies would rather not say out loud. Studio Momo is priced by what a studio needs, so a studio that grows moves up a tier. Your growth is literally how this business works. If your classes stay empty, I have built something nobody needed. That is a better guarantee than any promise I could make you, because you do not have to take my word for it.

So the help is real and it comes from me, not a support queue. Send me your situation and I will tell you what I would change about your listing, your prices and your schedule, in that order, whether or not you end up using this.

Ashwin Raju

Founder, Studio Momo. Owner, Aatma Dance.

We only promise what we actually do

Some of this roadmap is software we build and run for you. Some of it is work only you can do, because it lives inside your Google account or your head. Every step below says which it is, so nothing on this page can quietly turn into a feature we do not have.

We build it

Part of the platform. You do not do this yourself.

We automate it

The platform does it on a schedule, without you remembering.

We show you how

Advice, not software. This one is yours to do, and here is how.

Phase 01

Get online

Before anything else can work, a stranger needs somewhere to see this week’s classes and pay for one.

A website that is yours

We build it

Your own branded site with your classes, your instructors and your prices on it, not a profile page on somebody else’s marketplace.

See how it works →

A public schedule people can actually read

We build it

This week, by day, with what is on and who is teaching it. The page every other thing you do will point at.

See how it works →

Taking money online

We build it

Drop-ins, class packs and memberships, bought on a phone in under a minute, paid into your own Stripe account.

See how it works →

A front desk that survives class night

We build it

Check-in, walk-up sales and a card reader, working at the speed of a room filling up.

See how it works →

Phase 02

Get found

This is the part nobody tells you, and the part that is hardest when you rent your space instead of owning a storefront.

A name you can keep

We show you how

Choosing a name you can still be found by in five years, and then keeping it, your number and your details identical in every place you exist.

Read the guide →

Your Google Business Profile

We show you how

The listing that decides whether you appear when somebody nearby searches for dance classes. There is a specific path for businesses without a storefront.

Read the guide →

Apple Maps, which almost nobody claims

We show you how

Half the phones in the country ask Siri, and Siri answers from Apple Maps. It opened to businesses without a storefront, and your competitors have not noticed.

Read the guide →

Showing up in local search

We show you how

What actually decides which three businesses appear on the map, and how to compete for one of those places when you have no permanent address.

Read the guide →

Social profiles that point home

We show you how

The four things a stranger checks in fifteen seconds before deciding to turn up, and how to make your profiles feed your schedule instead of your evenings.

Read the guide →

Phase 03

Get paid right

Most studios do not have a demand problem, they have a pricing problem. What you charge and how you package it decides whether a full room is a living.

What to actually charge

We show you how

Your price is not a number you pick off a competitor. It falls out of what the room costs you, who is in it, and what you are really selling.

Read the guide →

The intro offer, and the day it ends

We show you how

Almost every studio has a first-time offer. Almost none have planned the conversation on the last night, which is where the money actually is.

Read the guide →

Memberships and packs that bill themselves

We build it

Recurring memberships and prepaid class packs, with credits and renewals tracked for you instead of in a notebook.

See how it works →

Phase 04

Get growing

Everything above gets you a working business. This is the part that compounds, and it is where I spend most of my own time.

Asking for reviews without it being awkward

We show you how

Reviews decide who gets picked off the map, and the only reason you do not have more is that nobody asked. When to ask, how, and what to do about a bad one.

Read the guide →

The review ask that sends itself

We automate it

Once a student has been coming a while, the ask goes out on its own, signed by you, pointing at your Google listing. Asking is the hard part and this removes it.

See how it works →

Knowing whether the month was good

We show you how

Four numbers, once a month. Enough to tell a real trend from a rainy Tuesday, and few enough that you will actually write them down.

Read the guide →

Paid ads, when you are ready for them

We show you how

Ads amplify whatever is already happening. How to structure a small local campaign, and the four checks that decide whether to spend anything at all.

Read the guide →

Reading the results honestly

We show you how

I once spent much more on advertising and got fewer students. Here is why that happens and how to see it, because the dashboard will not show you.

Read the guide →

Tell me where you are stuck

Whether you are opening next month or you have been teaching for years, send me what you are working on. I read these myself.

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