How To Turn Your Expertise As A Dancer Into An Income Generating Opportunity
‘So you’re a dancer?’- I am often asked and my answer usually varies between ‘Umm, not really but I love to dance’ or ‘Yes, but I haven’t really received any formal training’, both of which are by the way true! Because, though I am not a trained dancer but I have always been pretty good (if I may blow my own trumpet a bit) at emulating the quintessential bollywood moves from the time I was a kid, which have often led to my spectators assuming that I must have been trained in some form of Indian classical dance.
The point of my talking about my passion or talent as a dancer is to essentially highlight the fact to my readers that these days having a skill/expertise can actually mean big business. If you for some reason haven’t been following the trend globally, let me tell you that these days a lot of individuals are the sole master and collector of the benefits of their own labour by selling their expertise/skill and thus making money working only for themselves. Sounds truly wonderful right? I think so too! So if you are someone who is a trained dancer or even an untrained but super talented one, this should be music to your ears, or rather in the context of this post, spring to your steps. Hence, today I am going to try and help you figure out how to turn your expertise or talent as a dancer into an income generating opportunity… (Yay!!!)
Monetizing Your Skill
However, here’s a few things that you should keep in mind, before you drop everything and invest the last of your penny (and later on curse me for it) into renting a swanky new studio. The biggest challenge of monetizing your skill as a dancer or for that matter any skill that you may posses is figuring out how much you should charge for a lesson/class and what people would actually be willing to pay for it. So before you start investing your time, effort and money into a selling a skill that you haven’t ever done before, it would be real wise to undertake an extensive research on how much your skill is worth, as per the current market rate. Take a peek at websites that offer such services or do a Google search to find out how much people with your kind of skill is charging for their services. Trust me when I say this- a comprehensive research always pays off! And while I was doing my own research here’s a few posts that I found really interesting and helpful.
How to Monetize your Brand as a Coach
How to Freelance your Expertise
3 Ways to Monetize your Expertise
Finding Those First Clients
The next challenging part is actually finding the first few clients who would be willing to pay for your services. Bear in mind that if you are a complete novice in the sector, you may actually have to charge lower than the prevalent market rate for the first few clients till you manage to make a name for yourself. I now teach bollywood dance lessons to numerous clients in my neighbourhood but my first few ‘students’ were my friends relatives performing at the Indian Wedding Sangeet ceremonies, whom I charged far lower than the market rate. I didn’t really complain a bit as I was really taking these initial dance lessons to earn an extra income and hence my ‘bread and butter’ did not depend on it. However, I slowly started to garner a reputation for myself and soon clients started pouring in for individual lessons. So here’s an advice- when you’re trying to find the initial client base, try tapping into known sources such as friends, relatives, immediate neighbourhood, your kids’ school etc. Here’s a look at some great guidance to finding the perfect market for your dance classes.
4 High-Impact but Low-Cost Ways to Market your Dance Studio
How to find new students for your Dance School
67 Creative and Effective Ways to get Students to Register for Dance Class
Promoting Your Skill
One of the best ways to create advertisement for your service, even in the age of websites and blogs, is the word of the mouth. If people are trying to purchase services, they would always be willing to try someone their known associate/s trust. Encourage your present clients to refer their friends, family and acquaintances your way.
Also, there are various websites such as altertrips, airbnb,withlocals,angieslist etc. that can be great places to sell your skills and services. Another great source through which you can advertise is your expertise/skill is through your own Youtube channel. Here’s a great guide on how to promote yourself through Youtube and make money.
Now here’s a revelation if you haven’t discovered it already. I am the co-founder of Altertrips. When my business partner and I started envisioning Altertrips, we wanted to launch a platform where hobbyists could earn an (extra) income encashing on their skills, talents and expertise. After doing comprehensive market research, needs assessments and extensive back-end work for over a year, we are finally ready to launch Altertrips that is perfect platform for service providers to monetize their skills and expertise. Sign up now by visiting us at www.altertrips.com
So now that you have a fair idea about how to go about things, I hope that you will now earn a grand living by selling your services as a dancer and hence working for yourself. Always remember the most important thing is to give it a shot and not to lose hope too soon as every venture needs some time to develop and earn a reputation for itself. Till then my friend, dance away!!
