If you have a dance school you probably want it to be successful with lots of students going on to have great careers in dance. This is the dream of every studio owner when they decide to open up their own school or studio.
In this day and age it goes without saying that it is extremely important for your business to be online. With just about everyone online these days this is where people go when they are looking for a dance school for their sons or daughters.
So how do you get your website online to promote your studio or classes? Well there are two main options – you can either hire a web developer or designer to build and create one for you, or you could try to make one yourself. Here we’ll take a look at what happens when you go for either option.
Hiring A Designer
This is the easiest option to get online. If you’re not really interested in getting too involved in the design process then this is perfect for you. Costs can vary greatly and it’s vital to have a budget in mind as web designers love charging for extras.
Get to know what exactly is included in the price for example the number of pages they will build for you. Having said that you can get a site online for as little as £100 or even less. There are of course designers that charge a lot more than this. But if you are paying £50 for a site don’t expect it to be the greatest thing on earth!
You should have in mind how you want the site to look and any logos or images you want on the site can be sent to the developer you hire. If you teach hip hop dance classes then you could have pictures of students practicing some iconic moves. Images of breakdance moves for example would show clearly what you do.
If you know what you want written on your website already you can ask the designer to put it into the site for you. Or you may prefer to add the content yourself.
One thing to consider is whether you intend to have the designer make all the changes to your site or you’re happy to do it yourself. Once the actual site is built, adding things such as text and images is generally not too complicated. You just need to understand a few basics and there are lots of instructional videos and websites for this.
If you want the designer to do all the work as you’re already really busy running your school, you could opt to pay them a monthly fee and have them do all website related work for you. This is more costly of course but for some people, this is the option they prefer.
Apart from these considerations, the most important thing is what exactly you want on your website and to make sure the developer understands clearly what is expected of them. If you don’t give them clear instructions they may well come back with something that is nothing like how you imagined.
You can research by looking at other websites to see what features you like. You can then get a better idea how your website will be different from the others and also what similarities it will share.
If you do your research properly then hiring a designer to create your website can be a stress free procedure. Before you even hire one you also need to have a time-frame in mind. If you are opening a new school then you’ll need to schedule everything in advance so the website is built before the school opens. This will give you the opportunity to promote it online as well for the opening.
Ask the designers you’re interested in how long it will take them for a first draft and for the full site to be complete. You might for instance be really interested in one designer but their current workload might be as such that there is a long waiting time to get your website built.
Building The Site Solo
The other option is to build the site on your own! This might sound more daunting than it is. There’s no question you’ll need to learn some technical things and hiring a designer is easier. However to build a basic site is not that hard in this day and age.
Many web hosts will have easy install options for WordPress for instance which is beginner friendly. You can also install Page Builders that allow you to drag and drop elements. It’s not a steep learning curve, it’s pretty straightforward.
Have you ever built a Facebook Page before? Well building a simple site isn’t much harder than this. Of course if you don’t use software installs or page builders to help, then there is much more to learn. Learning code is more time consuming but it can help you even if you decide to use software in the future.
One thing which may be obvious but is worth pointing out is that if you know how to build a site, you will know how to maintain it and so will not have to pay a monthly fee to a designer to make your website changes. If you wanted to add a breakdance image to one of your pages you would know how to and wouldn’t need to ring for help.
So you’d be saving not only on the upfront fee to get the site built, but also saving on any recurring fees for maintenance. So if you’re on a shoestring budget then consider building it yourself.
It’s not too difficult to build a clean looking site and there’s a lot of help online. It may take an hour or two to get the basics into your head but that’s about all.
When you think about the various things you do for your business that take up time such as paperwork and admin, an hour or two spent on learning the ins and outs of making a site is time well spent. Especially when you consider how it’s going to help you to get more students in the long run.
Summary
So there are your options for getting your dance based business onto the worldwide web. If you want a total hands free experience then hire a web designer to build your site and then pay them a monthly fee to make any changes you need to your site over time.
Should you just want a site built and want to add content on your own, you’ll need to learn some basic skills to do this which may take a few hours.
If you want to build everything yourself the best bet for your first site is to use your host’s cPanel software installer and use something such as WordPress or a page builder to get it made. This may take a few hours but is time well spent and is also best if you have a limited budget.