The Rising Costs of Competition

The Rising Costs of Competition

As a studio owner, you want interested students to access and take full advantage of the competition experience. The trouble comes when comp fees and add-ons become a roadblock to that access. With costs on the rise, how do you ensure families can continue to afford attendance?

The answer to that question may likely be found in your payment structure. If you’ve hesitated to implement changes, it might be time to consider your options.

There are few studios that haven’t adopted automatic tuition and costume payments, but the opposite can be said for comp fees. From our perspective, the more streamlined your process the more organized and predictable your profit. So, whether it’s disorganization or emotion (fear of losing students or getting parent push-back) holding you back, consider the following:

  • Up-front totals at the start of the season

  • Rolling comp fees into monthly payments

  • Payment options 

When you empathize with your customers about the rising costs of pretty much everything and you want to provide as many of your qualified dancers with the experience of competition, you can shy away from doing what you need to for your studio. And you shouldn’t.

Remember how you felt before you made automatic deduction of tuition mandatory? And remember how almost no one complained, and if they did, it didn’t cause them to leave, and they eventually appreciated the convenience? This will be like that.

If you can decide how many comps your team will attend, and tally up the cost (including the up- charge for the work you and your staff are putting in), Include that in your registration packet at the start of the season. Parents appreciate that there’s relatively little surprise when it comes to how much they are going to spend on the season. 

You can choose to divide that total over the months in your season and add it with tuition and costume costs. Parents will see a larger balance on their account, and for some, it will seem like an awful lot, but they will have time to plan their payments accordingly. There’s something to be said for ONE payment, instead of 1(tuition), 2(costume), 3(comp registration), 4(choreography fees), etc.

Another option is taking those comp fees and dividing them up, but leaving them separate from tuition and costume, and offering payment options with a deadline. In this case, we still recommend including totals in the registration packet so that you know what you’re charging and parents know what the participation requirements are.

Whatever method you devise, the one thing we highly recommend is cost and planning. Decide: 

  • how many comps you are attending

  • exactly what you need to upcharge to cover your expenses and increase profit

  • a direct and appropriate presentation to your families that conveys the ease of the process and the necessity for deadlines

This way, you can forecast your earnings, better plan your fundraising, keep good books, and reduce the risk of chasing down fees and missing deadlines. 

We hope you have a successful competition season!