Dance Studio Birthday Party - How Much to Charge

December 10, 2006 1:31 PM

I'm trying to figure out how much a local dance studio should charge for hosting a 1-2 hour birthday party with dance instruction by one of our teachers.

Any advice and the reasoning behind it is greatly appriciated. I'm wondering if pricing should be cost based (what it costs us) (which I'm actually not sure to figure out), or if it should be demand based (what customers are willing to pay). Or should it be based on something else?

I'm also worried about people getting mad at me for charging too much.

Thanks again!

posted by GregX3 to Work & Money (8 answers total)

When I was starting out DJing and fixing computers, I called around to local companies and asked what their prices were. Then, I set my price to be a little bit higher than the second-lowest price I got quoted.
posted by fvox13 at 1:53 PM on December 10, 2006

Response by poster: fvox, would local companies in this case be other dance studios or rather any establishment offering birthday party services e.g., Chuck e cheese?
posted by GregX3 at 2:05 PM on December 10, 2006

For a party, I rented one studio (in a two-studio dance center) for two hours, with one hour of dance instruction, for $150, but you'll probably pay a lot more than this. For starters, it was a community dance center, so non-profit. Second, it was the rear studio, which was the cheaper one. Third, it was off peak hours. Fourth, I brought in the instructor myself (someone who I knew was good).

For the instructor, for a one-off event, probably expect to pay the going rate for a private lesson. (~$60-100/hr, depending on your area) If you are bringing in a instructor of your choice, and you know that there are people coming who are likely to be open to becoming students of the instructor, then they might be willing to do it for less than they normally charge, as an investment if they're currently looking for more students, but that's entirely up to them, and slightly unlikely. If the instructor comes from the studio, it's probably out of both your and their hands what the cost to you is for the instruction, but in this case, if it exceeds their cost of private lessons, try to negotiate them lower based on that fact. (They'd probably just increase the cost of the studio rental and give you the same total, but ah well :)

Studio rental could be anything. The rates at the non-profit place I used varied from $25 to $60 an hour, but I would expect a for-profit studio to be a lot more. I also have the vague impression that a nearby studio is $1000 for an evening (ie, not rented by the hour, includes sound gear, etc), but I can't remember where I got that idea or how accurate it is.

Also, do you friends a favor and don't pick one of those studios that does the hard sell on everyone that comes through the door. Franchise/chain studios are notorious for this. Some independant studios are like that too, but some are decent.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:10 PM on December 10, 2006

Sorry, I was stuck thinking how much it cost based on trying to organise it, not offering it. Gah.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:12 PM on December 10, 2006

!

It'll be your first, so you should give a quote based on the actual value of services provided relative your normal dance classes. Don't try to weight by demand until you've gauged the extent of the demand.

Be sure to get a head-count beforehand, so you can figure out how many instructors to schedule and how much you should charge!
posted by The Confessor at 2:40 PM on December 10, 2006

I'd call other dance studios first and see if they offer similar packages. If not, then hit up the Chuck E Cheez places. I think you'll be surprised at just how much these events cost... people usually expect to pay a lot.
posted by fvox13 at 3:51 PM on December 10, 2006

I'd say...

Instructor's time + slight premium for large group of kids + studio fee

Or work it out by numbers. $20/kid, or whatnot.

Get together with a local bakery or something and offer to provide cake & juice, for an extra few bucks/kid. Bonus points for allergy-free/gluten-free/vegan, etc.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 5:32 PM on December 10, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll try calling around and getting a feel for going prices. Other than that it does sound like it makes sense to derive prices based on our costs at least until I can gauge demand well.
posted by GregX3 at 8:45 PM on December 10, 2006