How to Choose the Right Business Software for Your Pole Dance Studio, Part 1

Pole dance studio owners like you are sharp, scrappy, and dedicated business people, but you know what you’re not? Everywhere at once.

No matter how skilled you are at running your business, there’s only so much you can do on your own—or even with a small team. That’s why many pole dance studio owners turn to business software to extend their reach, boost efficiency, and stay focused on what they do best.

What is pole dance studio software?

Pole dance studio software is a digital product that helps studio owners run their business more effectively. It centralizes many critical business functions like client management, class scheduling, studio marketing, and more.

While studios can and do operate successfully without the benefit of such a tool, many others have adopted business software as a means of increasing productivity and streamlining client and business management. It helps support current business operations and opens up new opportunities for growth.

Top considerations of pole dance studio software

Before starting any serious exercise regimen, one has to reflect on personal goals. What are you trying to achieve and how are you going to get there?

Shopping for pole studio software has to follow the same process. You don’t just jump in with both feet and expect to find the perfect product right away. There has to be self-reflection, examination of possible options, and validation that the software can carry you towards your ultimate goals.

Some points of reflection for you:

Biggest business pain points

Software is supposed to lessen the pain of managing your business, so where exactly does it hurt? Where are you struggling the most? Is it managing cash flow and finances? Your marketing? Keeping track of all of your clients?

If there are multiple pain points, try to rank them. What is the most urgent problem you need to solve? What is the most important challenge you need to solve? (Note that those two aren’t necessarily the same thing.) What is the financial impact to your business if you don’t solve those problems right away?

By asking yourself those questions now, you’ll be able to assess software options faster and more accurately. Can this software set up recurring billing? No? Okay, moving on. 

Usability

Ergonomics is important in physical objects, because they help determine how easy and comfortable it is to use a product, tool or device. In software, they call this user experience or usability.

As you test business software solutions, ask yourself: do the controls and menus feel intuitive? How responsive is the app? Does using it feel smooth and fast? If performing an action in the software feels awkward now, while you’re only testing it, how much worse will it get when you’re struggling with it every day and relying on it for your critical business functions?

Price vs. Value

A common trap many studio owners fall into is confusing price with value. And while comparing sticker prices of the different softwares may seem like an easy way to find the best platform (especially since a lot of software solutions share the same features), in reality it’s probably one of the worst ways to approach it.

One reason is because the website price is rarely the final price. Almost all pole studio business software apply fees for processing payments (which is normal), but some software providers also hide critical features behind higher tiers, or charge a per-use fee for some services, and try to gloss over them during the buying process. Which leads you to be trapped in a supposedly low-cost service whose price slowly creeps much higher over time.

And then there’s the factor of value. If you’ve ever purchased a cheap knockoff item from a dollar store that breaks the first time you use it, you know what I’m talking about. A pole dance studio software might technically have all the features you want, but when you actually try to use it it’s either so slow, un-intuitive, or simple that it ends up costing you even more in terms of time and headache.

When evaluating software options, you should be asking yourself how much you gain from using it. Will this speed up your day? Will it help you get more clients? Will it make you more money than it costs? You can only answer that by being honest with yourself about how much help you need, and whether the software can deliver.

Future growth

Pole dance business software is a solution for today’s problems, yes. But it’s also an investment for your business’ future. Whether you plan on becoming a larger single studio, or expanding into a franchise, it’s a good idea to have software that can grow with you.

This can save a lot of headaches down the road, as you won’t have to deal with migrating your data to a new system or relearning a whole new platform in a few years. It will be your business companion and the two of you will grow together.

In part 2, we’ll compare top pole dance studio software options.

*this post written by IPIA partner OfferingTree