This month, we celebrate our 10th anniversary!<\/p>\n
When I bought this franchise and opened Fred Astaire\u2019s first dance studio in Michigan<\/a> in 2005, I saw this as a good growth opportunity. Dancing with the Stars<\/a> had just started, and it was just after\u00a0Richard Gere strutted his stuff in Shall We Dance<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n Little did I know that so many dance-focused TV shows and movies would entice Americans and ignite an even more robust ballroom dance craze than we could have imagined!<\/p>\n I have always loved dancing. As a food entrepreneur, I figured this endeavor would diversify my business experience. Besides, I figured it would be fun.<\/p>\n Boy, was I right!<\/p>\n I\u2019ve loved the support system of this franchise and the camaraderie of other studios across the country.<\/p>\n As with any business, we have happy times and hard times, and we\u2019ve learned a lot. This business has grown further than I ever expected. Now, we average about 150 private lessons every week, plus eight group lessons.<\/p>\n Only one of the past 10 years did we see a drop in business. I credit our success to the training of our staff, the processes and protocols we have in place. Lada and I have learned to become better managers, and we\u2019ve found wonderful staff who delight our students.<\/p>\n This is a happy place to work. We hire staff for personality \u2013 we want to see happy people, with optimistic outlooks, who love to teach dance. We work on team-building constantly, so everyone feels a part of something fabulous.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t expect to work with so many great charities, but I\u2019m sure glad we do! The Detroit Historical Society<\/a>, The Pink Fund<\/a>, Jack\u2019s Place for Autism<\/a>, the Detroit Tigers\u2019 Dancing with the All Stars, and now Dance Mobility.<\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest lesson we\u2019ve learned in 10 years of owning this studio is that you never know where the path will lead you. As long as you stay positive and open, there are opportunities everywhere.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve formalized it, but I would say that the way we answer the phone, How can we make you smile?, <\/em>has become our mission. To make you smile.<\/p>\n Dancing brings joy to people. People come here, make friends, learn to dance, feel a part of something.<\/p>\n Here, I feel I am more in control of our destiny, and I am able to truly help people. I can\u2019t think of a better reason to go to work every day.<\/p>\n Thanks for helping us build a great 10 years! Here\u2019s to 10 more \u2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This month, we celebrate our 10th anniversary! When I bought this franchise and opened Fred Astaire\u2019s first dance studio in Michigan in 2005, I saw this as a good growth opportunity. Dancing with the Stars had just started, and it was just after\u00a0Richard Gere strutted his stuff in Shall We Dance. Little did I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance-info-news-trends"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}