Dear Rhee,

In the summer of 2003, I attended Project Motivate in Boston.  I had a good case of “teacher burn-out” before I arrived.  My personal life was causing a lot of stress, my studio had grown (mixed blessing!) to where I felt like nothing was being done properly but I was just keeping up, and I couldn’t figure out what direction to take to alleviate the burn-out.  I could not take time off to relax and rejuvenate, as my studio is the sole support of our household, and, therefore, open year-round.  Since my husband was unemployed, we decided he could help out by taking over the business management side of the studio and I would devote myself to the management of the teachers, my own classes, and my competition team. BAD MOVE!

After 18 years of running my own business I now had a “boss.”  Mark was so used to being a manager of others that he couldn’t stop himself.  And I couldn’t make him understand that the dance business is not the same as managing employees in a Fortune 500 company.  My business was suffering, and so was our marriage for the first time in 20 years. 

And to top it off, one of my teachers whom I trusted the most as she was a former student of mine, was cutting her hours way back at my studio to accept a dance director position at a community center.

Then I came to Boston. I spent that workshop mostly listening to the other teachers.  I realized what I did not want to be (a teacher who is a push-over NOR a teacher who is pushy).  I found what I wanted to be (a happily married woman, a successful business woman, and a loving, nurturing quality dance teacher). And you know what?  That is what I was in the first place.  I had just lost it.

I called my sister (a bookkeeper who was working as a part time nursery school teacher and hating it) and offered her a job as the accounts receivable/payable/ taxed person.  She quit the nursery school and ACCEPTED.  I told my young teacher that if she stayed with me instead of directing the community center program, I would put her on salary and make her the assistant director.  SHE ACCEPTED and now teaches every day of the week and plans photo day, the recital order, and oversees the costume ordering. (To my delight I also found out she’s very knowledgeable in computer programming!) I also implemented several of your business suggestions and plan to incorporate more this year.

Here we are a year and half later. My sister is great at her job.  Ali, the assistant director, is great at her job. I believe that my husband is on his way to something good for the first time in a long time.

I still feel the pressure of being the sole provider for our household.  I still get nervous because money is very tight and we are still paying off some heavy debt.  Buy we meet our payments, my studio runs smoothly and is successful with 275+ students.  Best of all, my husband and I are back to how we always were…terrific!

Thank you for giving me a forum to learn more about my business with others who are in the same boat.  Thank you for giving me a place to hear my inner voice and maybe do what I could have figured out all on my own, if I hadn’t been so busy running in circles trying to do it all myself.  I hope to be at another of your seminars in the next few years.  I tell all the dance teachers I know to go see Rhee Gold.  God bless you.

Most sincerely,

Doreen R. Freeman, Doreen’s Dance Center, Colchester, CT

P. S.

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