Rethinking Time

When I was a child in the early 60s, many of the family sitcoms Father Knows Best, Leave it To Beaver, My Three Sons, drew the prototypical family. Father worked, Mother stayed home except the daytime shopping trip, was home by 6, everyone ate dinner together then sat around the family room, reading, watching TV, or playing family games. Other than a hospital, police station or restaurant, few businesses were open past 5. That all changed around the 70s. Women returning to the workplace encouraged by the Women’s Lib movement, the Vietnam War, and the oil crisis, were thrilled to have the Shopping Malls opening late into the evening. No longer having to wait til Saturday to go shopping, families could still have dinner and then go to a mall, or as food courts evolved, could take the family and eat there. As more and more industries went into 13 hour days, the concept of 9-5 was relegated to banks, post offices, and most governmental places. Stock traders on the West Coast might get up at 2 am to be on top of the Asian Stock Market, food service people might get off work at midnight or beyond and look for the 24 hour diner to eat themselves. Mall workers now working until 9pm rush to restaurants serving til 10. Hospitals, Police, and Fire are round the clock services so three shifts are required. Maintenance and package delivery services work through the night so you can get your packages sooner. Teachers having to be at school for AP classes might arrive at 6:30 am and finish at 4.

As a studio owner, I thought I had to be the one to open up and lock up at the end of the day. When I bought my building and installed a studio, restaurant and nightclub, the passion for my business had me there till 4 am (or later) 2 days a week and til midnight four more. Only on Sunday did I have an “early” night closing at 10. I did that for 9 years. It was during the lean 2007-2008-2009 years that I understood creating multiple revenue streams fully.

Assuming you have no local laws preventing you from operating beyond 9 pm or opening before 9 am, this could be a good opportunity to collaborate with other businesses. But first we have to change your 9-9 thinking.

You are paying rent on X number of square feet. Would you consider cutting the room in half and only using half the floor? Of course not. My mentor told me, you are never really rich until you are making money WHILE you sleep. Your building is your biggest asset. Let your building work for you 24/7 or at least as many hours as it can.

I am admittedly a night person. But who in life gets off work and goes to bed straight away? So if needed to do paperwork, or tidy up, instead of finishing a class and kicking everybody out, I would turn down the lights pick an appropriate playlist and let the students who had taken class practice. Others not taking class could join for $5. Say 10 people show up 3 times a week. That was an extra $500 a month. It was like I was being PAID to do my paperwork- I was going to be there anyway. Just did it a a different TIME. So instead of rising at 7 am I might wake up at around 10 am, have a nice morning, workout and head in by 1PM. There are many other benefits to this that I teach in my consulting but I think it’s something to consider.

My local Bikram Yoga studio had sunrise classes. My kids had Mommy (or Daddy) and Me classes around 10 am. Filling a daytime hour is like the old saying “Trash always expands to fit the container.”  Create a mid day class and people will show up. I offered daytime classes in  my school 7 days a week.

Let’s blow that up a bit. I am a healthcare worker who’s finished their 11pm-7am shift. Some might go home and crash, others might eat their third meal of the day, then want to go out and do something shop, nail salon, DANCE?, then be in bed by 2 pm. Sounds abnormal to many of you but I ran the midnight watch for PanAm terminal security at LAX. That was my typical schedule, except I squeezed in classes instead of shopping.  I am now in Florida. Snowbird Central (aka God’s Waiting Room) So many seniors who because of vision and fearfulness won’t go out after dark. Might they take a morning class? They’re playing tennis and golf at 6 am because of the heat, I’m pretty sure they will attend anything fun.

If you are running a floor rent type studio consider this. There was a studio across the street from my club. Twice a day, 12:30-3, and 9pm-11:30pm they turned off the house lights and had Tea Dances of over 100 people for each session. 7 DAYS A WEEK! $3 for the day session, $5 for the evening session. Do the math… Was it an inconvenience to the teachers? Possibly. Being that the room was 100×100 there were two side floors that we COULD teach on. Though dark and noisy, many teachers would teach, but most just had a nice lunch, maybe some shopping then back to work. Some practiced before the break, then cleaned up and returned to teach.

Since we closed at 4 AM on Saturday nights, there weren’t many people willing to teach or take classes on Sunday morning. So we rented out to a new church group and at 2 pm we started our Ballroom classes before our Sunday Ballroom dance with orchestra. One studio owner told me that the Church’s monthly check on the First, pays his rent for the rest of the month, before he opens his door.

How many parents are paying lots for after school childcare? Hiring a licensed teacher who wants to make some extra cash, you can offer classes for kids, supervise their homework and parents pick them up at 5. Parents will pay as much for kids classes as they will for adults. And you are training the next generation of competitors. When kids perform, many have two sets of parents who will all come and pay to see little Johnny or Judy perform.

Am I advocating running an all night club? Depends on you locality. But the customers are there, it’s your choice if you want their cash. Should the primary loyalty be to the private lesson teachers or to the studio first?