Courtney Joy

MKTG 1960-011

Mentor Interview

            I interviewed Leslie Mulford-Reiser. She owns a dance studio called Elite Academy where I have worked for 4 years now. There are a lot of things I have learned from Leslie, things that I plan on taking with me to my business and things that I would not want to use in my studio.

Leslie has danced since she was 2 years old an taught dance for 10+ years before owning a studio. She was teaching dance and cheering with the U while she was attending school at the University of Utah. She was also the cheer coach at The U after she finished. Owning a studio entails a lot of hard work, you need to deal with parents, texts and emails daily. You need to collect payments each month, you need to find costumes, teachers, songs for company dances. You need to find a good facility to accommodate your new studio. You need to find a way to use the studio during the day to make money. Find competitions and conventions for your companys to go to, decide wheather your going to be a technique based studio or a performance based studio.  There is a lot with a dance studio, a lot of hard work and dedication goes into this job! It takes someone who really loves dance and the dance world to go through the things needed to have a studio.

I wanted to ask Leslie if she could do it all over again would she have a studio? She said no. I said if you could start over what would you do different? She said she couldn’t think of anything. I asked what do you like most about this career? She said watching all the kids progress and get better with age. I asked what do you dislike most about this job? She said dealing with crazy parents.

I really enjoyed this assignment because it showed me how much really needs to be done for a dance studio. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication! I am so ready to start my business but would like to finish school before I start a crazy, fun business.