We were lucky to catch up with Anna Harwood recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I’ve always been a business owner in a way. I started teaching dance when I was 17, so I’ve never had a typical job. I went to college, but my love of dance continued, and upon graduating, I started teaching ballroom dance and competing around the Country. I always worked for myself teaching dance so didn’t have the normal structure of a regular job with a boss. Transitioning to owning a music entertainment company wasn’t a difficult transition after that since I was already used to finding clients, marketing, traveling, etc… the only major change was having more people that worked for me versus being a one man operation.

I think in general I’m happier as a business owner mainly because of the perceived feeling of freedom you have. You actually end up often working a lot more than you would at a “regular” job, but there’s also more flexibility than when you’re working daily for the same company. You also make most of the decisions, so if you’re the type of person who likes to be a bit more in control of your destiny and what you’re doing each day, it works well.

There are definitely times when you have to remind yourself to slow down, take a day off, and not do everything yourself though, and there are times I think it would be nice to have health insurance and a retirement plan, paid vacations, and the ability to stop at a certain time each day. Owning your own business can make you less balanced because you’ll do anything to make things work even if it means sacrificing your time, energy, health, or finances.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I own an entertainment company called The 12 South Band that specializes in high-energy Dance bands that perform for all types of private events throughout the Country. I got into the business after completing a competitive career as a ballroom dancer. I wanted to transition into something else, and my fiance was in music and was wanting to start a band. I had majored in Music Business in college, so it was a good fit to combine my love of the Arts with my business degree all while helping him launch his passion. We felt like my experience with dancing could add an element to our bands that other bands weren’t doing as much of at the time, so we created a show based around music with dance heavily incorporated into the show. It’s really grown over time, and now dancing and entertainment is just about as important as musical ability when we look for new people to join the company. I think really the energy that the combo of music and dance brings to Events along with the non-stop nature of the show plus our attention to detail is what has helped us grow from our first year only doing about 10 events to now doing 100 events or more a year. We branched out slowly from one small band to now having multiple configurations to choose from. We’ve had the chance to perform in over half the States in the Country as well as overseas and do everything from 50 person to 10000 person events. It’s different every day, and it keep us on our toes; I get to use my business experience along with creativity, so there’s never a dull moment!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Like most people, I didn’t know much about social media when I started using it, and being someone who didn’t grow up with a cell phone or social media, I had a lot of resistance to it at first. Over time though, I’ve recognized that it’s an amazing tool to share content, gain new clients, and give your business credibility it might not otherwise have. Plus, it’s mostly free! The amount of marketing you can do in today’s World with little to no money is truly incredible and is something people in the past didn’t have access to. You can build massive brand recognition by just investing a bit of time. My biggest advice would be to get on all the outlets you can, post as much as you can, and think about quality. Try to think about what you look at when scrolling through sites and what kinds of posts draw your attention. Envision a client coming to your page and what would help set you apart as they compare you to others. High quality photos and videos are always best, but I’ll still post iphone footage rather than posting nothing.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

There’s two, the internet and word of mouth. You really can’t put a price on word of mouth, because that one takes you no time or money; the key is delivering the absolute best product you can every time, and people will share their experiences with others. The hard thing about word of mouth is there’s no replacing time. When you’re first starting out, you may not be pulling work from references for quite some time, so that’s where the internet comes in. Having a good website is key here; people browse through so much material daily, that the importance of a good website really can’t be emphasized enough. If you’re in a business that needs photos or videos, I would advise to spend the money on good quality content in the beginning so that you look impressive to those who are searching through businesses online. Also as I mentioned in a previous question, get on every social media site you can and build it as quickly as you can. The key in the beginning is to draw in new clients through your branding and online content until you can build up your referral work. You want to look impressive out of the gate especially if you don’t have any testimonials or word of mouth work yet.
I also would recommend looking into paid advertising as well if just starting out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.12southband.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/12southband
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/12southband
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-harwood-959b8b15a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ0MoQgacqorN29gF8c7sRw

Image Credits
Casey Moore Photography