We were lucky to catch up with Devan Hayes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Devan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

The idea of starting a dance program flashed right before the pandemic so the original dates were pushed back but during that time I continued to work at various studios, teaching virtual classes and I also worked full time. Once the pandemic seemed manageable and in-person classes resumed, I felt it was time to start my search for a space once again. I was invited to a private dance class and the studio space had availability!

I created a schedule, rented out space, and had about 6 dancers registered for weekly classes and a few adults popping in and out of adult classes. The program started with 1 evening slot a week and 1 Saturday morning slot. We hosted our first Showcase with 6 dancers, 4 local artists, and 1 local dance company along with myself. We had about 30 in attendance and it was held outside in the parking lot of the studio. My partner built a small stage for our dancers and we used an inflatable monitor as our backdrop.

We proceeded right into Summer classes, which were somewhat inconsistent due to pandemic, vacations, and everyone catching up on life! During the Summer, I returned to the location I checked out before the pandemic and it was available! The build out process began and we relocated and started classes September 2021. That season since we were new and relocated, we only had 4 dancers registered for weekly classes and 3 performed due to 1 being ill.

With a little bit of time and a lot of effort, when we returned for our Spring 2022 season, we had a few more new additions to our weekly classes and ended up having 15 dancers and 1 local dance company perform in our Spring 2022 Showcase.

Summers continue to be inconsistent as we grow and build our presence but our Fall / Winter Recital had 26 performers and we are currently enrolling for our Winter / Spring session and preparing for our first ever stage recital!

I have a business partner who helped get operations off the ground and assists with studio maintenance, installation of floors, and works the technical side of our productions! We installed our flooring ourselves and continue to make renovations as we grow! We now also have an additional instructor and a studio administrator which have made things way more manageable! They have been great additions to the team and I look forward to our studio and community growing and thriving further in the Cleveland Dance community!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I cannot recall my first experience with dance or what made me want to pursue dancing, but one summer my mom put me in ballet classes, which I actually thought were boring. I got a second chance during the school year and got to try out Jazz dance class and it was more fast paced and I got to leap, kick, and be a whole character. My first year in dance was also our first big family vacation so I did not get to participate in my first recital but I ended up sticking with dance and got to be in many recitals, finishing with a 5-year and 10-year award!

After high school, I started school at UNC Charlotte in pursuit of a career in Nursing or Physical Therapy before taking a Liberal Arts Dance course along with other dance technique classes that opened my eyes to the various career opportunities in dance. I returned to Ohio to attend Kent State University where I declared my major in Dance.

My time at Kent State was a whirlwind! From traveling to literally flying in aerial performances, I had the privilege to work with many artists and companies and dancers during that time!

After graduation, I became a Cleveland Cavalier Girl, got certified in Pure Barre Fitness, and gained experience teaching at various studios in the Northeast Ohio area!

Out of all the performances, games, and stages I am so proud of my dancers who conquered their fears and performed in their first dance recital! Each dancer is so important to me and I love being able to develop, guide, and show them the way. I aim to be the person I needed when I was young and I love getting to shape and mold the next generation of dancers!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Our clients are our dancers and their families! Once a family registers, whether for a trial or to officially enroll, we invite them to a group management app called BAND. Through this app, we post studio updates, sign ups, performance opportunities, and families can chat amongst each other! It has really helped us get quick communication out especially when we are fundraising or prepping for performances.

We offer referral discounts, social media and review discounts that apply directly to tuition along with Birthday credits! To cover the cost of performance fees we organize various fundraisers that have covered dancer fees and tuition, keeping costs affordable!

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My business partner and I met working together 2-3 years ago. We were required to tour University Circle so we knew the in’s and out’s of the area for our clients. As we walked through, my business partner asked me questions about my career goals and future plans. As I let him know all of my qualifications, experiences, and I had received my degree in Dance. His initial question was, “well, why aren’t you doing all of that now?”

That initial conversation made me also wonder, why? It was a kickstart for me because I would have waited forever for everything to be just right or waited for the capital, loans, etc. before actually taking action. My partner had interest in hosting community events and programs to help mentor and develop young men. Since we had mutual interests and overall goals to help out the community, increasing knowledge, and self-sufficiency in the young men and women in our surrounding area.

After we had the first conversation, we went over the business plan I was developing and started scouting locations and creating budgets. While still working, he would find locations since he was more familiar with the area and we would go around, get pricing, and continued until we found the first space.

As I spoke before, the pandemic started so we had to put a halt on things before finally finding our current location. We installed over 2,000 sqft of flooring on our own and hustled to fill the space with furniture for events while building up the dance program.

We work as a team and understand where we work best in order to provide the best experience for our clientele!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brownsugardanceacademy.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/bsdadance216
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bsdadance216
• Twitter: twitter.com/bsdadance216
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsE7cVdjIlvJuDdtLtPGwoQ
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bsdadance216