We were lucky to catch up with Melinda Jacques recently and have shared our conversation below.
Melinda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
I think that overall, yes, I’m extremely happy as a business owner, but I believe it is because of the type of business I run. My dance school allows me to love and inspire the next generation and that is what is important to me, which makes all of the hardships I’ve walked through worth it. There was a point in my career when I was going through an extremely difficult year. It felt like I was just taking punch after punch from every direction. At one point, it was so tumultuous, I had second thoughts about running a business. Sure, I have always loved teaching dance, putting on quality shows, choreographing; along with the business side of things: the marketing, spreadsheets, schedules, and leading a small but mighty team. But even so, being a business owner can be lonely, difficult, and sometimes it’s hard to see the big picture. At the end of the day, I remind myself of why I became a business owner, which was to carry on my mentor’s legacy, and to inspire and care for the next generation of dancers. The kids that I work with are everything to me and that outweighs all the hard parts of business ownership. Ultimately, it’s more rewarding to make it to the other side of something difficult, with lessons learned , than to give up in the middle. I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been and because of that, I can be an even better teacher to my dancers and a better leader to my staff.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I run En Pointe School of Dance, a dance school in Lilburn, GA, offering classes for ages 3 and up. We offer classes in Ballet, Acrobatics, Tap, Jazz, Modern, and Hip Hop. I’m really proud of the atmosphere and culture I’ve created at En Pointe. Following in my mentor, Kathy Thomas’ foot steps, my staff and I strive to love first and foremost when it comes to teaching. Kathy originally founded En Pointe in 1987 and prided herself on giving a balanced focus to the whole dancer, body, mind, and soul, not just their dance technique. I am proud to carry that on in how I run the school today. We train some wonderfully talented dancers who go on to become professional performers, teachers, continue to higher education in the arts, and more. We also train many dancers who go on to have careers outside of the dance and performance field. I believe that their dance training and lessons they learn from us, such as discipline and work-ethic, go a long way and help them to follow their dreams in life, whatever that may be, and find success.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
My first two years as a business owner were pretty difficult. When I took over En Pointe in 2021, things were a mess, financially and physically. We renovated the studio completely. My husband and many friends and family members graciously assisted with that. Slowly, I worked on rebuilding En Pointe’s customer base, but I’ve learned since then that increasing revenue doesn’t necessarily solve all your problems. We’ve had several “close calls” including, working all day and night for 30 hours straight to get the big renovation done before the grand reopening in 2021; there’s been a couple times I have had to go without paying myself to be able to pay the staff and bills; I’ve messed up a number on a spreadsheet by one digit and completely screwed up my payroll budget; my entire first year as a business owner, I worked a second job so that I could make ends meet myself while keeping En Pointe a float. There’ve been so many ups and downs, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter what I’ve had to face on the road of business ownership, I’ve been able to get past it. And every “close call” can be lesson learned to do better next time.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I won’t go into too much detail on this, but I will say that I have learned the hard way that I’m more resilient than I ever imagined possible for one person. During the tumultuous year that I mentioned earlier, my reputation was slandered by someone I had trusted too quickly and unfortunately, there were people who believed the lies. I lost customers. Not only that, but I lost people that I thought were my friends and people who I thought genuinely wanted the best for the dance school and for the dancers. It was by far, the darkest point in my life and caused me to question why I was even a business owner in the first place. I’m grateful to be on the other side of it, to have learned how to stand up for myself and for my business, and to know that I have resilience and faith that will carry me through anything. God was my strength through all of it and continues to be my strength now. But to put it in short, if I wasn’t resilient, I probably wouldn’t be a business owner anymore. To run a successful business, you constantly have to be able to bounce back, pivot, learn new lessons, and grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: enpointeschoolofdance.com
- Instagram: @en_pointe_school_of_dance
- Facebook: @FollowEnPointe
Image Credits
Cody Jacques