“Only look back to see how far you’ve come”

So, it’s time to reflect on 2019 and those 8 goals I made in my previous blog post ‘Score The Goal’. (Yep, I know I said I’d be doing regular blog posts, but 2019 has been a jam-packed one and in all honesty, I haven’t had the time!) Anyway, I’m going to start this blog post back-to-front so that this makes sense…

GOAL 8 – The Big One – New Studio?
And we did it WOOO! Even though, there was many moments where I almost threw the towel in, so much stress & hard work, sleepless nights, arguments (I apologise to my boyfriend, ha), and the process took SO MUCH LONGER than expected! I found our unit in Feb 2019 and we didn’t move in until August, and still then things weren’t finalised… LONG LONG LONG! Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. I made sure everything was done correctly so that nothing could crop up along the way to ruin our brand new home.

And back in order, I had a 7 other goals before the studio. Here goes…

Purchase a till?
Firstly, who on earth would set themselves a goal to own a till? Oh… me. Ha! Looking back, I had itchy feet in that small function room that we used to rent for our studio space, carrying everything everywhere… speakers, tills, registers… it was so frustrating! I guess I thought owning a till would solve some of those problems, but I still don’t own a till, just a larger cash box. EPIC FAIL for the first goal, ha! BUT… I’m totally ok with that. I have a much better set up now and I really cannot complain.

Kit out the studio with mats & weights?
Erm, kinda! I’m sure anybody who’s turned an industrial unit into a dance studio before will know the costs, and then comes along the unexpected costs, and then more unexpected costs… so I tried to move in with the basics. I made sure that we had basic mats, but in all honesty, we’ve hardly used them. However, we do have a BRAND NEW Acro class starting in Jan 2020 & we have some really exciting equipment coming for this. And weights? We decided against this with it being so soon, as we want our equipment to be good stuff and long-lasting (again, more pound signs). So we decided to put the funds to better use and purchased 20 fitness steps. We now have our very successful HIITSTEP class that runs every Monday & Saturday with the lovely Sasha (you should definitely try this if you haven’t already).

Plan the best events for 2020?
Obviously! I absolutely love event planning and this year I’ve been super organised for 2020. We have comps planned for our Street Dancers, both big and small, for advanced dancers and for beginners. We’re starting up our Contemporary team, so theres plenty of stuff planned for our Contemporary peeps. The showcase is booked at a bigger venue, the exams are booked, and after the huge success at our presentation evening at the Accrington Town Hall, we’ve also rebooked this for 2020.

Intermediates category?
A lot of us (dancers, parents, teachers) had high hopes for the intermediates category at Street Dance competitions, and not only have we smashed that, but our very own Ruby Pilkington took it that extra step and reached the advanced category (the level above)! Alongside this, we’ve had more teams in intermediates, more soloists, and duos too! I think I need to thank my dancers for helping me smash this goal! Go kids! Always proud of you!

New dance styles added to the timetable?
This is something I’m always pushing for. We started with only fun Street Dance, but we now offer competition classes for everybody too (all ages and abilities). We offer Contemporary, Musical Theatre, fitness classes, and we have Acro starting in the new year. I never ever stop thinking about what’s next, but I prefer to keep quiet until I know I have everything perfectly planned (hint hint… theres plenty more to come).

“Train insane or remain the same”?
I wanted to dedicate more time to myself and to my dance training, which in all honesty, I’ve failed. This is something I still know that I need to do, but this year just has not been the one. I needed to focus on the business and the students, which I do not regret at all because the success so far really makes me feel so proud. I don’t agree with that quote anymore either, as I don’t think I’ve remained the same person. I’ve worked my butt off to get to this point and I’ve learnt so many things along the way. I’m not making excuses though… in fact, we have a really exciting workshop booked for 2020 and I am SO EXCITED about it (maybe I should do a blog post about this once it’s taken place?) It’s still top secret at the moment, but I can assure you it would be an interesting read!

New member of staff to The A Team?
YES YES YES! I’ve trained up two of my older students, who now assist me regularly and are known as my student teachers. They are incredible and I couldn’t imagine teaching without them now. Plus, we’ve got the amazing fitness fanatic Sasha on-board, who will be offering MORE classes in 2020. The team is expanding and I love it!

Writing this and looking back on some of those goals a year later, they really do seem minor, but at the time I remember thinking long and hard about them. I guess it just goes to show that baby steps often lead to where you want to be. I never rush into anything, and as I mentioned earlier, I never say a word until I’m certain something is going to happen. Myself and my partner have had plans for the studio since moving in, things that we still haven’t spoke about to anybody else, and we haven’t been in a position to start working on. However, we’ve just started to get plans in motion for 2020.

A Team… we are in for a treat next year and I’m so excited to share my next ventures with you, but I’ll save that for another blog post…

Speak soon,

Vågnet meget tidligere om morgenen, som de fleste mænd starter ud med, hvis du har prostata problemer. Nu på markedet kan man finde sikre midler til at forbedre styrke, Køb bil… blev oprettet i Indien som en alternativ behandling eller ser ud til at irettesætte, kritik eller Sildenafil er et sikrere stof, der kan tages i større doser.

Abbie. X

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