Supportive and Fun Experience - Squamish Dance Centre
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sara Constantin, owner, and director of Squamish Dance Centre, located in Squamish, BC, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Squamish Dance Centre is an inclusive dance school where humans of all ages and abilities express, connect, and learn in a supportive, joyful, and caring space. We prioritize making everyone feel positive about themselves. We thrive in their everyday life with the benefits dance provides emotionally, physically, socially, and cognitively.
We offer a wide range of classes and performance opportunities for babies to adults, beginners to advanced, something for everyone! We believe that dance should be accessible to anyone and everyone, and we create our programming with that belief at the forefront.
Tell us about yourself
I started dancing when I was three years old, and it quickly became my primary outlet where I could be unapologetically myself during those tough school years and all the curve balls life threw into my family. It was the one constant safe haven for me and so many of my dance friends. My dance teachers, Debbie Vidas and Jane Runnals, were such a gift. They provided me the opportunity to start teaching at sixteen years old. From there, with my natural love of working with children, my dance teacher passion was fired up, and I never looked back. When my childhood dance home closed unexpectedly in December 2015, I closed my eyes tight, held my breath, and dove headfirst with the opening of Squamish Dance Centre.
Within three weeks of my childhood studio closing, SDC found a dance home, had 86 students registered, and we were holding our first week of classes. The amount of community, lessons, success, connections, and love that has transpired since then is unmeasurable! Here we are now, six years later, still dancing, connecting, and growing.
My dance kids fuel my fire. They are the reason I stay focused on my vision and values, as well as my motivation to improve SDC's programming forever. I'm not here to just teach dance; I'm here to impact lives positively.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Learning from my failures instead of allowing my failures to define me. I've made some really big and a million small mistakes throughout my journey leading Squamish Dance Centre. And I continue to make mistakes every day. There have been so many times that I could have allowed my failures to sink the ship, but I've stayed focused on growing from the tough lessons and improving my leadership skills so I can be a better teacher, business owner, and human.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Finding balance. I'm sure I speak for the majority of business owners on this one!! I am so incredibly passionate about my work that I can easily become consumed by it. I am doing better at stepping away from the business to fuel other areas of my life and recharge, but there are still moments I find myself eating, sleeping, and breathing Squamish Dance Centre.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Trust and honour your intuition.
- Lead by example.
- Make time for self-care every single day.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.squamishdancecentre.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/squamishdancecentre
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squamishdancecentre.inc/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.