Big news

September 17, 2007

I was changing my shoes when Joe said something about Fridays as a part of the announcements he usually makes at the end of the class. Huh? I thought he said something about classes on Fridays. What does he mean by this?

I asked the guy tending the bar about this announcement. Did he say Friday classes?

He didn’t know. He suggested I go talk to him or Vish.

Vish and Joe were both at the DJ booth at the start of the social. I picked on Vish. Did Joe say something about a Friday class? Did I hear that right?

Yes, Joe will be teaching classes on Fridays starting October 19th. A part of the plan was to do monthly showcases starting October 26th. And yes Johnny and Serap have been told about new teachers taking over for Fridays. Big news.

This is all about money of course. Because of a steep rent increase (300% over couple of months?) near the end of the Spring, Vishal supposedly has not been making any money from Club Salsa. What used to be a profitable Fridays has been less so this summer – possibly more than usual downswing seen in previous summers.

So what do I think of this? I’m not going to bother with personal issues – I am actually more interested in economics here.

I’m guessing that bringing Joe to teach on Fridays probably will result in increased number of people to the class. I’m also guessing that teacher’s fee for Joe will be considerably higher than it was for Johnny and Serap. In fact, it’s difficult to believe that it won’t be more expensive to hire Joe on Fridays than it is on Mondays. So in terms of making money from people taking classes, I don’t think know if the bottom line will change much. How about the social afterwards? Is Joe staying around for a couple of hours at least to social dance or DJ? Would he bring friends (aside from performance nighs)? Joe’s classes are plenty popular on Mondays but the social afterwards is by far the weakest – possibly because Joe and his team (aside from Dani) do not stick around. If they do stick around, how much would it help? I would guess that Johnny and Serap will not be coming to Club Salsa reliably at the start of every Friday socials – assuming they come at all. Here I am considering the possibility of good dancers as magnet for other dancers. Also bear in mind that this in the end works only if Vish makes enough money – whether by having big enough takings at the bar (this means alcohol because no one will drink equivalent worth of water, juice, etc – also this means Friday cannot be a pure Salsa night and probably <70% Salsa) or many people paying higher cover (tough proposition – although perhaps this could be made more palatable by combining high cover with free drink coupons or such – maybe something like £12 for 2 hour class plus 2 free drinks or £8 for party only with 2 free drinks – I have no idea if people will buy into such scheme and such scheme will probably mean increased price for drinks – also this could mean changes for other days of the week). Let’s say that new Fridays is a smashing success – probably meaning slightly better margins than Fridays of last year. It still doesn’t remove the problem of higher rent, which might go up again if the leaseholder decides that Vish could “afford” it. It’s all very complicated. And I haven’t even talked about whether Cambridge can support same teachers twice a week. So there are a lot of questions to be answered. Vishal obviously decided that status quo was not going to work and decided to swing for the fences. If nothing else, I think this demonstrates that nothing lasts. Come next year, Club Salsa might not exist – I don’t think it will work as a business except with right person in charge – someone who cares about Salsa dancing and the dancer community (here I don’t think style (NY, LA, Cuban) matters much) and someone who likes money and knows how to make it. Just in case anyone’s wondering, I have zero interest in running this business – I would not have fun squeezing money from people (as some people who know from the Tony Lara visits or the recent On2 sessions).

As for the social afterwards, it was the weakest one for Mondays I have seen to date in terms of people staying behind. Vishal played some nice songs but I thought they were a bit too highbrow for the occasion. What seemed like perfectly harmless moves became a little harrowing. I even played a role of an instructor – with minimal instruction. I hope I don’t want to be like Sergio – preferring exercises and instructions over dancing, but for a moment or two tonight I thought perhaps I was leaning that way.