Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Hudson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tiffany. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I began dancing when I was three years old. The classic dancer story. Ballet and tap with a cute little tutu. I ended up loving it and dance for the duration of my childhood including going to the Academy of Performing Arts High School. I loved to dance, it was my passion, my strength, my stress relief, and my happy place. I began dancing with a professional company when I was still in high school called Tribal Soul.
My parents always supported my dance life and loved it, but it was also very clear that I would go to college and that dance was a hobby. I went to Loyola Marymount University in LA as a communication studies major with a dance performance minor. I also danced on the hip hop team my freshman year, but after doing the bulk of the choreography, along with a few of my dance friends, we decided to create our own team.
I remember my dance friend Marjani Forte, who is now a very well known dancer/choreographer in NYC, saying we needed to get credit for we were doing. So we created Kumba Beatz as a branch of the black student union. The team became super popular and is still on the campus of LMU 14 years later with a wide array of dancers. During college, I would audition for dance jobs, worked a few dance jobs and began teaching at a local studio in the area.
I loved teaching dance, and I continued to teach dance when I graduated and got a full-time marketing job. I was teaching in LA and Orange County at night after working full-time in Century City. But it was only ever because I loved it not because it was going to be my job. I thought I was going to be a lawyer and I would just fund a dance studio on the side because I loved it. So I prepared for the LSAT and got into law school.
I started the summer program at Loyola Law school and quickly realized it was not for me, which was devastating. I didn’t know what to do. Law school, as odd as it sounds, was easy. Not the work but pathway, go to college, go to law school become a lawyer.
Now what I had to do a whole lot of soul searching, and the only thing I knew I loved and that was consistent in my life was dance, but I had never considered it as a career. It just dawned on me, why can’t I just do the studio now. So I begged my marketing job to take me back because I needed to get my ducks in a row to make the leap.
So I made a 5-year plan:
-Stay at the marketing job for one year & continue teaching
-Apply for MBA school (so in case the studio fails and I”m 30 I have a grad degree)
-Go to MBA school
-Quit the marketing job
-Teach full time to gain clientele
-Find the space
-JUMP
And thats exactly what I did. Even while getting pregnant with my son (my first child). I had my son two months before my grad school graduation in 2011. Then I signed the lease of my studio July of 2012 and opened January 2013. I do have to say my parents were a huge help they loaned my 75k to open the business. My mom also signed on the lease to open because I was a new business with no credit history. Now my mom’s name is off the lease, and it’s going great.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I would say my road has been relatively smooth, in terms of entrepreneurship, because it is known to be so tough. My business was breaking even (not paying me) at the end of year one which is almost unheard of. But please do not misunderstand it was definitely hard very hard at some points. I cried several times in the first few years and felt completely overwhelmed.
I separated with my kid’s father. I had to live at my parent’s house because I wasn’t making enough money to live alone. While all of my friends who went to undergrad and grad school with me were flourishing. Traveling, buying houses living life. I was broke. It’s hard to explain because the business was doing well. Steadily growing but still not netting me anything close to a livable wage.
It’s hard to work all day long, at night and weekends and not be able to move out of your parent’s house. I was doing all this work, teaching a million classes and yet I had to pay the studio expenses and other teachers, and I essentially worked for free for a year. The second year I made maybe 1000 a month again not a livable wage. I didn’t start profiting until year four.
Another struggle is dealing with the landlord of my studio. We had plumbing issues in my space for years. And I constantly had to battle with the landlord to take care of it. It’s hard because I wanted to teach dance and run my business and instead, I’m battling a landlord over a plumbing issue so my clients can have a suitable bathroom.
Oh, and did I mean my son was born with sickle cell, and then my daughter was not. So in 2015 after we found out my daughter was a bone marrow match for my son, the Dr. recommended a transplant. Which was a huge blessing but meant a hospital stay of two months. TWO MONTHS away from the business, well not really away because I had my laptop with me, but I was out of the studio and relied completely on loyalty of my clientele and teachers. j
Lastly, the one man shop thing is real and hard. As a small business, I am the teacher, the manager, the accountant, the marketer, the cleaner, human resources, etc. It’s a lot. As I’ve grown, I’ve taken on people to teach and clean, but the majority of everything else is still all on me. And when competing against other big studios who have been in it for 20 years, it’s hard.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Hudson Dance Academy story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a full-service dance academy. We train dancers from age 2.5- adult in the art of Jazz, Ballet, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Tap and tumbling. We offer both a recreational pathway and a professional pathway. We have competitive teams, who a very successful and win at competitions all over southern ca.
We pride ourselves on making every dancer priority not just the naturally gifted ones. We give each dancer at our studio the time and attention they need to succeed. We offer small class sizes and caring thoughtful teachers who are experts in their field.
I am most proud of how successful our dancers are and how nice they are. It is hard to keep your dancers nice and humble in a competitive environment, but we have managed to do so. Our teachers are great and help me to keep a productive and caring culture.
What sets up apart is our class sizes, our attention to all students and our ability to make each dancer good. We really emphasize a family-oriented culture that doesn’t tolerate any kind of back negative talk about other dancers.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I wholeheartedly believe that God (luck) has played an enormous part in this. I don’t think I’m some amazing person that made this happen. I believe its what God wanted me to do because he continues to open doors and make connections for me.
It’s crazy to me that I have in six years been able to make enough money to buy my own house for me and my kids in Huntington Beach, CA doing what I absolutely love. And unlike most artists, I actually enjoy the business/financial side of the business. It is 100%, God.
Contact Info:
- Address: 18120 Brookhurst St. #61
- Website: www.hudson-dance.com
- Phone: 714-323-3487
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @hudsondanceacademy5678
- Facebook: hudsondanceacademy
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