6 ways to help your local during a pandemic
We’ve been tickled PINK to hear how many of you’ve wanted to give us a koha…
…for the free online classes we’ve been running during Wellington’s Alert Level 4 and Alert Level 3. While we’re not accepting donations, here are some ways you can help us help you!
What we want is to be positioned to come out the other side of every future lockdown with our trainers on and our music up – ready to deliver those cheesy moves and good vibes directly to every soul that needs it.
This is how you can help:
1. Buy our merch!
At Shut Up & Dance HQ, we’ve got limited edition silver tees (only 2 x large, 2 x extra large left!) and adorable baby onesies, made with rain-fed cotton and a good old fashioned poo-pun on the front. The perfect gift that says “look what you’ve got to look forward to!” 💩 We’ve got charcoal grey crop-hoodies and our fave – the black premium crew. It’s super cosy. There’s stainless-steel, BPA-free, double-walled water bottles (only 2 x left!) to replace all that sparkly sweat you loose during your online sweat sessions at home, gift vouchers and more.
To get your goodies, head to our app (iOS / Android) – they’ll be with you in no time. For a blissful moment, you’ll forget you’re in lockdown at all.
2. Buy a casual pass
Head to our memberships and pricing and purchase a One Night Stand – our $20 casual pass. Whether you redeem the pass or not… Is up to you!
3. Convince your wellness team to book us for a corporate class
If you’ve found our Instagram Live classes have done something good for your brain 🧠and soul ✨ – forward our corporate bookings info to your cousin (you know, the one with the stressful job) or to the wellness team at your work. You can have 15, 30 or 45 minute Shut Up & Dance sessions in your office – a hilarious tonic to the tense atmosphere of that boardroom!
It might be something you’d like to do with your team virtually, as we can do live-streamed ones too if you and your colleagues are still working from home. Boom!
4. Leave us a good review
This one is totally free and really helps! When sharing a review, be specific, be intentional, be personal – but most of all be honest! If you can put aside 120 seconds to craft your personal 10-cents on Facebook or even just over email – no doubt you’ll share something meaningful that will not only improve the credibility of that business, but empower other people browsing (or stalking from afar) to make an informed choice for themselves too.
5. When we're back at Level 2, attend one of our new locations…
Did you know we’re in Newtown? Wednesdays at the Polish Hall on Riddiford Street at 6.30pm – it’s a stunning venue too. We have classes in Eastbourne at the Muritai Yacht Club – a boogie with a view!
Even though we are stoked when we get to return to level 2, it’s not easy as we need to reduce the class capacity at all locations. However – if your favourite location is jam packed, maybe check out the next suburb along. If you can spare another 10 minutes to drive to a newer venue round the corner, you might guarantee your spot, enjoy the change, get to know a new instructor or… learn a routine you’ve never done before! And you’ll seriously do us a solid.
6. Do one, all, or NONE of the above! 😌
Whether you take action on one of the ideas above, come up with your own ways to support your favourite companies at uncertain times like this, or do nothing and focus on YOURSELF at this time – do whatever gives you the warm fuzzies.
Spread those good vibes – lets make that contagious✌️
Why this is important, and how you can help others:
The biggest challenge for businesses during lockdowns
We don’t need to patronize anyone here by saying the first one is not having revenue. And of course it’s not specific to one industry – everyone gets hit hard, but especially service industries that rely on bookings, appointments and other attendance-based interaction.
Apart from all those other challenges business owners experience, such as forcing extroverts to hibernate, the fears around job stability and miraculously getting to 5:30pm without having ripped your hair out after home-schooling your children while still managing to deliver the same amount of work your boss expects of you despite less certainty around daily tasks and more distractions while having to clean those extra dishes and of course dust your new office which is actually just a couch with more crumbs on it than there normally is – the other significant complication is how long it takes for businesses to get back to ‘normal’.
Because here’s the tricky thing – when we return to Alert Level 2, our classes have reduced class capacities. With increased social distancing, and increased cancellations due to our sniffle-radars on high-alert (PS: thank ya’ll for protecting yourself and others), we have less space in our classes, with less certainty of those individuals showing up, AND an influx of people who are desperate for an in-real-life workout, who struggle to secure a spot because class sizes are smaller! Gah!
Because we’re in the business of selling our time and energy, we can’t exactly make up for last week with the next either… Plus, when things like the weather, your mood, or just generally how your day went plays a part in determining whether you’ll book or attend a class, or head out for date night, it’s service-based business that are usually the first to be deprioritized. And to be honest, we’re pretty used to understanding and planning for those fluctuating trends and patterns – most service-based business have to be! It’s just it gets extra tricky when the usual uncertainty becomes unusual and extra uncertain… 🤣
So if you’re one of those people who’ve been enjoying your favourite yoga classes for free and have been asking for their bank account number to give a koha, find out how you can support them in other ways – they might not even require your cash!
Just sell your dance classes online – please, I’ll pay!
Seems logical, right? Oh how we would love to film our classes and sell them to you! Unfortunately, we can only afford to pay for Britney’s beautiful voice when the in-person class is occurring at one of our listed venues – we’re talking a whole ‘nother tax bracket (or three) if we want a sync licence (which enables us to make money off Britney’s voice and ours combined).
So! While we figure out the intricacies of royalty-free music and a video-hosting platform that does everything we want it to do, we’ve collected a bunch of things you can easily do to support us at this time. Plus, you can totally support all you other favourite companies this way – we know they’ll appreciate it!
97% of all firms in New Zealand employ 20 workers or less.
When we know that over half a million businesses in New Zealand are small-medium enterprises and that they account for 29% of Aotearoa’s workforce (!) your support can make a massive difference in regards to the continuation of an organisation, their employees contracts and the New Zealand economy. People talk about the ‘Local Premium’ – it’s legit and it’s powerful and makes our economy the boom-ting. Phwoar. Lotta responsibility right there huh? But whether you donate with your wallet or 60 seconds of your time doesn’t matter – we’ll just do what we can! So lez go!
1. Write a review or a testimonial – give them those sweet, sweet nothings 💌
Help increase your fave companies’ credibility with your very own stamp of approval. Whether it’s a public review on Facebook or – if you’re not the best with ye olde written word – flick a video testimonial to their email or into their DMs! Your endorsement can be used for their own promotional material, to improve their website or to assure someone else that this is biz is the bee’s knees. Plus, you’ll make the owners feel all warm and fuzzy inside, which makes you feel good too.
Think about how often you check out the reviews for a product before you buy it, and also specifically what you’re looking for when you scan through them. Chances are, the reviews that say “good hairbrush 3 stars” don’t help you out much. Maybe what you’re looking for is a review that says “gets the tangles out, also great shape for karaoke.” Hot tip: Bo Burnham’s Netflix Special with subtitles turned on (and your hairbrush) makes for a highly entertaining at-home karaoke.
2. Buy those physical goodies 📫
If you usually get your hair done each season, then your winter appointment has probably been postponed, and like we said before – there’s only so many hours in the day. It’s not possible to “make up for August” by doubling appointments in September… So treat yourself and support your local powder room. Buy the nice-smelling shampoo they stock, or that hairbrush that’s the perfect shape for your curly hair (and karaoke).
3. Just enjoy the free classes! 🕺
It wouldn’t be the first time for us to admit our love-hate relationship with social media. We’re 80s/90s babies, so when Instagram has a new update or Facebook changes their layout, there are actual swear words that come out of our mouths. We throw our phone across the room and then look like this 🤯 when we realise that despite flinging it straight onto the edge of that stainless steel dog bowl, the screen still hasn’t shattered? 🤔
For real though – a like, a double tap, a share, a follow, a watch, a comment… As long as the businesses, products and people you follow and actively engage with online are the businesses, products and people you want to follow, the more of them you’ll get, and the more relevant our content becomes for more, new people! Yes it can feel a bit creepy, but it’s also about using social media in a way to benefit yourself. If you enjoy our #dance #fitness #classes #that #take #the #piss you’ll hopefully get more fun content your way that’s all about #taking #the #piss #too 😚
4. Tell a mate and spread-that-good-word-kind-sir 🙊
At your next zoom-wine, mention the fun you had during your instagram live class to your bestie. Letting people who might not know about your favourite business actually know about us? It’s gold! We do hens dos, kids classes, flashmobs and at the end of this year we’re planning sessions for couples 💍 Just sayin’ 😍
5. Drop your dollars 💸
Our fave local cafe Local Authority has been selling pre-paid coffee tix – genius! 😋 Even though they’ll be able to do contactless deliveries at level 3 – it’ll take some time to get back to ‘normal,’ so SOS call-outs like this make a massive difference to their ol’ mate cashflow. And you know, just casually, STAYING ALIVE 😱
Obviously this suggestion isn’t for everyone – if 97% of businesses in New Zealand are SME’s, we’re probably all in the same boat! 😂 So at the very least – be thoughtful and considered about where your dollars are going. If you’re buying wine, select a boutique, local brand. If you’re getting takeaways (#finally!) choose your local chippery – not the fast-food giants. If you know you’re going to run out of credits soon, or if you’ve just got an account but haven’t purchased anything – rest assured we’ll be manually extending expiries, so you can purchase anytime. We’ll happily extend expiries by the length of time Wellington is in alert level 3&4.