Danna Rossi’s Pole fitness website has over 1400 active members. Today, with the help of WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro, her Pole Fitness website pulls in over $250,000 per year and the income consistently doubles every year. Here’s her story. Get Inspired!
Pole Fitness Dancing: from Passion to Profession
Danna Rossi is an artist, dancer, and entrepreneur. Originally hailing from a small town in Wyoming with less than 5000 residents, Danna grew up in a tight-knit community without even the convenience of a Walmart. Despite the lack of work opportunities in her hometown, she spent most of her time in dance classes and taught pole fitness classes in the evenings to make extra money. However, even with the additional income, it was a challenge to make ends meet and pay her monthly rent of $450 for her apartment.
“My passion is dance, it always has been since I was a kid. I was told very early that you can’t make good money as a dancer or in the dance field. At first, I believed everybody, and I ventured out to make a “REAL” career between the ages of 18-28, completely abandoning the idea of making money as a dancer because I thought it wasn’t possible.”– Danna Rossi
At the age of 30, Danna began her college journey and also began designing websites for local small businesses. This side gig soon developed into a thriving business named Sunrise Web Design LLC, serving major clients. Along with running their business, they continued to teach pole fitness classes on the side.
“I hit a wall right around the age of 30, call it a mid-life crisis if you want, but I just realized I built a good life around me, and I didn’t love it. I guess, I realized I couldn’t live my whole life without dance, and what a big mistake I made by abandoning what was in my heart the whole time. I wanted to make some BIG money, the trick was to merge what I love (my passion) with my Internet marketing and website design skills.”– Danna
Taking a risk, she built a website specifically tailored for Pole Fitness Dancing enthusiasts, providing them with everything they needed to practice pole dancing at home. After receiving numerous requests from their students for copies of the pole dancing routines they learned in class, they realized that others could benefit from these routines as well.
“I recorded all 8 weeks of block classes on video and added them to the website for people to purchase. My primary focus when recording the videos was to bring pole fitness to the ‘everyday’ woman. Every day women and moms have different fitness needs. So, I created my own way of teaching to cater to the woman who wants to get in shape with pole dancing.”– Danna
For a few years, she also sold pole fitness equipment while focusing on the marketing aspect of web design, such as improving Google rankings through search engine optimization (SEO) and increasing social media engagement.
“I had no money to invest, but I did invest in SEO knowledge, learning as much as I could about SEO because I knew that you could build a nice website, but that doesn’t mean that people will find it – let alone buy anything. Mike Long at OMG Machines was a huge inspiration for me in the SEO world. There are many other mentors who helped me to learn good SEO that truly works along the way, but OMG Machines sparked a fire in me and that fire has never gone out.”– Danna added
To her surprise, her dedication to SEO paid off tremendously. They witnessed a significant increase in website traffic, and customers began requesting new products.
“I expanded the shop to accommodate more requested products and availability to other countries as the months passed. The shop now has 141 pole fitness products and over 1400 active members who enjoy pole dancing lessons and counting. Today, my Pole Fitness website pulls in over $250,000 per year and the income consistently doubles every year. That’s more than I ever really thought possible in the beginning.”– Danna
Shipping challenges on the way
As her business continued to grow, it also brought about new challenges. Shipping their products became an immense headache.
“All the growing business brings tense challenges as well. Shipping the equipment and products became a HUGE headache. My website handled affiliate products, International shipping, flat rate shipping, and other items that need calculated shipping by weight. It felt like shipping was a bloodsucker for most of my time and I found myself doing things that I didn’t love ……. again!”– Danna
Danna also added, “It’s fun when your business expands and scales rapidly, but if you or your business platform are not prepared for the traffic demand, then it can be more stressful than you bargained for.”
At a certain point, Danna felt overwhelmed and uncertain about their ability to handle the growth of her business. She found herself spending most of their time dealing with shipping problems, technical issues, and other business-related tasks, leaving them little time to do what they truly loved – dancing. They began to feel disheartened, as they had entered the business world to share and monetize their passion, not to be consumed by it and left feeling miserable.
PluginHive became lifesaver
Recognizing the potential of software to automate tasks, she began to search for plugins that could help her solve shipping issues.
“And that’s when I found the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin from PluginHive. The team at PluginHive was a lifesaver for me because my shipping needs were complicated and I’m not an expert coder either!“- Danna
Danna added, “Once the PluginHive plugin was configured, it seamlessly handled ALL my shipping issues with ease. My shipping needs have evolved and PluginHive evolves seamlessly with my business no matter where it grows.”
She realized that using quality plugins and outsourcing certain tasks can save her time and energy. With more free time, she intends to communicate with her followers on a personal level and create more engaging content. Her future plans involve further simplifying business operations to avoid becoming overwhelmed and losing sight of her passion for dance and entrepreneurship.
Less is more – One plugin that can handle multiple situations is by far better than 10 free plugins to handle all those same situations. PluginHive is truly a secret gem I wish I had uncovered long ago.
Danna Rossi
