I agree- these kind of classes can be really helpful, but often offered for free or for a low fee via places like the small business assoc, the university small business development center, community centers, etc. I have also seen them advertised through the community schools, so if you are looking for a place to start teaching this kind of thing, those would all be good places to check out- an already established format can be a big help when trying to reach clients who might need this service.

Another option we have looked at here locally, but I haven't had time to push into being, is a women in business seminar series- including round tables & networking for a specific group like women in business can be a good draw for folks who might otherwise be hesitant to seek this kind of advice. A value added proposition, if you will! You also build a reputation that way when folks in the group can recommend to newbies "yes, so&so's classes are a great way to get started on business basics" Along those lines, I think a mentoring/coaching approach is often more appealing & helpful than a one off workshop, especially for women.

I think it is definitely something that is needed, the trick is packaging it so that you can reach folks- a lot of the starry eyed artistic types are also the ones who think they can't afford help- even tho it may be the best investment they could make!

Phone etiquette is be a really good topic! I'm a trainer where I work, and I find that some people don't know how to use a telephone in a "business environment".

Email etiquette / business correspondence would be another good one as well:

mailing lists
privacy issues [using the bcc field instead of putting everyone's address in the to line]
how to send group mailings and not have servers think you are spam and block you
email limits on popular free email sites (gmail, yahoo, hotmail)
do not use "texting" language in a business email
Use sentence case (not all upper case [yelling] or lower case [being lazy])

Thanks Letha, doing something during the week is a great idea. I'll have to think about that :)

I think something in a more Q&A format would be a LOT more appealing to me personally. There's tons of great resources in my community for very small businesses (I know someone mentioned in their area the classes were geared towards something more than just a one or two person business) because a lot of the local wives run ebay stores, etsy stores, and do other craft-oriented stuff. That leads to a lot of "one man show" kind of businesses. I think a Q&A format in this area would definitely open up possibilities for discussing ideas that weren't covered in the class, or more intricate detail or specifics to belly dance, or dance related businesses.

I think a lunch break workshop would actually be a good time to host something like this. After all, you'll be sitting and discussing, not dancing, and dancers eat and converse all the time! It would definitely be a wonderful way for dancers to make use of the time, and to offer a valuable service without taking away from the actual dancing! I think I would be MUCH more inclined to sign up for something like that.

I think if you broke up the session to have both a Q&A and a presentation of some information, I think it would also be vital to tailor it to the audience. If there are a number of regular workshops then perhaps you could alternate between gearing your information towards instructors, performers, and vendors/costumers/etc. After all, the information I need for marketing my classes has proven to be very different than in marketing myself as a performer. The same can be said for the costume pieces I design. While a lot of the tax information and all of that is available in business and marketing courses and from what I've seen, doesn't vary much from business to business, there are a lot of details in marketing that are different. That's kind of a big one for me. For performers, some information on setting up contracts for performances would be useful, and tips on how to deal with someone who is trying to convince you to work for less than your worth. For instructors some information on carrying insurance would be wonderful, as well as tips on setting up contracts with gyms, studios, and the like.

Of course, all of this could probably fit into one neat little package as an all-in-one kind of class. I just think it would be more helpful to me if the class had more of a focus on some specific aspect, given it would only be about an hour long. It would mean you could fit the most information specific to that business into that time period.

Okay, now I'm just rambling!

Our local community college offers several (non credit) workshops for small businesses. I think they're a great idea IN ADDITION to belly dance business mentoring from a successful professional in your area. :)