DIDDI DANCE

Previous to becoming a diddi dance franchisee I had done a BA Hons degree in Dance and taught Dance and Performing Arts to post 16 students in a college for 12 years.

After having my son I returned to full time teaching and he had to go to nursery so I felt like I was missing a lot of important time with him as a toddler. One thing I was thrilled he could participate in at nursery was diddi dance once a week and I started looking into the company.

When he was 3 there were big changes at my work and I decided to take voluntary redundancy. I was disillusioned with the education system and not wanting to work full time for another school or college, I was very interested in starting my own diddi dance franchise and felt confident I could do it successfully.

I made a final decision to invest part of my redundancy money in buying a franchise after attending a diddi dance franchising open day with founder Anne-Marie and some of her existing franchisees. She gave me lots of insight into how a franchise works and what the diddi dance ethos is and I was able to watch a class being taught, meet staff who explained the business, admin and legal sides of things. Anne-Marie also asked me lots of questions to assess if I would make a good franchisee as it’s also very important to her that she works with the right people to fit her business model.

I was also advised to speak to my most local diddi dance franchisee, which I did in a phone call. She was very supportive and able to give me an honest review of her experience and she became an invaluable resource in my early business journey.

I knew that diddi dance was the right franchise opportunity for me as I had lots of experience teaching dance and as a mum to a preschool child, I also knew I would be great at interacting with little ones and really enjoy it.

I had researched a bit into other preschool franchises but diddi dance stood out to me. I loved their branding and lesson plans. I especially liked that they cover over 16 different dance themes and compliment the EYFS framework which would allow me to go into nurseries.

What really appealed to me was that work would mostly (if not all) be within school hours so at least I could see more of my son and once he started school I would be able to do all the drop off and pick ups like other mums and still work full time.

I was also able to purchase a territory area which I knew quite well and had huge potential to grow my business.

I was lucky that I had received a lump sum of money for taking voluntary redundancy just a few months prior to investing in my diddi dance business so I didn’t need to borrow or find finance. This gave my new business a good head start and I was able to make a profit within my first year. Out of the franchises I considered, diddi dance was probably the most affordable.

diddi dance give new franchisees a lot of helpful information regarding the legal requirements of running a business which was so necessary as I had no previous business or finance experience. The contract was explained to me but I was also given time to have it looked over by a legal professional before signing or committing to anything. They also gave me advise on how to set myself up as a sole trader, getting a bookkeeper/accountant to help with my tax return and all of the insurances and certificates I would need to work with children.

I often have people asking me what it’s like running a franchise and why I chose not to just start my own dance business. I would say that there are major benefits to a franchise because you feel part of a much bigger support network of like minded people which helps so much. As diddi dance puts it you are “in business for yourself, not by yourself”

As a nationally recognised franchise the brand is already very well established and customers feel they can trust the quality and years of experience and development that’s gone into creating what we offer.

You also don’t feel like you are just another franchisee because you ARE the face of your business in your territory and the reason why your customers love what you do. We are definitely encouraged to bring our own personality and individual experience or skills to our businesses and grow them in the way that works best for us and our families. I’m coming up to 10 years as a successful diddi dance franchisee and would definitely recommend it to others.

After graduating from university with a first degree in dance I was lucky enough to perform all over the world. With my dissertation being in dance movement therapy and dance in SEND I’d always been involved in teaching dance. After teaching older children and adults I found my midweek days free and I worked at a play centre in north London this introduced me to babies and toddlers and back then in 2003 there weren’t any specific preschool dance classes so they booked me a venue and told me to start one!

I grew the business with a teacher in north London and then explored other areas across London testing the concept in different areas and without me leading them, I created lesson plans, explored different props and how much repetition to keep. I then worked with a music teacher who helped me write all our original music and we started exploring different dance styles from around the world. In 2006 I decided to explore franchising with some pilot franchisees and then in 2010 after settling into motherhood with my son being born on 2008 we started to expand across the UK with fantastic franchisees.

We look for full of fun individuals who have the right drive and self motivation to grown their business in their territory. Franchisees come from various background but a passion for working with under 5s and sharing our ethos of moving to music and introducing children to dance in a fun way, relaxed way.

Our franchise fee is £4995 + VAT and provides franchisees with all the training, manuals, technical set up and guidance to launch their diddi dance. The kit and marketing materials can be purchased as an ongoing interest.

We want individuals who are driven to grow their business in their community but the ideal times are within school hours so ideal for family life, you pick your hours and days to suit and each territory is large enough to grow into a management size franchise with teachers.

We train everyone in every business element from teaching the classes, parties and sessions, as well as marketing and social media, business planning and growth, tech, data handling, customer service, design, child psychology and development and SEND work. We have monthly meets, and online forum, 1 2 1 calls from our team, annual conference, guest speakers, practical refreshers and peer to peer support, I still teach in my own area so always try and lead by example and keep on top of every new element we introduce, working with experts to develop our plans further.