21-July-2022

Pandemic shutdowns were enough to keep anyone on their toes – but the steps dance teacher Svenja Jinman took to stay in business when all her venues were closed have helped her win a prestigious industry award.

Svenja, owner of Diddi Dance in Wolverhampton, has joined the elite of the franchise world by winning a Great British Franchisee Award from whichfranchise.

Unable to deliver a single class to the pre-school children and birthday celebrators who loved them so much when the first lockdown was imposed, she set up a Facebook group within a week and began delivering regular virtual classes online.

“It was something completely new and very daunting but I'm very proud of myself for having the courage to jump straight in,” says Svenja.

“The online classes for customers who’d already paid for physical classes avoided lots of refunds and then, in subsequent half-terms, I was able to charge a small fee for online classes and bring in a little bit of profit.”

It left her with a bank of hundreds of recorded classes she can use if lockdowns ever happen again, and helped clients keep faith with her when their children couldn’t be physically present.

She now has 21 classes a week in 19 different venues or locations, plus sessions in five nursery settings each half term and a couple of birthday parties a month.

“I’ve grown the business from covering just Wolverhampton and part of South Staffordshire to now covering all of Wolverhampton and surroundings, part of South Staffordshire, Stafford, and part of Shropshire including North Telford and Market Drayton,” she says.

“One of the biggest challenges was that I didn't live in my territory so my travel expenses and time spent travelling were high, affecting my profitability.

“Although my franchise is now even bigger, I‘ve overcome the problem by buying the postcode areas nearest to where I live from a franchisee who was selling her business.

“That’s enabled me to open several new classes very close to home and get contracts in my local nurseries, which has cut my travel down significantly on a few days of the week.”

The former college tutor who specialised in dance and performing arts now employs four teachers and is hoping to take on a fifth as her timetable is completely full with bookings.

“The Diddi Dance brand is very well known in the area, thanks to Svenja,” says Diddi Dance founder Anne-Marie Martin.

“She even organised an online festival during lockdown to bring many family businesses together.”