Dance school heads waltz off with a major industry award

06-February-2023

Dance school owners Liz Kelly and Rachel Martin have spent most of their seven years in business together laughing – and now they have something else to smile about after landing a major industry award.

The women behind Diddi Dance in Plymouth have won a Great British Franchisee Award, one of the highest honour in the franchising world.

But their path to success found itself blocked by Covid – and the pandemic certainly kept them on their toes.

“We suffered a real setback in the growth of our business during the pandemic,” says Liz, “ but we were able to overcome the first lockdown by taking our classes online.

“All of our customers were delighted to be able to continue their Diddi dancing ,and it broke up their day and kept the little ones active when no-one was allowed to leave the house.

“We’re both extremely passionate about what we do, and we’ve spent most of the time laughing. How many people can say that when running a business?”

Anne-Marie Martin, founder of the Diddi Dance network, agrees.

“Liz and Rachel have been with Diddi Dance since 2016 and work brilliantly as a partnership,” she says. “They have teachers who run classes for them and have extended their territory as well.

“Their growth out of Covid has seen an increase of more than 50% and their business is still growing even in this economic climate.”

Liz and Rachael previously worked in sales where they liaised with large corporate global companies.

After starting their own families they realised their hearts lay in working with children.

“Working in sales gave us the ability, confidence and knowledge to be able to launch, grow and understand our business,” says Rachael.

“In 2017 we won Best Business Start-Up in The Woolwell Local Business And Community Awards, plus several franchisee awards at our Diddi Dance annual conferences over the years including Diddi Deliverer (running our business at the highest standards), Diddi Discusser (most active on social media) and Diddi Debutante (biggest growth in the first year nationally).

“We’re in the process of communicating with a home for domestic abuse victims in the hope we can provide free sessions for their children.

“And we’ve launched an inter-generational class where we take some of our Diddis into a care home to run a session.

“It’s absolutely amazing, watching the little people dancing and interacting with the residents.”

• The Great British Franchisee Awards are run by whichfranchise, supported by Lloyds Bank, BDO, Worldpay from FIS, AMO Consulting and Chantry Group