Ready, set, winners

MamaMag were thrilled to be the Diamond sponsor of this year’s AusMumpreneur Awards in NSW. There were so many fantastic entries from amazing mums across the state who are doing fabulous things in business. This year’s top gong, The NSW AusMumpreneur of the Year Award, went to not just one clever mum, but five! Belinda, Jade, Glenda, Priscilla and Natalie are the founders of READY SET DANCE and we caught up with them to hear their story… Congratulations girls, tell us about how READY SET DANCE started.

READY SET DANCE was created in 2014 by partnership of 5 of Sydney’s most successful dance studio owners (us!). The program was originally created as a solution for our studios. There was a huge gap in the market for preschool dance. Existing programs were generally outdated, girl focussed and reliant on the magic of the studio owner. We were inspired to create a fun and fresh genderneutral combo class utilising our vast combined experience as dance educators. Fast-forward 6 years and today our preschool dance program is licensed to 234 dance studios in Australia and NZ with 15,000 preschoolers participating weekly!

You’re obviously all mums! Tell us about each of your families…

Between the five of us we have 8 kids of very different ages. Belinda has a 10 year old daughter, Priscilla has a 6 and 9 year old daughters and Jade has an 11 year old daughter. Natalie’s children are all grown up, with one doing the HSC and the other at Uni. In Glenda’s case her daughter has been living in America for the past eight years as the dance captain for Britney Spears.

What makes READY SET DANCE stand out from other programs?

Our magic ingredient was investing in over 100 original pieces of music combining choreography and musical cues. This investment in intellectual property has become a powerful tool for expansion into other areas like TV. Following the popularity of the program we entered into a joint venture with Nickelodeon to transform the program into a TV show which launched in January 2018 on Nick Jr, made much more possible by the fact we owned our own music. The READY SET DANCE TV show has now been rolled out in 125 countries around the world, dubbed in 20 different languages and has recently been picked up by Channel 10. This global TV success has opened the door to exciting opportunities to expand the program into International markets in 2020 and develop further segments of the ANZ business including merchandising and live shows.

What do you wish you knew before you started your business?

At our first AusMumpreneur conference the incredible speakers from B Box emphasised the importance of protecting intellectual property. We were very focused on protecting our multiple trademarks from the beginning of our business. Our golden goose is our original music and brand. What we wish we were more informed about was the process and costs associated in protecting these marks globally. The TV show fast-tracked our brand awareness in multiple markets and we felt hurried to make a decision weighing up brand exposure and commercial risk. We were unaware that the trademarking costs would be ongoing in each market as the registration goes through each stage of filing. If we had a better estimate of these costs from the beginning our trademark decisions would have been different and more staggered as required.

What has been your greatest challenge in business, especially this year?

The idea of teaching preschoolers online when the world shut down due to COVID was daunting for our licensees. We pivoted our program and created online training

solutions for our studios. The social interaction this provided offered a sense of routine and normality for kids and a sense of worth and contribution for our teachers during this challenging time.

In lockdown we focused on other segments of the business that could thrive at a time when everyone was at home. The new YouTube content we created and promoted, provided a support Dance@home option, as well as hit the targets needed to monetize our channel.

What have been your top 3 greatest achievements this year?

1. TV SUCCESS - Very few TV programs that are locally produced reach the next stage of airing globally. This has been achieved by a strong focus on making the cast as diverse as possible.

2. DANCE CLASS ACCESSIBILITY – In order to make our dance class accessible for all preschoolers we have worked with special needs consultants, increased boys participation by 20% and adapted guidelines like uniform policies to create a gender neutral delivery.

3. DIVERSIFYING INCOME STREAMS - The Introduction of our eStore has been an integral part of our financial success over the last 12 months enabling us to reach our customers directly. The dance@home merchandise pack created during lockdown became our top seller but also expanded our customer database.

dance empire, what are you up to on the weekend with the kids?

Belinda, Priscilla and Jade love to take the young ones to musicals and concerts like Jojo Siwa. In honesty though they usually have the best time when we are rehearsing for our TV show and they spend the day building forts and making craft together in a spare studio or office.

Coffee: We have to do a shout out to our office local, ‘Left Bower’ who have the best coffee and conversation.

Playground: Our kids are growing out of the playground age group now but they love to attend holiday workshops together at Spoil Me Kids Day Spa in Sutherland.

Date night: One thing we have enjoyed this year is getting home delivery with our hubbies from some of the top local restaurants. We actually ordered amazing seafood platters from Sea Level to the awards night for Mumpreneur on Zoom and Nat is a big fan of the home delivery Apple Martini too.

Local fashion: We have to leave this one to our resident fashion guru of the office – Glenda. She definitely knows her way around Miranda Westfield. She can look equally amazing in designer clothes from shops like Sass and Bide or everyday casual wear from Uniqlo.

You can find a local dance class near you at www.readyset.dance and catch their TV show on Nick Jr every morning on 8.30am and 10am EST. As well as 10 PEACH and 10 SHAKE!