Anne Walker, Founder of International Dance Supplies: Understand the power of networking

Tuesday, 12 March 2019

I started my first business, a dance school, when I was only 17. Discovering it was difficult to find good leotards and other dancewear for my students, I started to make my own in a friend’s attic bedroom. Other dance teachers loved the leotards and asked me to make them some too and so International Dance Supplies was born. I grew it from those early days to a multi-million pound global business. It was a fantastic journey but now I am enjoying mentoring and supporting dance teachers and their businesses and am just launching my first book “Growing Your Dance Business”.

Anne's Top Tips

• By clever use of PR you are able to tell your own story and build and develop your brand. It is surprisingly easy to  engage with journalists but the key is to build a relationship with a specific journalist or reporter in each journal, paper or news channel.

•  Through networking I have met many people who have been instrumental in helping me to grow the business and develop the people within it. It also gave us competitive advantage as we were often seen with the influencers in the dance industry. I wish I had understood the power of networking earlier in my career.

• You can’t grow bigger than your dream. So dream big.