We recently connected with Britt Evans and have shared our conversation below.

Britt , appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

I think one of the most important things is to NOT rush into business ownership. I mentor many young business owners who struggle with making ends meet, not because of lack of business, but because of lack of experience in leading. Many people are excellent at the services they supply, but haven’t yet lead a team. As John Maxwell says “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” When you open a business, it is less what you know how to do, and more of how well you can get others to do what you did. It’s a leadership exercise. Being an excellent instructor is a different skill than leading a team of instructors. You have to be able to do BOTH to run a successful business.

We (my husband and business partner) took our time before we opened our own studio. We worked every single part of the company – from teacher, janitor, administrator, manager, to trainer and Human Resources etc. I personally spent 12 years with my first company before we branched out to start our own business. I had hired, fired, trained and maintained a staff for many years. I had already gone through my learning curve of how to motivate professionals, how to keep them engaged, and how to channel the creative powers of the young men and women attracted to the arts. I wasn’t very good at it in the beginning – but after a few years, I got the hang of it. By the time we opened our own shop, I had already made my mistakes and we were able to take off running and scale quite quickly. I am 100% positive that it wouldn’t have been as smooth a take off if we had attempted to open 2-3 years earlier than we did.

We also were very disciplined with our finances and financial choices. We were in the habit of living beneath our means and not acquiring debt. When we opened our studio, we had a clear rubric that we ran all of our decisions through. First People, Then Dancing, Then Money. Money was the LAST thing we focused on. From the get go – it was how to teach the highest quality lesson, and make the deepest impact in the lives of our students. This prioritization has served us well through the years and has been a lucrative concept. Sometimes, we have a short term loss – but this focus on people first multiplies over the long term – helping us to retain our clients much longer than our competitors. We really love and care about the people we serve, and it shows in our bottom line.

It is important to note….. The fact that we didn’t have debt and were organized in our finances enabled us to focus on servicing out the people and not seeing them as dollar signs. I’ve seen many a business owner go down because of a lack of understanding of how that financial pressure can compound and effect their mindset, business and longevity. You need motivation and stamina to make it in today’s world. Especially through difficult times like we have had these past 2 years because of Covid. Make wise financial decisions, and you free yourself to focus on the people you serve. This is ALWAYS a great business plan.

In retro-spect, the key to all of this is the ability to engage in long term thinking. When we hire a staff member, or meet a new student, we expect this person to be a part of our lives for the next 10 years or more. Everything we do is to support that kind of relationship. If you treat the ones around you in this way, you are less likely to treat your business as transactional – and instead focus on the relational aspects of training, teaching, servicing the people around you. There is nothing more satisfying than that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fwdance.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fwdancestudio/