Lessons from Franchising with Natalie Perkins
Natalie Perkins bio
Natalie Perkins is the founder and CEO of Bella Ballerina studios which has corporate and franchise locations.
Additionally, she has a private label dancewear brand and does online coaching and consulting to help other dance studios uplevel their businesses.
Where she got the idea of opening a dance studio
When her daughter was two and a half years, she took her to a dance class at the local dance studio. Even though it was fun, it wasn’t what she was looking for.
She wanted somewhere her daughter would have fun and learn something too.She looked in other locations and couldn’t find dance classes that offered what she wanted for her daughter.
This gave her the idea of starting her dance studio. To hear more, go to [01:55].
Natalie’s dance background
Natalie had been dancing from age three up to college for recreation. Even though she is not a professional dancer, her background made her develop a love for dance and a passion for working with little kids.To hear more about Natalie’s dance background, go to [04:28].
Why she decided to franchise
At [07:22], Natalie shares why she decided to franchise her business. She opened her first studio in 2011, and within the same year, she opened her second studio.
A year after that, she opened her third studio. After realizing the success of her business in an industry that traditionally wasn’t profitable, she decided to franchise.
Natalie’s business background
Natalie studied business in college, and although she wasn’t sure what to do in life, she wanted to be self-employed. To hear more about Natalie’s business background, tune in at [09:35].
Did she have any prior experience in franchising before she started?
Natalie shares that she had no prior franchising experience before starting it. Additionally, Natalie shares that even though she has been doing it for a while, she still feels she doesn’t have enough experience because it’s just like starting a new business; you don’t know what you don’t know. To listen more, go to [10:55].
“You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Lessons learned from opening the initial studio and franchising
Natalie shares the lessons she has learned from opening her first studio and franchising her business. The first lesson is to get a mentor who has been through it before.
The second lesson is to invest in people.To learn more, tune in at [16:08].
Her private label dancewear
After realizing that dancewear companies were unreliable in inventories and sizing, she decided to start her private label dancewear. The private label makes the apparel that their kids wear.
Currently, they have an online e-commerce site where everyone can order from. To hear more, go to [19:27]
What she has learned from her experiences in the business world
At [22:21], Natalie shares what she has learned from her experiences in the business world. She shares that at every level of business, you will encounter different things that feel scary.
Additionally, she shares her experience when her former employee sued her and what she learned from the experience. To hear more, tune in at [22:21].
“If you have been in business your whole life and never been sued, you doing it wrong.”
Natalie’s advice to people planning to start franchising their business
Natalie advises people planning to start franchising their business first to organize the tasks and schedules of their existing business because it’s challenging to focus on building a franchise while running an existing business.Additionally, your existing business should have multiple locations in different markets because that’s one thing the franchise board looks for when approving your franchise documents. To learn more, go to [28:08].
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