Skip forward a few months and let's pick up from October 2013.
In my original business plan, I was asked:
Why do you want to run your own business?
I was never interested in being my own boss or growing something from scratch nor was I interested in the politics that would come with being a young female in the business world but I knew why I wanted to run my own business.
I wanted to be able to give back.
By now, I had worked with hundreds of children from disadvantaged backgrounds as a youth worker in Edinburgh, I had heard stories and seen things that no child should go through but yet felt second nature to them.
I believed that if I ran my own business, I would be able to give back, believing that every dancer can dance. They just need the opportunity.
In October 2023 I delved into my first fundraiser and chose Save the Children to raise money for. Every year, 6.9 million children under five die from easily preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea. Save the Children works to stop this happening and to ensure more children live to celebrate their fifth birthday and beyond, no matter where they live.
With only 50 dancers taking part in babyballet weekly, what could I do to help such a worthy cause? I looked at various ideas and then it hit me! The Ultimate Danceathon!
Looking into this further, I felt it was a great fit for our dancers but even if we had every dancer attend and split them into 5 groups of 10, how could they dance for 5 hours, they would be exhausted!
Back to the drawing board and whilst chatting to another school owner, we came up with the idea to collaborate. I decided not to just stop with one but why not others.
On Sunday 13th October 2013, babyballet Motherwell, alongside other dance schools, joined up at Holytown Parish Church Hall and raised thousands in a 5 hour danceathon! Family members came along and ran a successful home made baking stall, raising £100 and offering free hot drinks.
Motherwell Times came out to report on this incredible event and lots of people from the public popped in to see what all the fun was about!
As far as first fundraising events go, it was brilliant, successful and fun and truly had a great community spirit to it.
Fast forward 10 years and we have raised tens of thousands of pounds for various charities including, Red Nose Day, Children In Need, Tommys and most recently, Alzheimers Scotland.
Being able to give back where I can is important to me but I am yet to successfully give everyone the opportunity to dance. As I begin to create my plans for the next 10 years, this is at the top of the page, let's watch this space.