Dancing in tune with Profits

WITH the recent release of the flick, Anybody Can Dance (ABCD), directed by renowned choreographer Remo D'Souza, people of all age-groups, even those who could not dance but always aspired to do so, seem to have reinvigorated their keenness to get into their dancing shoes or at least take active interest in motivating their near and dear ones to take to dance as a hobby, if not as a profession. Showcasing the ability of anyone and everyone to dance has fanned the popularity of institutes imparting training and education of each type of dance forms. Dance institutes might have been present earlier too, but over the years, we have seen such institutes mushrooming in and around cities. For Ameeth Jaisinghani, Creative Head, 786 day dance, music & acting studio, dancing was a passion. On his journey of starting his own dance classes, Jaisinghani says: “At the age of 15, I participated in a dance show, which gave me an experience to showcase my talent. From there I always knew that I have to be a dancer and there has been no looking back since then.”

While Kirthana Ramarapu, Executive Director for Learning Parachute, the All India Master Franchise owner for Kinderdance International Inc, a USA based company, believes that Kinderdance is not a dance academy. Elaborating on it she says: “My thoughts and my love for a child's education and his passion for dance coincided miraculously with the Founder and President, Carol Kay Harsell, which motivated me to perceive and explore my passion to work with kids.” Kinderdance being different from other dancing schools has teaching methods and procedures which are unique as the programmes incorporate educational concepts in a developmentally designed curriculum that teaches for the holistic development of the child. Kinderdance lays special emphasis on building social-skills, self confidence and self-esteem, and addresses the issue of obesity in children.”

Sirisha Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, was introduced to the divinity of music by her late grandfather at the age of four. Born in Hapur, a small village near Ghaziabad, on September 24, 1969, her grandfather RS Verma was a renowned Sangeet Acharya, who established Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, in 1972.

“I started teaching guitar to students at a very young age. To further my father ML Verma's vision of taking music and Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya all over India, I envisioned a unique concept of music schools intricately woven with sustenance and profits and started a private limited company, Tansen Institute of Performing Arts, in 1998, the first of its kind in India,” she says.

Customising for profits

Evolving dance and music institutes from gharnas, Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya is the first in India with this unique concept of provide all-performing arts under one roof. The brand decided to provide training of all-performing arts under the umbrella of Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya. This helped in breaking the monopoly of music experts or gharanas.

On customising the brand, Jaisinghani believes that his brand is different because it offers not just teaching of dance forms but education and imparts training of more than 35 dance forms under one roof. The brand offers dance, yoga, music and acting as well.

While Ramarapu feels that every brand has its own charm. For example, the programmes at Kinderdance help develop gross motor skills, movement creativity, different types of dance, music, fitness and body awareness which help children to steer themselves and prepare the young mind and body of boys and girls through all forms of dances, real life skills, academics, and pursuit of sports.

Franchising all the way

The franchise business model has turned out to be a successful and lucrative business proposition for many, especially for Kinderdance, as you don't need to have dance experience to own its franchise. A Kinderdance franchisee does not require a real estate, construction or large capital investment; you would actually be in business within a few weeks of completing training at Kinderdance India headquarters.

Meanwhile, Kinderdance USA World Head Quarters have been the most successful with their franchising model and have earned a great deal of success and popularity through the dedication and contribution from their franchisees worldwide.

While Rao says that the market size of dance institutes is boundless and the demand is increasing day by day. Five years down the line the brand is expecting Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya to be synonymous with music and dance with its presence in all major and minor cities in India as well as abroad.

As for franchising, Rao asserts that the brand chooses like-minded people to be their franchisee so that they can achieve maximum expansion in a short period.

Concurring with her Jaisinghani says that dance is the most popular and promising industry in present times. Almost every youth desires to be a dancer and for great dancers you need great instructors who would take out the best from the learner and inculcate a passion for dancing.

He says: “Franchising has made the 786 dance academy more popular in other cities. We have already gained popularity in Delhi with our shows and variety of dance forms being offered in the academy. The 786 dance academy is popular among all age groups.”

Opportunities for investors

Keeping in mind the benefits to be provided to a franchisee, Tansen Sangeet Mahavidyalaya presents a highly profitable, no risk, proven business model that is in sync with today's socio-economic scenario. According to a market survey, current creative industry trends make a music and performing arts school financially very sound, viable and sustainable business option.

Also, the 786 dance academy offers to its investors a complete package under one roof. The academy has three categories for investors: big budget, medium budget and small budget categories.

At Kinderdance a comprehensive training and support programme is offered. The franchise training includes practical training with live classes. Its highly efficient training programme enables franchisees to begin operations quickly. A complete Kinderdance franchise training is given which includes book keeping, marketing, hiring and training and many more, apart from the core Kinderdance training programme.

Overcoming hurdles

On the initial challenges faced by the dancing institutes, Rao says that his brand had to ensure quality service as it cannot be physically present at all branches. Thus, it has a dedicated corporate team which recruits and trains the faculty before appointing them in various centres and monitors their performance on CCTV and gives them training as and when required.

One of the major challenges faced by the 786 dance academy was to convince potential investors to invest in the business plan. Once the investor agrees, the terms and conditions are settled that benefits both the parties. While the only challenge Kinderdance faced was during the process of hiring a teacher. “We are quite choosy about the kind of candidates we like to hire. To overcome this challenge, we have intensified our training by including soft skills, email etiquette, early childhood development training and then the core Kinderdance training,” signs off Ramarapu.

FRANCHISE FACTS

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