When Covid struck, we were one of the first few companies to take our classes digital. Heck, even our competitors had signed up for our class just to find out how we set our class up. We were also featured on Singapore’s national newspaper, Straits Times. One would then think all is good. But nope! Soon, everyone in the industry was taking their classes to online. That was fine. We love a healthy competition. But, free classes?? Now, that, brought our business down.

My name is Lavania, Founder and Director of Dance Embassy and this is my story on how Dance Embassy is surviving Covid.

While I battled with companies who were giving away free classes, I was adamant not to jump onto the bandwagon. I believed that our classes provided the same value and even giving a slight discount because it was online was a way of me thanking our students and clients who continued participating in our classes.

I had made plans to pivot. I remembered sharing my ideas to pivot with someone and that person nonchalantly told me to accept defeat and close Dance Embassy. I was dumbfounded, shocked and literally stomped off from what was supposed to be a discussion of encouragement; turned into horror. I belted out hot tears and like a child threw a fit about how I wasn’t accepting defeat. No way! 10 years of building a company to where it was and the potential it was yet to achieve, I was not giving up.

I have started and ended businesses before, because even though they were doing well, my passion wasn’t present in them.  I didn’t wake up each day looking forward to building them. Dance Embassy was different. We saw each other through different phases in life and I knew there was a higher purpose and calling to build it.

And so I wiped my tears, ignored the naysayer and pumped in all my savings to rebrand it. While rebranding it, it was though it was meant to be. Audible reached out to us and we released the World’s first Bollywood Exercise podcast that can be downloaded by millions in India. PayPal Singapore invested marketing dollars on our brand and we received much traction. We are opening up our company to franchisees globally. We launched our new website and app in the beginning of 2021.. We changed the logo and the brand colours and we are now investing more in our instructors who are willing to invest in themselves. We help them build up their personal brand and grow their community. We are the pioneers in this niche and we are excited for what’s to come. We may have competitors soon but one thing’s for sure, as long as we have your support, Dance Embassy will go far.