Translucent Dance Studio, Worcester 
 

Liz Winter

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Liz Winter’s situation before joining Get Ready for Business Growth was a common one for creative entrepreneurs. Having founded and scaled Translucent Dance Studio organically, she found she was managing almost every aspect of her business. Despite her dedication, she felt stuck and unable to strategise or plan for growth as she would like.   

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“I was doing all the admin, messaging, making costumes, doing festivals, handling kit orders – everything. I knew that I couldn’t grow the business if I had to keep doing all that.”  

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Liz recognised that this wasn’t a sustainable situation and that she needed strategic guidance – so when the British Library reached out to her, it felt like fate. The programme offered exactly what she needed – space to set goals and focus on more deliberate growth.  

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“I didn’t want someone to tell me how to run my business. I wanted guidance on how to develop it, but it had to fit me, my staff, and my students — both adults and children.”  

 

For Liz, as for many others, it was the tailored one-to-one sessions that made the biggest impact. The Marketing stream provided Liz with the confidence to hire a freelancer to handle marketing activities. By applying the advice from this stream, Liz scaled her marketing in a structured way, which led to a greater presence in the local community and increased student numbers.  

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The Product and Service Innovation stream helped Liz implement a new summer programme aimed at gifted and talented students, and to market test the offer – running taster sessions to gauge students’ interest and ensure the programme met their needs before committing fully to a formal service introduction.   

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The proactive and fast-paced nature of the programme also led to Liz hiring an Admin Assistant immediately after the support commenced. With new goals in place, Liz was able to start delegating tasks more easily.  

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“I love teaching, and I didn’t want to just run the business. But there were parts of it that I didn’t need to be doing — like admin. It wasn’t a good use of my time or money.”  

 

It was this mind-set shift that was one of the most transformational aspects of the support. The programme encouraged Liz to hire, delegate, set boundaries, and prioritise tasks that aligned with her long-term goals. One of the most meaningful changes for Liz was reclaiming her work/life balance. The programme meant she could refocus her business, redesign activities, and ultimately take a step back from everyday operations, all while still ensuring Translucent Dance Studio remained true to its vision, and continued with success.  

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Like many Get Ready for Business Growth graduates, Liz has remained close to her Relationship Manager, and in July 2024 reached out to the British Library to report that students from Translucent Dance Studio had appeared on page 4 of The Times, following a high profile collaboration with English Heritage, an opportunity she felt would not have appeared had it not been for the programme’s help.