Female-Run Social Enterprise Champion of the Year 2025

Excellence Award for Pilates Training Services 2025 

This month I am pleased to announce The Studio is the recipient of the SME News Welsh Enterprise awards, both for female-run social Enterprise Champion as well as excellence in Pilates training services. SME News, part of AI Global Media, recognise and celebrate small and medium businesses across Wales. I am truly honored by this recognition. Please have a read of the full article here. 

I would like to take the time to explain why these awards mean so much to me.

Female-Run Social Enterprise Champion

Firstly, being a female-run business while raising a family in a foreign country is an accomplishment I do not always acknowledge enough.  Female-run businesses account for one-third of all businesses but only 15% of small businesses in the UK. Having successfully run this business for over 15 years - 10 years in our current space-  is a credit not only to our enterprise but also to our fantastic pilates service and the value those services provide to the community. More on that later…

Secondly, the majority of female-run businesses focus predominantly on social enterprise, rather than shareholder profit. In doing so, they develop and support communities, often becoming intrinsic parts of their villages and towns. Our business reinvests heavily in several areas: the business to keep costs low and relevant to our area, the personal growth of our teachers, and the development of pilates on a national scale.  The Studio also strongly supports other local businesses ranging from gyms to chiropractors to the local bakery.  As a business, we recognise that we are only as successful as the communities of both our clients and our village.

Excellence for Pilates Teacher Training Services

This recognition is particularly dear to me.  Having moved from my training centre in Chicago in 2003, I have developed the market of classical Pilates in Swansea without organisational support locally, often traveling back to the USA or to other parts of Europe to continue my training and development.  The opening of the studio, Kinetic Pilates, in London in 2009 and subsequent training centre in 2013 began a new era of Pilates in London and provided a UK teacher training base for The Original Pilates Method. Since then, I have invested in developing myself as a teacher trainer for the Pilates method, attending all training seminars in the UK and developing new skills not just in teaching clients but also in training apprentices.  

Finally, at the end of the day, a Pilates studio provides a service to their clients.  The value of that service directly follows from the quality of the training of the teacher.   A good Pilates Studio is not the result of pretty mood lighting, flashy social media, or branded socks; it is the high quality sessions where clients learn not just the system of Pilates but also how to move well within that system.  A great Pilates Studio provides a premium service that consistently inspires and improves clients’ wellness/mobility/strength/fitness, rather than changing its product and marketing every few months to keep or attract trend-focused clients. 

There are no shortcuts to building a good company or providing an excellent service to clients.  It takes patience and continued personal effort and development.   And the secret to running a great Studio as a successful business is to support and be supported by both the community within the business and the community around it.