Finding pre-school activities for your children can be a tricky business. With pressure on parents to kickstart their kiddies’ learning early, you can feel like you’re letting the side down if you’re not signing up your toddler for classes in conversational french or buying them a My Little Monet set. We seem ever more committed to driving our children toward achievement at the expense of supporting their natural inquisitiveness and creativity. Desiring to buck this trend, Music Bugs is a franchise putting the fun back into pre-school learning.
Like all great businesses, the idea behind Music Bugs first sprouted when founder Claire Bennett spotted a gap in the market. “I was particularly keen to develop a pre-school business that focused on informal play rather than some of the stricter options I had personally encountered when my own children were of pre-school age and which I’d found fairly limiting,” she explains. Finding that it wasn’t an approach that had been attempted elsewhere, she ran the concept past family and friends and this helped her see just how strong a demand there was for a pre-school enterprise that encouraged play through music.
Bennett launched the first classes in her hometown of Swindon, sure that the sessions’ original approach would win over parents and toddlers alike. “I was confident that Music Bugs could offer something quite different in terms of its approach to play-based and interactive development,” she says. To say her confidence was well-founded would be an understatement. “The response was incredible, far beyond my expectations.”
This doesn’t mean she allowed herself to get complacent; Bennett wanted to ensure every inch of her model had been tested. “I was careful to use those first few years wisely before pursuing a franchise model for the business,” she explains. Testing and working through every element of the enterprise, she began developing the branding, business structure and the content of the classes, putting her every decision to the litmus test by taking on board the opinions of her customers. “Feedback from parents in those early days was crucial and I was spurred on by their positive feedback and input.”
During this period, the entrepreneur bootstrapped her business, meaning she didn’t have to rely on debt funding from the banks. Smart use of the enterprise’s income also helped it secure healthy growth. As Bennett comments: “We reinvested most of our profit back into the business in the early days to drive both our expansion plans and ensure we had the best operational infrastructure in place to support the growth of the business.”
Whilst she’d always been considering franchising to help spread the Music Bugs name, when it came down to it, it was one of her customers that finally encouraged her to take the plunge.
Josh Russell
When he isn't tooling around on trains in a tux like the Daniel Craig of the Greater Anglia transport system, Russell spends his time living the glamourous life of an enterprise journalist, judging Digital Business of the Year at the National Business Awards and attending conferences like NixonMcInnes' Meaning 2013. However, like all good secret agents, Russell lives a double life - in his case, as a closet revolutionary. Social enterprise, sustainable business and collaborative practices are his true passions, something that he has had plenty of opportunity to air in his features here at Elite Franchise.
Josh Russell
When he isn't tooling around on trains in a tux like the Daniel Craig of the Greater Anglia transport system, Russell spends his time living the glamourous life of an enterprise journalist, judging Digital Business of the Year at the National Business Awards and attending conferences like NixonMcInnes' Meaning 2013. However, like all good secret agents, Russell lives a double life - in his case, as a closet revolutionary. Social enterprise, sustainable business and collaborative practices are his true passions, something that he has had plenty of opportunity to air in his features here at Elite Franchise.
