The Mini Athletics franchise is set to train children to be more active and become future athletes

From Serena Williams and Andy Murray to Laura Kenny (nee Trott) and Rebecca Adlington, many successful athletes have proven how essential it is to exercise from early-on. And whether one has the ambition to be an athlete or not -“playing sports and having an active lifestyle has immense advantages. And this is what drove Kirk Bowyer and his wife Clare to launch Mini Athletics, the athletics teaching franchise for children between two and seven years old.”

However, it wasn’t always his plan to spearhead a sports training franchise. The idea came only when Bowyer saw a dearth in children’s classes. Looking back, he was a strength and conditioning coach for teens with experience in training professional football and tennis players for 15 years. After he and Clare had their first child, he noticed there just weren’t any sports classes for his son to join. “[I] was keen to enhance his athleticism [and] sporting participation and Clare wanted him to build his confidence, social and cognitive skills,” he recalls. That’s when the two had their eureka moment and co-created the franchise in 2016. “There were many classes in football, rugby and dance etcetera but none in athletics,” he adds. Indeed, with franchises like Mini Professors, Water Babies and babyballet among others, the market for children’s learning has seen a slew of companies trying to disrupt the sector. Hence it’s easy to see why Bowyer is bullish about scaling Mini Athletics.”

While Bowyer had a unique idea, it was far from easy to get the company off the ground during the infancy stages. Moreover, it took the couple circa six months to get the training programmes in order, plan the lessons and formulate the branding. “This was a new concept so we were unsure whether we would get any success,” he says. And, Bowyer didn’t stop after improving the business model and the classes. He even started providing after-school clubs and hosting birthday parties which helped build his client base.”

However, in terms of scaling the brand, Bowyer knew he wanted to franchise from the get-go so more business owners could work at times suitable to their family life. This is because he personally saw how difficult it was to balance a nine-to-five job with giving enough time to young children. “When Clare was working full-time as a primary school teacher, the hours were significantly high,” he remembers. “For example, she would get to school at 8am and return at 5pm. She would then make dinner, put the children to bed and then continue with planning and marking in the evening. I was also working considerable hours and travelling a [lot]. Therefore, we wanted to create a business that worked for parents. Something that allowed them to work around their family commitments as opposed to fitting their family commitments around their work.””