Former teacher, Louise Radford was the Creation Station’s first franchisee. She has just celebrated her second anniversary and in her first two years has inspired more than 1,000 young imaginations at her sessions in South Nottinghamshire.
“I have always worked in education,” explained Louise. “I was a primary school teacher and later an adult tutor. I loved both jobs but I never achieved the balance between home and work that I was aiming for.”
When her daughters were aged 14 and 18 years, and with the encouragement of her husband, Louise began looking for a way of taking control of her time that would still involve working with families. Self-employment seemed the best option and by taking on a franchised business there would be support and advice available. After researching several child activity franchises Louise was attracted to the Creation Station because it actively supports learning for children with their parents.
“The session plans and structure are carefully thought out and have a sound education basis but there is also scope for you to inject your own personality,” said Louise. “I arranged to visit a session run by the Creation Station founder and Managing Director, Sarah Cressall, and was really impressed. I carried on with my job for another term but had the Creation Station in the back of my mind.
“When you have worked for institutions the thought of doing something on your own, where you have total responsibility, is daunting. Although really confident about my skills in education and interacting with children I was unsure about my business skills. I spoke to Sarah about these concerns and she put my mind at rest and assured me she would be offering support and I would not be alone.”
In June 2007 Louise financed her business start-up by using family savings and became the first Creation Station franchisee. After completing comprehensive training and armed with her session plans, creative toolkit and art and craft materials Louise really felt she had the skill, confidence and resources to get her business up and running. She booked church hall and Scout hut venues and implemented the marketing campaign that she had drawn up with Sarah to create interest among local mums. Marketing materials, provided by the Creation Station head office, were circulated to playgroups, nurseries and doctors surgeries and also delivered door to door.
“This yielded a very positive response and good results for me,” explained Louise. “Once the sessions started I also found that word of mouth recommendation brought more people through the door. Having such a dynamic corporate web site is a real bonus and new enquiries are constantly generated from it.
“The format for the sessions is really straightforward and in the early days this enabled me to concentrate my efforts on making sure the children and mums were using their imaginations and getting as much out of it as they could. I found that the session flowed from the moment everyone came in and I knew from the start that this would work for me.”
Louise runs five Creation Station sessions per week at five different venues in South Nottinghamshire. From the start she made the decision to work Mondays to Fridays only as she wanted to keep her weekends free to spend with her family. During the school term the sessions are attended by pre-schoolers and their parents/carers while in the school holidays older children, up to 11 years, can attend.
“Some of the children at my sessions have been with me from the beginning and once they are at school they look forward to coming back to the holiday sessions,” said Louise. “The Creation Station programme gives young children such a great start in preparing for school and research has shown that parental engagement has a major effect on a child’s academic progress. We see them make great leaps in their ability to concentrate and in their creativity and dexterity. The session length of 45 minutes is just right and they quickly settle to the routine and learn how to work as a group.
“I have just celebrated my second year as a Creation Station franchisee and my ‘I’m a Creative Kid’ hand stamp, which lasts for 1000 impressions, has just run out! I believe that the Creation Station offers something really important and my focus now is to find ways of allowing more families to participate. My next goal is to establish partnerships with other family-related organisations and take the Creation Station to areas of social deprivation.
“In my two years as a franchisee I have seen the Creation Station develop as a brand and grow as a national business. It feels really exciting to be part of something so vibrant and it’s great to share experiences with other franchisees at our ‘Inspiring Imaginations’ conference, at national exhibitions and on our own web forum.
“Running a franchise has given me the flexibility I was looking for in my working life. But for me, the biggest advantage is the great sense of satisfaction I feel from watching the children and their carers grow in confidence each week. It’s what makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
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