When people said to me that having children changes your life, I guess I just didn’t realise how much......

I began my time with Water Babies as one of their earliest clients, first attending with Isabelle, who’s now 3½ . It was during 2005, when on maternity leave with my second child Matthew, that the idea of becoming a Water Babies franchisee first began to germinate. Having clocked up over 150 lessons with both children, my belief in and love of baby swimming was well established and it seemed the perfect time to initiate a change of career.

Until that point my path had had absolutely nothing to do with babies, teaching or swimming – a degree in Chemistry followed by several management positions in the petfood division of Mars! I had however, been trying for a while to decide how best to juggle a career with the desire to spend flexible time with my children. I could see that Water Babies could offer me the work life balance of running term-time lessons and give me the freedom and challenge of running my own successful business, an ambition I’ve held for a long time.

Paul and Jess were very informative and supportive throughout, being clear about the key things to consider. Becoming a franchisee is very much a two way evaluation – you have to be able to trust and work with the franchisors or it won’t be a successful relationship.  At the beginning Jess and I were on the phone daily, liaising over the local press campaign. Once you’re working more on your own, the weighty Operations Manual and templates for every conceivable document or presentation save so much time. But then that’s the whole point of franchising – never having to reinvent the wheel. I also really appreciate the ready made support network gained from working alongside other franchisees.  Many of us trained together, we all meet at our annual conferences and in-between speak and email with great regularity.

It’s important too that you have the strong support of family and friends when starting a new business. Training does involve time away from home, your house will be invaded by swimming equipment, you will need willing volunteers to help out on occasions and at times you’ll just need a sounding board to reassure you that you have done the right thing! My husband Martin therefore is a big part of Water Babies Nottingham, without actually being a franchisee.

So six months and many training hours later (basic and full swimming teaching, baby and pre-school specialist teaching, life saving, plus the very intensive Water Babies instructor course) and here I am teaching my first set of clients in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire – and loving it! As well as using my newly acquired teaching skills, I also utilise many skills I gained in my corporate career – organisation, presentation (doing talks to new mums), negotiating (when hiring pools), marketing - the list is endless! The freedom is immense, the daily issues diverse and most importantly the babies are gorgeous! I can honestly say I haven’t looked back.

Marie Smith
ex-dog biscuit guru, now Water Babies franchisee, Nottingham