Case Study - Budge and Ali Pountney
It was the birth of our daughter, Naeve, three years ago, that first introduced us to the world of baby swimming. Having both come from very sport-focussed careers (me from PE teaching, Budge from professional rugby) we were keen for her to start some form of exercise as soon as possible. We both enjoyed the classes so much that I decided to train as an instructor for the franchise covering Northampton, where we were based at the time for Budge’s rugby career.*
After he retired, Budge was keen to do something completely different and it seemed the natural choice to look into running our own Water Babies’ franchise. When we discovered, in initial discussions with Paul, that Hampshire was available (Budge’s home county), we quite literally took the plunge. Within months we had moved house, Budge had trained as an instructor and we took on the franchise in August 2007.
Already in the first year of trading we’ve seen a turnover of almost three times the amount we initially invested to set up. Head Office is a constant source of support to us – Paul and Jess are true visionaries in the industry and as such, really inspire us to be the best we can. We’re also lucky to have a great in-house PR department who are very proactive – since starting Water Babies they’ve achieved about 600 pieces of regional and national coverage and have an extremely slick modus operandi on how to maximise our local press within the first year.
Something I particularly like is how much time Head Office invests in each franchise. They literally spend weeks training us to ensure that each business can be truly independent in its day-to-day operations from the moment it starts; whilst, equally importantly, ensuring consistency of high standards across the team.
Our main aim is to thoroughly enjoy what we do and make sure that everyone who takes part in our classes comes away feeling like they’ve achieved something really worthwhile. Nationally, we have over 10,000 clients swimming with us and it’s an exciting time for the company – we’ve recently started up in Australia and there are plans to expand into other countries too. We’ve just won the What’s On 4 Little Ones national awards for Best UK Swimming Classes, and, personally, Budge and I are very proud to be part of a company where excellent customer service and moral integrity are truly more important than making vast profits from an impersonal network.
* Budge was Captain, then Director of Rugby, at Northampton for 15 years, popping out in his holidays to captain the Scottish rugby team from 1998 to 2003.
