A Day in the Life of Claire Clint, Musical Minis Regional Manager for Scotland

My day usually begins around 7am with my 3 year old daughter Gemma kissing my cheek and telling me it’s morning (sounds sickly sweet but it really is true).  We lie in bed and have a chat before my 8 year old Aimee joins us and we then begin the mad dash to get ready for school.  I’d like to say mornings are calm but in my house they never are.  We always seem to be against the clock and although I hate doing it, I really have to nag my girls to get them dressed and get them to eat their breakfast before it’s time to take Aimee to school.   I’d love to be organised enough to walk to school with Aimee but I’m ashamed to say we drive almost every morning (it‘s only a 5 minute walk and I hope that when the better weather comes we can make the effort and walk but at the moment we take the easy option and drive). 

Once we have dropped Aimee at school this is where it becomes difficult to write about a typical day – actually there is no such thing as a typical day for me, my job is so varied that no two days are ever the same – the main thing I love about being a Regional Manager for Musical Minis.  I have randomly chosen a day to write about (Wednesday, in case you wondered) and although I know roughly what will happen during this day, nothing is set in stone and  this is probably not what would happen every Wednesday..  Most mornings, however, are spent doing something with Gemma who goes to nursery in the afternoon.

Once I have dropped Aimee at school Gemma and I get ready to go to my mum’s Musical Minis class in Irvine – my mum, Liz Rowe, owns the franchise for Ayrshire and I lead a couple of classes and parties for her.  I go to the Irvine class because it means Gemma gets to take part in a class and it’s a full class so I can help my mum out with her instruments and tidying up at the end giving her more time to  chat to the parents and spend extra time with the children.   Gemma has come to classes since she was 3 weeks old and she has always loved them; I keep thinking at some point she might get bored but it has never happened and she really looks forward to going to the class every Wednesday.   Throughout the day I respond to any text messages I get from franchisees in Scotland.  Our new franchisees in Lanarkshire, Karen & Ann, are starting new classes at the moment and they know that if they need any advice they can text me and I’ll get back to them quickly with the answer.  Anything less urgent they tend to email or leave me a voicemail and I call them as soon as I can.  A lot of their questions are questions my mum and I had when we started our franchise in 2005 and it is nice to pass on my knowledge of the business.  We meet up once a term to catch up and share ideas but they know that they can contact me anytime if they need support.

After the morning class we grab a quick bite to eat, usually in Asda, before dropping Gemma at nursery.  I check my emails and telephone messages then get ready for my Kilmarnock class in the afternoon.  Because I help my mum out in the morning, she comes to help me out in the afternoon.  I only do a couple of classes a week at the moment and do occasional parties; once Gemma goes to school I intend to do more but for now I want to spend as much time as I can with her.  Today’s class was really good, I got cuddles at the end from most of the children, it’s nice to hear from the mums that Musical Minis is the highlight of their week! When the class is finished I pick my girls up from nursery and school and we go home.  Wednesdays are quite calm (or as calm as it gets) as the girls don’t have any after school activities – we usually get homework out the way, have a snack and then the girls watch some TV.   I use this time to catch up with emails check the Musical Minis Scotland facebook page and my twitter page.   Dinner & bedtime like the mornings are generally hectic, my girls demand a lot of attention but this is my own fault, I have always made sure I spend as much time as I can with my children and this is why I chose Musical Minis as a franchise – work life balance is very important to me and working for myself fits perfectly with my family life.  I still have time to spend with my girls and volunteer at school as a parent helper and as a chaperone at Aimee’s theatre group.

Tonight once the girls were in bed I had to make a few phone calls to potential Scottish franchisees who had enquired about buying a franchise.  I phone to introduce myself and to answer any queries they have about the business and potential areas.  I also phoned Ann our Lanarkshire franchisee to discuss her new classes and give her some tips about promoting her classes. I then catch up on some TV before bed, and work on a survey we plan to put out to help promote our summer teddy bears picnics.

As I said before there is no such thing as a typical day for me.  My daughters have an active social calendar and my life revolves around them for now.  Musical Minis fits ideally with my family life and I know that as my children get older I can increase my workload gradually and I can involve them in my business because they love Musical Minis as much as I do.