EWIF Young Franchisee of the Year 2010

Previous Life
Amanda’s previous career was as an HR advisor to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. In 2006, shortly after getting married, she fell pregnant and during maternity leave her role with the AHDB was relocated to Warwickshire. She was originally planning to return to work, but due to the relocation of her position this would mean a long commute. She opted to take voluntary redundancy and started looking for work locally.

Amanda loved spending time with her little girl and had started attending the local Musical Minis classes when Niamh was just 8 weeks old. Amanda decided she didn’t want to return to full time work and was so impressed with Musical Minis that she applied for a job with her local franchise owner. This resulted in her buying the franchise and a year later winning the EWIF (Encouraging Women Into Franchising) Young Franchisee of the Year award!

What Amanda thinks about Musical Minis
“I totally believe in Musical Minis, but never thought I would have the confidence to run classes with 15 children and their parents! I originally enquired for a job as an assistant or teacher and discovered the local franchisee was trying to sell due to personal reasons. I then spoke with Karen Sherr about buying the franchise. I remember finishing the call and being really excited. I did lots of research on my area, the population and competition before committing. The whole process went very quickly and I was underway in a matter of months; that was in March 2010 and I haven’t looked back!”

Amanda’s advice to people looking to invest in Musical Minis
“If you enjoy working with children and helping with their development, be brave and go for it. I would rather do this than anything else. I have so much more motivation than I did working in HR. It’s very rewarding seeing the happiness the little ones get when they learn how to shake a maracas or beat a drum, and I also like encouraging the parents to relax and join in. The classes have such a fun atmosphere. You will get very passionate about Musical Minis.”

“If you enjoy working with children and helping with their development, be brave and go for it.”