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Building Financial Stability By Working With Schools Or Nurseries
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May 28, 2024
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9
min read
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May 28, 2024
•
9
min read
Want to try Pebble?
Hi children’s activity providers! It’s Cerys Keneally here and I want to share with you how you can build a more stable income into your business by working with schools or nurseries.
I am incredibly passionate about this because back when I started my own children’s activity business, I had just left a very strong and stable career in primary school teaching. I had never had a business before…I had to re-train as a dance teacher…and it was the “credit crunch.”
People thought I was mad!
But when I started partnering that business with schools and nurseries, I had a fantastic 107% increase in income that year, as opposed to just offering my community dance classes alone. When I realised the power of this, that was when I started focusing much more on strategies for getting my business into more schools and nurseries and partnering my team of dance teachers with education settings in their local areas as well.
Approaching Schools Academy
Since starting working with children's activity providers to help them get their businesses into schools and nurseries, this strategy has had a phenomenal impact on my Approaching Schools Academy members’ businesses as well.
Here are some examples:
A Mindfulness provider had a fantastic 75% revenue increase during the pandemic. She went from sporadic bookings to four full days per week in schools using pupil equity funding awarded to schools in Scotland, and she has since become a franchisor, with a fantastic national business
An early years Dance provider had an incredible 33% revenue increase in one year because she upgraded her nurseries and schools to longer sessions, and her schools were using Pupil Premium and pay premium to fund her dance lessons in schools and nurseries. She is also franchising her business now.
An MFL provider who had 50% of her previous nurseries permanently closing down after the pandemic, later went from 2 to 20 nursery and school sessions per week. She found that hers were being funded through grants and also parent pay. She now makes an extra £2,000 per month and doesn't have to worry about the bills anymore.
A Drama provider who had a 33% profit increase since the pandemic and went from 1 to 10 after school clubs, one of her schools used COVID Catch up premium to award £8,000 pounds to a certain project for her funded workshops. Within one year, she made an extra £30,000 from schools and since then she has made a lot more.
This is the power of working with schools and nurseries to bring in a more stable income.
How can working with schools or nurseries help you build financial stability into your business?
Well, even though we're in a “cost of living” crisis…there's been an energy crisis…there was a world pandemic…there's been a war…and back when I started my dance business, there was a credit crunch…Education will always be here.
Education was here during all of those times.
Children's activity providers just like yourself, have still been able to make it in their business by working with schools and nurseries.
So why is it that you can build a more stable income?
Funding Opportunities
Is it because there are opportunities to tap into ring-fenced funding, perhaps? I mentioned this with some of those case studies above. You have Pupil Equity Funding in Scotland or Pupil Premium funding in England and Wales. This is a fund that is uniquely awarded for specific children to have access to things like free school meals and also opportunities that they wouldn't normally be able to experience outside of school. They could get a place funded in your extra-curricular club, for example. So we're not just able to access specific funding streams, but we're also able to help more children who are perhaps not fortunate enough to come to our community classes, so we're reaching a bigger audience in this way.
Other types of ring-fenced funding might be, for example, the PE premium, which we know is being awarded to primary schools in England specifically to develop their PE curriculums. And a large portion of that is often spent on specialists coming in. There are other examples of ring-fenced funding as well. Schools have budgets attached to different subject areas of the curriculum and budgets to enrich learning as well.
Cross-curricular learning is something I want to bring to your attention because the more cross-curricular you can be, the more creative a school can be with their budget. If you are showcasing that your activity or service actually crosses a number of different subject areas, on the school's curriculum, those different curriculum areas are very often assigned different budgets, and particularly the core subjects like Literacy and Numeracy, for example - English and Mathematics. Those subject areas have slightly larger budgets because they are core subjects and are taught every single day in schools.
Reduced Expenditure
Another reason that partnering with schools or nurseries can help you build a more stable income into your business than your community classes can alone is because you will start to experience having reduced expenses.
Your expenses would reduce if you were going in during the school or nursery day because they're not going to be asking you to hire the hall if it's not an after school club. You might be going in for curriculum work - enrichment workshops, PPA cover, nursery sessions, etc - with this type of work you're not hiring a hall so you will have reduced expenses. You’ve also got a captive audience in front of you so you're no longer feeling like you have to do all this ongoing marketing throughout the term, because you've already filled your places at the beginning of term.
With a captive audience, you're not worried about children leaving midway through the term or filling their places at the end of term. Schools are going to help you as it's in their best interest to help you market these classes. If they are extra-curricular clubs, then they can put promotions in their email newsletters to parents. They can send out flyers in book-bags on your behalf…or you can go in and do assemblies to let the children know that your club is available to them. Suddenly you are having to spend a lot less on your ongoing marketing as a result. So a lot of providers find that they have reduced expenses as a result.
Communicate Value For Money When Selling Children’s Activities To Schools Or Nurseries
What I really want you to remember is that when you're looking to build a more stable income by working with schools and nurseries, you don't have to worry about where they get their funding from! There are some quite complicated funding formulas. If you went and looked at a local authority budget, it would absolutely blow your mind.
There are so many different ways that a school or nursery could fund your services to get your children’s activity business into their setting.
But even if you understood the funding formulas…and you knew exactly what budget was being directed for that particular school…you still wouldn't know what that school’s priority was for spending that funding…and you still wouldn't know whether that school had already spent that funding or not! You are far better off spending your time communicating and demonstrating the value of what you do. Showcase what they will be investing in and how it is a sustainable use of their budget - that's when they will go and find the funding to get you in.
I have a saying in the Approaching Schools Academy - “When they see the value, they will find the budget.” Write that down if it resonates with you, because I want you to spend your time communicating and demonstrating the value of what you do, by sending your emails and letters and delivering free demos or assemblies so they can see what they will be investing in, how you are different to your competitors and how you are different to anything they could offer through their class teachers in-house. I want them to see how brilliant you are at delivering your activities and services so it is clear what the pupils are going to be learning and what the outcomes are going to be. This way they will see what the impact on their school or nursery is going to be by investing in your services.
What To Consider When Marketing An Offer To Schools Or Nurseries
What does your free offer look like?
What are the benefits to the school, the teachers or the pupils?
How does it align with the school or nursery’s values?
How does it link with the relevant curriculum?
How are you going to demonstrate what you do?
Are you going to be communicating with members of the Senior Leadership Team after that?
How will you package the value so that a school sees the long term benefits of your services?
My Approaching Schools Academy members have been quite surprised that they've actually found it just as easy to sell an annual contract in a school or a nursery as they have to sell a one-off workshop because they have showcased the value of that package. There is more value in partnering with you for longer than there is in a one-off booking. This is something that has made a tremendous impact not just on their business, but on their lives!
Taking Action On Growing Your Business By Working With Schools Or Nurseries
There is so much you can do with your children's activity business.
You are a change-maker. Go and enrich children's lives by combining your amazing services with formal education in your local schools and nurseries, because you will be future-proofing your business in the process.
If you enjoyed this guide, you can get support with taking the next step by downloading my free resources.
Approaching Schools Podcast [www.ceryskeneally.com/podcast]
Approaching Schools Quiz [www.ceryskeneally.com/freebies]
Approaching Schools Community [www.facebook.com/groups/primaryactivityproviderbusinessclub]
If you feel inspired by some of the stories I’ve shared, you can find out more about working with me and get on the waiting list for the Approaching Schools Academy here: www.ceryskeneally.com
Pebble customers can get 10% off their programme with PEBBLE10 when paying in full.
Hi children’s activity providers! It’s Cerys Keneally here and I want to share with you how you can build a more stable income into your business by working with schools or nurseries.
I am incredibly passionate about this because back when I started my own children’s activity business, I had just left a very strong and stable career in primary school teaching. I had never had a business before…I had to re-train as a dance teacher…and it was the “credit crunch.”
People thought I was mad!
But when I started partnering that business with schools and nurseries, I had a fantastic 107% increase in income that year, as opposed to just offering my community dance classes alone. When I realised the power of this, that was when I started focusing much more on strategies for getting my business into more schools and nurseries and partnering my team of dance teachers with education settings in their local areas as well.
Approaching Schools Academy
Since starting working with children's activity providers to help them get their businesses into schools and nurseries, this strategy has had a phenomenal impact on my Approaching Schools Academy members’ businesses as well.
Here are some examples:
A Mindfulness provider had a fantastic 75% revenue increase during the pandemic. She went from sporadic bookings to four full days per week in schools using pupil equity funding awarded to schools in Scotland, and she has since become a franchisor, with a fantastic national business
An early years Dance provider had an incredible 33% revenue increase in one year because she upgraded her nurseries and schools to longer sessions, and her schools were using Pupil Premium and pay premium to fund her dance lessons in schools and nurseries. She is also franchising her business now.
An MFL provider who had 50% of her previous nurseries permanently closing down after the pandemic, later went from 2 to 20 nursery and school sessions per week. She found that hers were being funded through grants and also parent pay. She now makes an extra £2,000 per month and doesn't have to worry about the bills anymore.
A Drama provider who had a 33% profit increase since the pandemic and went from 1 to 10 after school clubs, one of her schools used COVID Catch up premium to award £8,000 pounds to a certain project for her funded workshops. Within one year, she made an extra £30,000 from schools and since then she has made a lot more.
This is the power of working with schools and nurseries to bring in a more stable income.
How can working with schools or nurseries help you build financial stability into your business?
Well, even though we're in a “cost of living” crisis…there's been an energy crisis…there was a world pandemic…there's been a war…and back when I started my dance business, there was a credit crunch…Education will always be here.
Education was here during all of those times.
Children's activity providers just like yourself, have still been able to make it in their business by working with schools and nurseries.
So why is it that you can build a more stable income?
Funding Opportunities
Is it because there are opportunities to tap into ring-fenced funding, perhaps? I mentioned this with some of those case studies above. You have Pupil Equity Funding in Scotland or Pupil Premium funding in England and Wales. This is a fund that is uniquely awarded for specific children to have access to things like free school meals and also opportunities that they wouldn't normally be able to experience outside of school. They could get a place funded in your extra-curricular club, for example. So we're not just able to access specific funding streams, but we're also able to help more children who are perhaps not fortunate enough to come to our community classes, so we're reaching a bigger audience in this way.
Other types of ring-fenced funding might be, for example, the PE premium, which we know is being awarded to primary schools in England specifically to develop their PE curriculums. And a large portion of that is often spent on specialists coming in. There are other examples of ring-fenced funding as well. Schools have budgets attached to different subject areas of the curriculum and budgets to enrich learning as well.
Cross-curricular learning is something I want to bring to your attention because the more cross-curricular you can be, the more creative a school can be with their budget. If you are showcasing that your activity or service actually crosses a number of different subject areas, on the school's curriculum, those different curriculum areas are very often assigned different budgets, and particularly the core subjects like Literacy and Numeracy, for example - English and Mathematics. Those subject areas have slightly larger budgets because they are core subjects and are taught every single day in schools.
Reduced Expenditure
Another reason that partnering with schools or nurseries can help you build a more stable income into your business than your community classes can alone is because you will start to experience having reduced expenses.
Your expenses would reduce if you were going in during the school or nursery day because they're not going to be asking you to hire the hall if it's not an after school club. You might be going in for curriculum work - enrichment workshops, PPA cover, nursery sessions, etc - with this type of work you're not hiring a hall so you will have reduced expenses. You’ve also got a captive audience in front of you so you're no longer feeling like you have to do all this ongoing marketing throughout the term, because you've already filled your places at the beginning of term.
With a captive audience, you're not worried about children leaving midway through the term or filling their places at the end of term. Schools are going to help you as it's in their best interest to help you market these classes. If they are extra-curricular clubs, then they can put promotions in their email newsletters to parents. They can send out flyers in book-bags on your behalf…or you can go in and do assemblies to let the children know that your club is available to them. Suddenly you are having to spend a lot less on your ongoing marketing as a result. So a lot of providers find that they have reduced expenses as a result.
Communicate Value For Money When Selling Children’s Activities To Schools Or Nurseries
What I really want you to remember is that when you're looking to build a more stable income by working with schools and nurseries, you don't have to worry about where they get their funding from! There are some quite complicated funding formulas. If you went and looked at a local authority budget, it would absolutely blow your mind.
There are so many different ways that a school or nursery could fund your services to get your children’s activity business into their setting.
But even if you understood the funding formulas…and you knew exactly what budget was being directed for that particular school…you still wouldn't know what that school’s priority was for spending that funding…and you still wouldn't know whether that school had already spent that funding or not! You are far better off spending your time communicating and demonstrating the value of what you do. Showcase what they will be investing in and how it is a sustainable use of their budget - that's when they will go and find the funding to get you in.
I have a saying in the Approaching Schools Academy - “When they see the value, they will find the budget.” Write that down if it resonates with you, because I want you to spend your time communicating and demonstrating the value of what you do, by sending your emails and letters and delivering free demos or assemblies so they can see what they will be investing in, how you are different to your competitors and how you are different to anything they could offer through their class teachers in-house. I want them to see how brilliant you are at delivering your activities and services so it is clear what the pupils are going to be learning and what the outcomes are going to be. This way they will see what the impact on their school or nursery is going to be by investing in your services.
What To Consider When Marketing An Offer To Schools Or Nurseries
What does your free offer look like?
What are the benefits to the school, the teachers or the pupils?
How does it align with the school or nursery’s values?
How does it link with the relevant curriculum?
How are you going to demonstrate what you do?
Are you going to be communicating with members of the Senior Leadership Team after that?
How will you package the value so that a school sees the long term benefits of your services?
My Approaching Schools Academy members have been quite surprised that they've actually found it just as easy to sell an annual contract in a school or a nursery as they have to sell a one-off workshop because they have showcased the value of that package. There is more value in partnering with you for longer than there is in a one-off booking. This is something that has made a tremendous impact not just on their business, but on their lives!
Taking Action On Growing Your Business By Working With Schools Or Nurseries
There is so much you can do with your children's activity business.
You are a change-maker. Go and enrich children's lives by combining your amazing services with formal education in your local schools and nurseries, because you will be future-proofing your business in the process.
If you enjoyed this guide, you can get support with taking the next step by downloading my free resources.
Approaching Schools Podcast [www.ceryskeneally.com/podcast]
Approaching Schools Quiz [www.ceryskeneally.com/freebies]
Approaching Schools Community [www.facebook.com/groups/primaryactivityproviderbusinessclub]
If you feel inspired by some of the stories I’ve shared, you can find out more about working with me and get on the waiting list for the Approaching Schools Academy here: www.ceryskeneally.com
Pebble customers can get 10% off their programme with PEBBLE10 when paying in full.
Hi children’s activity providers! It’s Cerys Keneally here and I want to share with you how you can build a more stable income into your business by working with schools or nurseries.
I am incredibly passionate about this because back when I started my own children’s activity business, I had just left a very strong and stable career in primary school teaching. I had never had a business before…I had to re-train as a dance teacher…and it was the “credit crunch.”
People thought I was mad!
But when I started partnering that business with schools and nurseries, I had a fantastic 107% increase in income that year, as opposed to just offering my community dance classes alone. When I realised the power of this, that was when I started focusing much more on strategies for getting my business into more schools and nurseries and partnering my team of dance teachers with education settings in their local areas as well.
Approaching Schools Academy
Since starting working with children's activity providers to help them get their businesses into schools and nurseries, this strategy has had a phenomenal impact on my Approaching Schools Academy members’ businesses as well.
Here are some examples:
A Mindfulness provider had a fantastic 75% revenue increase during the pandemic. She went from sporadic bookings to four full days per week in schools using pupil equity funding awarded to schools in Scotland, and she has since become a franchisor, with a fantastic national business
An early years Dance provider had an incredible 33% revenue increase in one year because she upgraded her nurseries and schools to longer sessions, and her schools were using Pupil Premium and pay premium to fund her dance lessons in schools and nurseries. She is also franchising her business now.
An MFL provider who had 50% of her previous nurseries permanently closing down after the pandemic, later went from 2 to 20 nursery and school sessions per week. She found that hers were being funded through grants and also parent pay. She now makes an extra £2,000 per month and doesn't have to worry about the bills anymore.
A Drama provider who had a 33% profit increase since the pandemic and went from 1 to 10 after school clubs, one of her schools used COVID Catch up premium to award £8,000 pounds to a certain project for her funded workshops. Within one year, she made an extra £30,000 from schools and since then she has made a lot more.
This is the power of working with schools and nurseries to bring in a more stable income.
How can working with schools or nurseries help you build financial stability into your business?
Well, even though we're in a “cost of living” crisis…there's been an energy crisis…there was a world pandemic…there's been a war…and back when I started my dance business, there was a credit crunch…Education will always be here.
Education was here during all of those times.
Children's activity providers just like yourself, have still been able to make it in their business by working with schools and nurseries.
So why is it that you can build a more stable income?
Funding Opportunities
Is it because there are opportunities to tap into ring-fenced funding, perhaps? I mentioned this with some of those case studies above. You have Pupil Equity Funding in Scotland or Pupil Premium funding in England and Wales. This is a fund that is uniquely awarded for specific children to have access to things like free school meals and also opportunities that they wouldn't normally be able to experience outside of school. They could get a place funded in your extra-curricular club, for example. So we're not just able to access specific funding streams, but we're also able to help more children who are perhaps not fortunate enough to come to our community classes, so we're reaching a bigger audience in this way.
Other types of ring-fenced funding might be, for example, the PE premium, which we know is being awarded to primary schools in England specifically to develop their PE curriculums. And a large portion of that is often spent on specialists coming in. There are other examples of ring-fenced funding as well. Schools have budgets attached to different subject areas of the curriculum and budgets to enrich learning as well.
Cross-curricular learning is something I want to bring to your attention because the more cross-curricular you can be, the more creative a school can be with their budget. If you are showcasing that your activity or service actually crosses a number of different subject areas, on the school's curriculum, those different curriculum areas are very often assigned different budgets, and particularly the core subjects like Literacy and Numeracy, for example - English and Mathematics. Those subject areas have slightly larger budgets because they are core subjects and are taught every single day in schools.
Reduced Expenditure
Another reason that partnering with schools or nurseries can help you build a more stable income into your business than your community classes can alone is because you will start to experience having reduced expenses.
Your expenses would reduce if you were going in during the school or nursery day because they're not going to be asking you to hire the hall if it's not an after school club. You might be going in for curriculum work - enrichment workshops, PPA cover, nursery sessions, etc - with this type of work you're not hiring a hall so you will have reduced expenses. You’ve also got a captive audience in front of you so you're no longer feeling like you have to do all this ongoing marketing throughout the term, because you've already filled your places at the beginning of term.
With a captive audience, you're not worried about children leaving midway through the term or filling their places at the end of term. Schools are going to help you as it's in their best interest to help you market these classes. If they are extra-curricular clubs, then they can put promotions in their email newsletters to parents. They can send out flyers in book-bags on your behalf…or you can go in and do assemblies to let the children know that your club is available to them. Suddenly you are having to spend a lot less on your ongoing marketing as a result. So a lot of providers find that they have reduced expenses as a result.
Communicate Value For Money When Selling Children’s Activities To Schools Or Nurseries
What I really want you to remember is that when you're looking to build a more stable income by working with schools and nurseries, you don't have to worry about where they get their funding from! There are some quite complicated funding formulas. If you went and looked at a local authority budget, it would absolutely blow your mind.
There are so many different ways that a school or nursery could fund your services to get your children’s activity business into their setting.
But even if you understood the funding formulas…and you knew exactly what budget was being directed for that particular school…you still wouldn't know what that school’s priority was for spending that funding…and you still wouldn't know whether that school had already spent that funding or not! You are far better off spending your time communicating and demonstrating the value of what you do. Showcase what they will be investing in and how it is a sustainable use of their budget - that's when they will go and find the funding to get you in.
I have a saying in the Approaching Schools Academy - “When they see the value, they will find the budget.” Write that down if it resonates with you, because I want you to spend your time communicating and demonstrating the value of what you do, by sending your emails and letters and delivering free demos or assemblies so they can see what they will be investing in, how you are different to your competitors and how you are different to anything they could offer through their class teachers in-house. I want them to see how brilliant you are at delivering your activities and services so it is clear what the pupils are going to be learning and what the outcomes are going to be. This way they will see what the impact on their school or nursery is going to be by investing in your services.
What To Consider When Marketing An Offer To Schools Or Nurseries
What does your free offer look like?
What are the benefits to the school, the teachers or the pupils?
How does it align with the school or nursery’s values?
How does it link with the relevant curriculum?
How are you going to demonstrate what you do?
Are you going to be communicating with members of the Senior Leadership Team after that?
How will you package the value so that a school sees the long term benefits of your services?
My Approaching Schools Academy members have been quite surprised that they've actually found it just as easy to sell an annual contract in a school or a nursery as they have to sell a one-off workshop because they have showcased the value of that package. There is more value in partnering with you for longer than there is in a one-off booking. This is something that has made a tremendous impact not just on their business, but on their lives!
Taking Action On Growing Your Business By Working With Schools Or Nurseries
There is so much you can do with your children's activity business.
You are a change-maker. Go and enrich children's lives by combining your amazing services with formal education in your local schools and nurseries, because you will be future-proofing your business in the process.
If you enjoyed this guide, you can get support with taking the next step by downloading my free resources.
Approaching Schools Podcast [www.ceryskeneally.com/podcast]
Approaching Schools Quiz [www.ceryskeneally.com/freebies]
Approaching Schools Community [www.facebook.com/groups/primaryactivityproviderbusinessclub]
If you feel inspired by some of the stories I’ve shared, you can find out more about working with me and get on the waiting list for the Approaching Schools Academy here: www.ceryskeneally.com
Pebble customers can get 10% off their programme with PEBBLE10 when paying in full.
May 28, 2024
•
9
min read
