Children's Activity Provider Resources

Do clubs and associations need to charge VAT on membership subscriptions? It’s a question many UK activity providers, sports clubs, and organisations face as they grow. This guide breaks down when subscription fees are VAT-exempt, when VAT applies, and how HMRC rules affect different types of income. You’ll learn how VAT registration impacts your pricing, why non-profit status matters, and how to handle mixed income streams like classes, events, and memberships. Whether you’re running a sports club, association, or children’s activity business, this article gives you a clear, practical way to stay compliant and avoid costly mistakes.

If your children’s activity business is approaching the £90,000 VAT threshold, understanding what comes next is essential. This practical guide explains when you need to register for VAT, which activities are exempt or standard-rated, and how VAT impacts your pricing, margins and growth plans. Designed for UK activity providers such as dance schools, sports clubs, holiday camps and tutoring businesses, it breaks down complex VAT rules into simple, actionable insights so you can plan ahead with confidence.

Recent changes to UK tax rules, particularly the rollout of Making Tax Digital (MTD), are changing how small businesses manage their records and report to HMRC. This guide explains what MTD is, who it applies to, and what small business owners need to do to stay compliant. From key deadlines and digital record-keeping requirements to common myths about quarterly tax reporting, this article provides a clear overview to help SMEs prepare for the shift to digital tax administration.

Managing royalties across a franchise network can be a complex task, but it doesn’t have to be. This blog explores how franchisors can streamline royalty reconciliation, maintain brand consistency, and empower their franchisees with automation. Learn how the best booking platform for activities and online payment solutions for clubs can eliminate manual errors, ensure timely payments, and enhance the overall booking experience. Discover how modern digital solutions can simplify operations and drive long-term success for your franchise.

Are you considering expanding your business through franchising in the UK? It's really common that providers in this sector look at it as a way to grow and it’s a significant step that offers potential for growth and profitability, but it also requires careful planning and consideration. Franchising can be a mutually beneficial arrangement for both the franchisor (the business owner) and franchisees (those who buy into the business), but it's essential to understand the complexities involved. Here are some key considerations to keep in mind when franchising your business in the UK based on 30 years in this sector, 22 of it in franchising and the last 13 years helping businesses in this sector grow and in the process working with nearly one hundred franchisors at various stages of their business on a variety of different types of projects.

As anyone who’s ever worked with children or has their own children will know, with kids around you never know what might happen! As a class instructor or organiser people will look to you for advice on what to do in an emergency so it’s vitally important to have the skills, knowledge, and confidence to know how to act quickly, appropriately and efficiently in the event of an emergency involving a baby or child. At Daisy First Aid we provide essential first aid skills to children’s activity providers like you, so you and your customers can be confident should the unexpected happen.

You’ve ticked off the training and are launching your very own baby classes or courses, supporting people at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives. You do what you think you should: set up the Instagram account, order posters and tell everyone you know about your new venture… And then you wait. Your first few classes might have some interest – everyone loves to check out the new experience in their local town. But activities relating to pregnancy, birth and babies are unique. If you own one of these businesses, your marketing strategy needs to be unique too. Parents find themselves in a brand-new world where every new milestone in pregnancy changes their hopes and fears. Babies and their routines change rapidly too. It leaves activity providers and antenatal instructors in a difficult position – we need to be growing our audience constantly to attract new people in. 

Welcome to Pebble’s guide to Photography for Nurseries and Kids Activity Suppliers. Why do we think high-quality photographs are important? They not only grab the attention of your ideal customers but they can showcase your offerings at a glance. A well-chosen photo can even establish trust by putting a friendly face to your business.

When people think of content for websites, it is easy to immediately think of blogs, but there is a lot more to content creation than that. Broadly speaking, ‘content’ covers everything that you write for your website and your images and videos as well. Within this guide, you can learn about how to optimise your written content to rank well in search engines, and help people visiting your site to navigate your content.

Ofsted is the regulatory body in England overseeing childcare services and education to ensure compliance with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Whether you're a newcomer to the world of children's activities or fine-tuning your existing business structure, choosing a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is a strategic move that can significantly impact your playful venture. Setting up your children's activity business is like stepping into a giant playground of possibilities. In this guide, we're here to make the process as simple as child's play, holding your hand through the baby steps of LLP formation.

Just like orchestrating the perfect playdate, understanding VAT exemption for your children's activity business can add an extra layer of fun to your venture. In this guide, we'll hold your hand as we explore the playful realms of VAT exemption and how it may or may not lead to the next exciting step – LLP formation.

Having the right setup on Facebook and Instagram can really help drive more traffic to your website or your Pebble page. There are a few ways you can do this like linking directly from a story post, or using LinkTree on Instagram. But the simplest is just adding a button to link straight from your Facebook page to where parents and guardians can complete a booking. We’ve added a step-by-step guide below on how to add a booking link to your Facebook below.

If you're a children’s activity provider trying to get the word out to parents and guardians about your awesome activities, having a strong online presence is key. With the rise of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, it has become increasingly important to provide a centralised hub for sharing important links. This is where Linktree comes in. Linktree is a powerful tool that allows you to consolidate multiple links into one place, providing your audience with easy access to all your important content and resources. This saves you the hassle of constantly updating your Instagram bio or other social media profiles with individual links. There is a free plan available, so you can create a user-friendly experience for your audience without spending a pound! Read on to learn how to use it.

Email remains one of the most effective marketing channels for driving sales and engagement for children’s activities providers. But how do we get our audience on your email list in the first place? We don’t give out our phone numbers freely, and email can be the same. We need a compelling offer to entice the perfect audience to become subscribers. A lead magnet is a free asset or special deal offered to customers in exchange for their contact details. We can use a lead magnet to capture our ideal customers with a juicy offer, build a workflow that connects these emails into an email marketing platform, and convert them in their inbox by growing the know, like, and trust factor. A lead magnet could be a free trial, a discount code, VIP access, an activity sheet, templates, workbooks, and much more.

In this brief guide, we delve into Email Marketing 101 with guest expert Tamara Holland from Dot & Stripe. She is an award-winning marketing consultant with over 20+ years of experience including as a franchisee for a messy play franchise.

Welcome to Pebble’s guide on how to set up and optimise your Google Business Profile. We’ve delved into the initial set up, adding information about your business and how to make the most of Search, as well as how to know how many people have seen your profile, how many people called your business from your profile and what they searched for that led to your profile appearing in search results.

Every time you search in Google there are hundreds of thousands, even millions of potential results that you could see. At its core, the internet is like a huge library and it’s Google’s job to hone these results down to what is likely to be the most useful results for you.