How a Busylizzy customer turned into an award-winning franchisee

09-September-2021

The flexibility of Busylizzy mum-and-baby clubs appealed so much to Katherine Ainslie that she bought her own franchise - and that same flexibility proved so invaluable during the pandemic that she’s landed a major industry award.

Katherine, owner of Busylizzy in Richmond and Twickenham, has won the Great British Franchisee Award for her prowess in making it profitable after only three months, then coping with whatever the pandemic could throw at her.

Having discovered Busylizzy during her maternity leave, the former actuary had been looking for a more flexible work-life balance that would let her spend more time with her daughter and give her a new challenge with the chance to add to her skills.

“I loved the concept of Busylizzy and the choice and flexibility it offers to expectant and new mums,” says Katherine. “That makes it different to all the other providers out there.

“Having a new baby can be a lonely time for some mums, and Busylizzy provides a community of local mums and friendly instructors and staff where they know they’ll always be welcomed and supported.”

She says Busylizzy is unique in the mum-and-baby market because mothers only need to pay for the classes they have, rather than for a whole term in advance, and that’s an advantage when they need to miss a class through holiday or illness or the baby’s nap pattern changes.

Katherine offers face-to-face classes for pregnant clients and new mothers in several locations, but she and her fellow franchisees not only survived but thrived during the pandemic thanks to the network’s Facebook community Busylizzy Live, which was launched within a week of the first lockdown starting.

“The joint effort to establish such a high quality online offering so quickly enabled us to retain a high proportion of existing members by keeping them engaged through lockdown, and to market to new ones before many other competitors had a chance to get set up online,” she says.

“The cost and workload of the new service would not have been viable for an individual franchise to host, but as a network we were able to combine strengths and share resources, splitting the costs to reduce the cost per unit considerably.

“Members were grateful to have such an extensive timetable of classes throughout lockdown, set up so quickly.

“There was also an influx of new online members at the start of lockdown, which benefitted us when lockdown was eased, as many of them upgraded to local memberships when classes resumed.”

The Great British Franchisee Awards recognise franchisees’ exceptional performance and business experience, ability to drive business growth, staff retention, customer satisfaction, community involvement, inspired leadership, and franchise involvement.

The awards are run by whichfranchise, supported by Lloyds Bank, BDO, AMO Consulting and Chantry Group.

• Read more about the awards at https://www.whichfranchise.com/awards

• For over 25 years, whichfranchise has promoted ethical franchise opportunities in the UK. Learn more at https://www.whichfranchise.com/