Q & A for Claire Jones
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Claire Jones, ex Primary School Teacher, on what attracted her to pursue a franchise opportunity with Music Bugs®.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I have been married for 10 years to Chris, who is a civil engineer and we have 2 boys aged 5 and 7. Once qualified, I pursued a career as a primary school teacher and continued with this until the birth of my children.
2. What did you do before joining Music Bugs?
To support my study years, I spent 7 years working part time for Debenhams. I have also worked as a cleaner, an insurance clerk and for the foreign exchange department at Thomas Cook.
3. What attracted you to Music Bugs?
I was specifically looking for opportunities that would enable me to continue working with young children but give me the flexibility to be my own boss and fit the running of my business around my commitments to my family. It was also important to me to pursue an opportunity that was informal and fun for children. Music Bugs ticked all of these boxes.
4. Did you consider other franchise opportunities?
Yes, I looked at a couple of other opportunities but they didn’t meet my own personal requirements in the same way Music Bugs did. After meeting with Claire, I was invited to visit a class run by one of the other franchisees to get a sense of what the classes are like and what it means to be a Music Bugs franchisee. I was completely sold after this and didn’t need to look elsewhere.
5. What territory do you cover?
I cover virtually the whole of Wolverhampton which has very recently been awarded City status. My territory also includes parts of Dudley which is great for me as that is where I live. It was important to me to live inside my territory in an area that I know very well and where the commute to classes was accessible and straightforward.
6. What training and support have you received to establish your franchise?
I attended a 3 day training course with 3 other franchisees. The training was a great help and gave me the opportunity to network with the other franchisees who were new to the business. On a regular basis, Claire provides both phone and email support and our frequent catch up calls last around an hour which gives me the time to run through anything I need too. Claire is very helpful at providing marketing ideas to promote my business and is always available to help with any problems or queries I have.
7. What activities are you planning for your classes?
I am relatively new to the Music Bugs franchise network and have so far delivered sessions at local nurseries and toddler groups. I have just secured new venues in Penn and Bilston which is very exciting and am currently looking at other areas to run classes. I am looking forward to running themed sessions in the future and am just about to host my first Music Bugs birthday party which I hope to deliver more of in the future.
8. What do you think you will enjoy most about being your own boss?
There are very few careers that give you the opportunity to run your own business around family and personal commitments. For me this is a huge benefit of being your own boss. It is important to me to take and collect my children from school and my franchise with Music Bugs enables me to do this as I determine my hours and days of work. I have a good work life balance and consider myself fortunate that I have a career that I really enjoy.
9. And finally, what was your favourite nursery rhyme when you were a child?
There are many to choose from, but I have to go with Little Miss Muffet.
