Experience the rewards of running your own business

By Kim and Charli, Mucky Pups, West Surrey

The opportunity to purchase a business package for an established arts and crafts club for children arose three years ago. We carried out some simple research into what was available in the area and then decided to go ahead with the purchase and have been developing and establishing the club in the West Surrey area ever since.

The fact that we were able to run the classes around our family lives and during term-time, plus could continue to use our business experience, as well as creativity whilst planning the weekly themes, was a perfect fit for us.  It gave us the challenge of creating an established name in the world of pre-school art and craft classes in West Surrey, plus the chance to successfully set up a completely new class for a younger age range that had not yet been tried.

Our new venture allowed us to really get our teeth into something new, learn additional skills and useful business practices, in addition to giving us the chance to get back into employment but enjoying the fact that we answered only to ourselves. At the same time we were delighted to be able to continue giving our daughters the attention they required, since the working hours fitted into family life.  It meant the best of both worlds!

In our opinion no academic skills are required, although having said that we have found that having good common sense, a good accountant to keep the money side in order and lots of creative ability and imagination has been essential to running a successful arts and crafts business.  And of course, where would this club be without little people and their carers to enjoy it?  So some knowledge and drive to advertise and promote the club was also essential, but again nothing that was too taxing.

The rewards have been many but to name a few; our creative skills have been challenged on a weekly basis, putting together new and imaginative crafting ideas that cover as many of the sensory bases as possible.  This has been particularly good for keeping our ‘grey matter’ ticking over and has allowed us to accumulate up to three years worth of class

themes and accompanying activities!   One of the biggest rewards has been watching children develop their skills during the course of the term and seeing the delight they get from having completed a craft successfully and to

their satisfaction.

Our motto has always been ‘it is the process and not the product that makes it fun’ and this is very true from our point of view as the business owners and organisers - we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t enjoy it!  It is also very true from the point of view of the children attending the classes - as long as they have fun putting the suggested crafts together, using the suggested processes (or not!), it doesn’t matter what the end product looks like.  Along with the children we learnt new skills and experienced new techniques along the way, all of which we will store away in our brains to use again at a later date!

If you are interested in running a Mucky Pups business please contact Kim or Charli at westsurrey@mucky-pups.com or call us on 07500 544828