Case Study – Water Babies

From Kitchen Table to International Brand

Water Babies Business

I’m Paul Thompson, Co-founder of Water Babies. We are a baby swimming
company. We teach children from zero to four years of age, but our
speciality is under one, our youngest ever client being 2 days old.

Here’s a great story!

Combine a good idea with something that people have a need for, and mix that with
company founders who really care. Not just about their success, but helping others
achieve their dreams.
Water Babies is the (now well known) name of that franchise, and this is part of their
story…

Franchising Discovered
When we first come across The Franchising Centre, it was very early on in our
growth story, so it was actually back in 2003. We started in 2002 and franchising, for
us, embryonically began six months later, towards the end of 2002. We did it off our
own backs a little bit. Almost embarrassed to say, we sort of made up our own
franchising processes with basic research. When we launched our two first trial
franchises, really, in a little bit of a Heath Robinson kind of way, they both took off.
They exploded instantly, and at that point, we realised not that we’ve got an amazing
business, but actually we’re now responsible for two families. My intention was to try
and get some help, to try and find some professional advice. I realised that we
needed to do that.
“Actually, I don’t know if you can franchise…”
That’s when I bumped into Bill Pegram from The Franchising Centre. What struck
me about Bill was the honesty of his approach, apart from the professionalism, but
the honesty of his approach. We spoke to many consultants and almost all of them
said, “Yes, you can franchise,” but Bill said, “Actually, I don’t know if you can
franchise. You’re very, very new. You’ve been approached to be franchisors really,
really quickly. Yes, you’ve set up a couple of pilots, but it’s all very new. It’s all very
fast. You haven’t really settled down and established yourself as a proper entity.”
So he was much more questioning about it and, actually, that appealed to me
because we do business very, very professionally and we’re very honest, and that
was that approach. Actually, what he said to me was, “I will see if I think you are
suitable for being a franchisor,” so he had my attention straight away. Bill’s approach
was entirely professional. I learned huge amounts about becoming a franchisor from
Bill. To be perfectly frank, we wouldn’t be here without that initial relationship with
Bill. It’s as simple as that.
International Expansion
Water Babies is expanding internationally. We’re already in Ireland and that’s been
really successful for us, and that spurred us on to go further afield. We have
approached The Franchising Centre to help us to do that. You absolutely have to
have professional advice. If you think you can do it on your own, I really would urge
you to think again. You will get is so badly wrong. I really believe that. So do get
proper professional advice. There are things that you would not even begun to have
thought about, that you will the benefit of that advice. Obviously, we have used the
international arm of The Franchising Centre, and in working Farrah Rose, who has
helped us and guided us through that process, and they have been amazing. I can’t
use another word, absolutely amazing.

The Franchising Centre…have a network of franchise consultants

The other great thing that The Franchising Centre do when they put you into another
country is actually giving you the right professional advice in that country. They have
a network of franchise consultants in each of the countries that you would be
interested in going into, and they work with them and you to make you a success in
that country. The support structure that you get, as well as the historical
understanding and knowledge, is absolutely vital if you’re going to be successful.

I think it’s very easy when you run your own business to become tunnel-visioned and
think that the way you’re doing it is the only way to do it. It’s very much not our way
in Water Babies, and what the Value Builder process does is bring an external view
of our processes and our systems, and really makes us question whether they are fit
for purpose. It’s an integral part of systems now, on a regular basis, and it tests what
we’re doing, and it asks us the right questions. We can see where we’re good well,
we can see where we’re falling short, and we can make sure that we’re constantly
adapting to be the best that we can be, so really important.

The Value Builder process, we initially brought in to help us as franchisor, and in

terms of our systems, back to our franchisees, but what we then realised was,
actually, it’s a tool that we could use actually within our franchisees. We have
something called a Watermark, which is the name we give our business review of
our franchisees. When you’re a Water Babies franchisee, we come and see you after
your first year, formally, to do a proper business review with you, and then that’s
repeated every two years. We call that the Watermark.

But with Value Builder, we’ve actually realised that we can remodel the Watermark,
incorporating Value Builder, to actually, again, do a more … even more detailed
assessment process of our franchisees on a regular basis, and that’s what’s now
happening. It’s actually developed beyond us, as a franchisor, to actually being rolled
out across our network, and almost certainly, it will go into our international network
as well.

We’ve got a very good, strong working relationship with The Franchising
Centre
We started with The Franchising Centre within one year of Water Babies starting
(2002), and it’s never stopped. They helped us to start our first UK franchise
business, of course, becoming a franchisor in the UK. They then helped us to go into
Ireland, as our first international foray, and we’re now working with them closely to
go further afield around the world, and we’re also working with them on their Value
Builder model as well, so it’s constant, and actually, I think that relationship will
continue for as long as Water Babies is around. We’ve got a very good, strong
working relationship with The Franchising Centre.

Please read and understand the case study provided and answer all the questions.
1. How did the Water Babies business start?
2. What about the support available in the form of finance and advisory services?
3. How do Water Babies penetrate the international market?
4. What is your view of the spirit shown by the founder of Water Babies?
5. What lessons did you learn from this case study?