In a savvy move to get their children off waiting lists and into life-saving swimming lessons, mums are diving into the business of owning their own swim schools.
“Over 90 per cent of enquiries for new swim school franchises are now coming from mums,” said JUMP! Swim Schools CEO Mark Collins. “300 parents have enquired in the past six months and all of the sites earmarked to open in the next six months will be owned by mothers.”
Parents are very keen to get their kids swimming again since lockdown kept them out of the water.
“There’s huge demand right now,” Collins said. “Many new swim schools are booked out before the doors even open.”
Joining forces
Failing to find swimming lessons for their own children inspired Jess Arnold and Lenka Markova (pictured) to join forces as JUMP! franchisees. Arnold, a part-time dental assistant with a five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son, thought it was ironic that she was unable to find lessons in her local surf-side town of Torquay.
“Even in Geelong there were long waiting lists,” she said.
Markova, also a mum with two young children, found that the main local swimming school had a waiting list 500 names long.
“We thought there must be so many parents in the same boat,” Arnold said. “Sometimes we mums just have to take matters into our own hands – so that’s what we did. There was a problem and, rather than sit around and wait for the solution to happen, we solved it.”
Their JUMP! Swim School opened in June – and, with no more promotion than word of mouth and posts on social media, 800 students have already been enrolled.
“A franchise makes it super easy for parents to start a new business, even if they don’t have previous experience,” Collins said. “They can also make the business work around family demands, which is another reason why our model is so popular.”
