Flexible Working - The Creation Station

Flexible Working

Achieving Flexible Working Around Family Life

Anna Makin- South Derbyshire  Creation Station Franchisee

Awarded her Franchise in  April 2009

Anna Makin's first contact with the Creation Station was when took her toddler and baby to enjoy the fun art and craft ‘Exploration' sessions. They loved it and when Anna saw how popular the weekly sessions were she realised that running her own franchise could give her the flexible working life she had been craving.

"I started going to the Creation Station because I wanted to get out of the house to do something creative with my daughter and it was really easy to taking my baby son there too. We loved the session each week. It was fun, sociable and relaxing and I didn't have to clear up the mess! 

"The session nearest me was run by the Creation founder, Sarah Cressall.  I spoke to her about how much we looked forward to our time there and asked her about the franchising opportunities. I was really lucky as Sarah offered me a job as an Exploration session leader, running one of her sessions each week. This was a great way of finding out what it was like to be ‘on the other side'. It was really good fun and I loved being on the go all the time. It also made me realise that I really could do this as a business. The model was clearly successful and I knew I would get great support from Sarah."

Anna was especially drawn to the creative aspects of the business as she has a career background in industrial product design. After having her first child she went back to work full time but wasn't happy. "It just didn't work for me," she said. "My priorities had completely changed." Anna cut down to three days a week but then decided to leave her job and make money by designing and selling greeting cards from home. When she had her second baby her desire to find a business that would fit around her family life was even stronger. The Creation Station franchise seemed the perfect solution. Anna arranged to buy the territory adjacent to the one she had been working in for Sarah. It was ideal as it included her home village.

"Once I decided to start my own business I got a lot of support and advice from Sarah and also from The Prince's Trust. I used the Creation Station template to prepare a business plan and was successful in obtaining an interest free loan from the Sir Thomas White Charity. I will start running Exploration sessions in September but I have already been working hard to get my name out in the local community. I took a stand at a Mother and Baby Show in the nearby town and also ran Creation Station activities at a local festival. I've been making good contacts with local playgroups and venues and have negotiated a good room hire rate with a local leisure centre. I have lots of ideas for promoting my business such as running a session for charity. I have always got leaflets with me so I can hand them out or leave a supply whenever there is an opportunity.

"My daughter has now started school and my son is at preschool for two days a week so I plan to run sessions on those days at two different venues then, as numbers increase, I can run additional sessions. My ideal situation would be to fill my child free days with the Creation Station and devote the other days to my children while they are still young. I'm also looking forward to running Arty Parties at weekends. My husband is really happy with this as he loves to have some time with the children and take them out.

"Having children completely changed me and now I want to be around kids all the time. This business is perfect. I love the fact that you can make it your own and it has the flexibility to grow and expand as my lifestyle allows."