Claire O’Hara provides children’s art and craft classes, kids bIrthday parties, after-school clubs and school workshops in and around Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Claire chats with the founder of The Creation Station Sarah Cressall.Claire shares her passion for bringing creativity into children lives and supporting their education through creativity.
Here is Claire’s story:
Claire O’Hara was a successful teacher but felt that creativity was being squeezed out of education. Claire decided she wanted to do something about it and decided to change her career to run her own award-winning creative arts and crafts franchise.
Here is Claire’s story:
Why I want to run my own creative business
“I have been a teacher for the past 8 years in a local primary school and before that, I was a Learning Mentor helping pupils access learning and with SEND needs or behavioural issues and even before that I ran a Theatre in Education business with my husband.
I am passionate about working with children and helping them reach their full potential in anything they want to achieve. After teaching to the constraints of a standard curriculum for so long it was time to break out and do something I could be in control of.
Creativity is so important and sadly it is being pushed out of the curriculum. In today’s fast-paced innovative world we need to equip our young people with the skills need to react to the changing landscape.
Whilst teaching I was occasionally able to create whole school theme days and learning for life days where I could be as innovative as I liked! I think this gave me the drive and motivation to more of this!
Why I decided to invest in a franchised business
I downloaded The Creation Station franchise info pack a few years ago, but it wasn’t quite the right time as my husband was starting his own business. I felt like the creation station offered me a lot of support and a good start-up package to help me really make a success of running my own business.
The Creation Station really stood out to me. Their brand values and the companies attitude towards children were a winner. The focus was on giving people a creative experience and explore what they can do rather than results-driven like education.
I learnt a lot more at the Discovery event. these are now run online and are a great way to find out more about whether its the right opportunity for you or not.
It is a big and exciting)step to run your own business! One of the barriers I had to overcome was the fear of taking that leap of faith. But I knew I was really not enjoying what I was doing as a job. I turned 40 and realised it was now or never! I needed a career that I really loved. Something I can grow and develop with for the rest of my working life.
There are eight of us who have set up our won Creation Station franchise during the pandemic and it’s been great to see everyone provide exciting online creative classes and enjoy building their business. I feel part of a great team as we work together to help support communities across the UK.
Running my business
The range of activities is excellent and reaches so many different groups of people. I loved my initial franchise training and the on-going support has been second to none! Even though we have had the Pandemic I’ve never felt alone.
I’ve run my classes online and provided crafts packs that have gone down a storm in Halifax! I’ve been able to build my customer database and there have been lots of online opportunities that wouldn’t have happened had it not been for lockdown. I’m very excited to launch safe face-to-face classes. We have all the approved practices and processes in place and an exciting range of plans and activities. Even though it’s been a challenging start to launching my business I am so glad I took the steps to run my own Creation Station. , I’m doing what I love and I loving what I do! And I couldn’t really ask for more than that!
If you would like to find out more download a Creation Station franchise information pack. It could be just what you are looking for.
