Unlocking creativity and fun: Confessions of a Mess Around franchisee!

Messy play is a type of play that involves exploring different materials and textures with hands, feet and sometimes the whole body. While some parents shy away from messy play because of the mess it creates, there are actually numerous benefits to allowing children to engage in this type of play.

After being a primary teacher for over 20 years I joined Mess Around as a franchisee. It seemed like the perfect transition – I still got to interact with the families and make a mess but I could do it on my own terms!

I love messy play and know that it is great developmentally for children, I hate it in my house! I didn’t want it in the house, I didn’t have the time to prep and set it all up for my daughter to spend a grand total of 10 minutes and then have to clean it all down again.

Mess Around offered the best of both worlds – all the prep and setting up done, so many activities that they can flit from activity to activity and not get bored and even better no mess in my house and all the cleaning up done! I was hooked by the ethos that Mess Around offered, the party feel, the unstructured play and bringing parent and children together to make memories. Joining a franchise meant that I could hit the ground running as all the hard work had been done for me. There was a proven business model so I knew exactly who to market to, where to find my customer and how to make sure my events were profitable. I had support from a franchisor and a team of franchisees. It really was the best of both worlds because I was still my own boss! I picked when and where I run classes and how many hours I spend a week on my business.

A Mess Around session brings so much joy to our families. The smiles, the laughs, the fun. It makes me so happy to see the pure joy on the families faces. Seeing them return month after month. Watching the reluctant little one begin to embrace the mess. It’s so rewarding. I get a real sense of purpose.

Being a franchisee is challenging, I would be lying to say it isn’t. Firstly its damn hard! So much equipment to pack in the car and then to move into the venue. 90 mins to get everything looking perfect, knowing in seconds it will be spread far and wide, and then there is the clean down at the end. Another 90 mins at the venue and a further hour at home. I can easily hit 10k steps in a session. It can also be lonely, but having a great team at the end of Facebook and What’s app really help – there is always someone there to be your cheer leader or listen to you, or share ideas.

A typical day is packing the car the night before, getting to a venue at 8.30am setting up and being ready to let customers in at 10am. I then spend the next hour greeting customers, chatting, wiping up spills, changing water, taking pictures and filling the room with bubbles. After dancing with the snow storm at 11am the big clean up begins. By 12:30pm I am in the car and heading back to my unit, here I will spend the next hour cleaning and re-packing all the toys before heading to collect my daughter from school. Once she is in bed I then upload the photos from the day, answer any emails and catch upon any admin. As I am my own boss I can choose the start and finish times of my events, I am fortunate that my husband can do the school drop off but if I needed to I could fit my events into the school day.

I love the fact that I have flexibility in my routine, although I tend to book my venues 12 months in advance, if I know something is coming up I can make changes to fit it all in. It means I can attend sports days, parents evenings, Christmas productions. It means I can take my daughter to her swimming lesson and parties she is invited too. I love that I can be more present in my children’s lives and it has really made a difference to our relationships. It has become a family affair, my older two are often seen helping at the weekend and my youngest likes to help me prep

Being a Mess Around franchisee is truly the best thing I ever did!

 

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