From a career break to being her own boss

Culvinder Kaur has gone from client management to managing her own art business. She says becoming a franchisee means she has had all the support she needed not just at the start, but throughout Covid, to make the transition and change her life.

Culvinder, from Worcestershire, worked in client management from the age of 21, having graduated in Business Studies whilst working full time and studying in the evenings. In 2010 was made redundant and became a full-time mother to her two children. In her spare time she would help at her children’s primary school and she also re-trained to be a teaching assistant.

By 2019, however, she realised that being a teaching assistant was not for her and that she wanted to try and be her own boss. A friend suggested a franchise was possibly the easiest transition into owning her own business. The friend did, however, state that it has to be the right franchise with a proper support structure in place.

Culvinder headed to the Franchise Exhibition and there she met Mike Curry, owner of The Seasons Art Class franchise. She says: “I was instantly taken with the idea of running my own art franchise. Having had limited to exposure to art as a child, I was blown away with the idea of entering a whole new world of creativity. Mike spent quite a long time
chatting to me and talking over the details of the franchise. I was sold there and then and have never looked back.”

Support

Culviner says she has found the franchise to be massively supportive in helping her to launch her business. She says: “They have a terrific support structure in place which ranged from helping me to find my ideal venue, advertising and helping to interview my tutor. They also provide a highly supportive drop box document base, which led me by the hand from the initial planning stages to launching on site in October 2019. They even sent along their lead tutor on my launch day to help support and guide me through my nerve-wracking first day.”

Covid struck in March 2020 and like everyone Culvinder had to shut down during the lockdowns. She says the franchise was again very supportive in providing useful guidance, videos and information on how to successfully run classes online. She chose not to go online, but she is aware of many classes who successfully operated during this time.

Her future plans are to expand her business by possibly buying another branch in another area, possibly in early 2023. She has been building her business by advertising at the start of each new term and by word of mouth.

She states: “I genuinely love, love, love running my art classes. All my students are fabulous and incredibly creative. If anyone is looking to start their own franchise, I would highly recommend Seasons Art Class.”

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