Hi, I am the co-founder of Phonics with Robot Reg.
Me and my sister Alex were chatting over a glass of wine about how there were so many pre-school classes and yet none of them were educational! We were desperate to grow a business that fit in with family life and suddenly we had an idea for a business offering preschool phonics classes! Fast Forward four years to March 2020, I decided to use my skills and expertise to support other women in business so I opened a side hustle ‘The Entrepreneurs Growth Club’ both of my businesses I absolutely LOVE and give me the opportunity to build a business around my little boy!
Three weeks after we had that initial conversation over the glass of wine we launched our first class, we wanted to make sure there was a market for our Phonics classes before we wrote a whole syllabus and there really was! Our classes were fully booked before we had even finished writing the content, but I think in business that is the best way to be. Often people can be focused on being perfect, but I think, get your idea out into the world and see what your audience makes of it, you will need to be flexible and adapt along the way anyway. It is all a work in progress.
It hasn’t all been easy though, we have had lots of challenges along the way, including growing so quick we struggled to adapt as quickly as we needed to, we have also had people copy our content and a company threatened legal action with us for having the same name! At first when we came against problems I used to get upset and want to throw the towel in, but I have grown so much as a business owner that I now see any obstacle as an opportunity to learn!
Balancing work and family life has always been really important to us, and we never miss out on a class assembly, sports day or school nativity! We set the business up specifically so we didn’t have to miss these things, but actually I love what I do so working is fun, being with my family is fun, and I try and incorporate the two as well. My little boy absolutely loves attending our classes and has had many amazing opportunities because of our business. One to note is when we launched our classes in Australia and we had the opportunity to fly out to launch them and we talk all our family including our parents out there too, our children were thrilled to be a part of it!
I am inspired by other business owners, following their journey, I absolutely love reading business and personal development books and I love learning new skills! I have learnt so much about myself through running my businesses including the fact that anything is possible and this has helped me both in my businesses but also in my personal life.
2019 saw me learning how to run, I started the year not being able to run for two minutes without being a hot sweaty mess, and I ended the year running a half marathon in 2 hours 13 minutes.
I have come so far over the past four years of running these two businesses but I still think I’m at the start of my journey, I have so much that I want to achieve.
I have gone from 0-50 franchisees, started my own podcast, launched a membership site for The Entrepreneurs Growth Club, and I have so many plans for the future.
Anything is possible….. literally anything! As long as you are willing to work hard, and NEVER give up!
