Lucy Martin knows all about what makes a great franchisee. The former high school French teacher is one of the highest earners at Language for Fun, having taken the leap to self-employment six years ago.
Lucy had previously thrived in the “dynamic” education system. But going back to school after a break to have children of her own, Lucy realised she had fallen out of love with her job.
“If I’d stayed in the field I would’ve probably been relatively senior by then,” she says. “Instead there were people ordering me around and it started doing my head in.In the end, I just gave in my notice and left with no plans. I really did a bit of an audit. I thought ‘What do I do? What do I want and what don’t I want?’”
The mum-of-two, from Bexleyheath, southeast London, started doing some research into the best jobs for former teachers. Her years of experience had left her with a host of valuable skills.
She was disciplined and organised – not to mention completely unflappable under pressure.
Would she be able to start her own business?
“I saw an advert for one of the kids’ language franchises and I thought ‘I wonder if there’s anything similar for adults?’”, she says. “That’s when I found out about Language for Fun.”
After meeting with founder Jessica Bonnard online, Lucy soon gained the confidence to sign up and teach her own classes. She now runs one of the company’s biggest centres in Greenwich, southeast London.
“My biggest reservation was that I wasn’t a business person,” she says. “And I was left to exercise my own judgement, but with their support and training and proven strategy behind me.”
Lucy works with a group of self-employed tutors, running French, Italian and Spanish lessons at times to suit hundreds of learners. And when she teaches, she enjoys it more than ever before.
She says: “Teaching people who are actually having fun means I’m having fun, which is exactly what teaching is supposed to be like. It’s a complete transformation for your quality of life as a teacher.”
The entrepreneur now makes £26,000 in profit from her part-time job, working just a few hours most weeks with school holidays off. She is one of dozens of former teachers to have found their new roles in the Language for Fun family.
Founded by ex-teacher Jessica in 2007, the franchise has 70 centres around the country. They teach French, Spanish and Italian to more than 2,500 adults between them – and the number is growing all the time.
To find out more about jobs for ex-teachers at Language for Fun, visit languageforfun.org/teach.
Read our blog on: ‘Do Teachers Make Good Franchisees’ to gain insight into this market and make informed decisions about this business model and if it is the right fit for you.
