A Day in the Life of a Franchisee

Anna Morgan, Director of Footlights Sale, gives an insight into her Saturday morning routine

My Saturday mornings usually begin around 8.45am; I arrive 45 minutes before the start of our first class to set up and make sure all rooms are ready for the students. It is important to me that our reception area looks welcoming and professional, to make that good first impression to free trials and existing students.

My first job is to get the kettle on (of course!), then I check all the rooms. Once the teaching teams arrive around 9.20am, we have a catch-up; I brief them on the students, that day’s free trials, and any additional needs.  Our youngest group arrives at 9.30am and are signed in.  I chat with parents and carers, fulfil any merchandise requirements (sales and orders of hoodies or t-shirts) and wait for the main school to arrive at 9.45am. It gets very busy, and the building comes alive with activity – it’s the most wonderful experience, and you find yourself going from 0 – 100 in under an hour!

It’s all go from this point; ideally, we have all main school students (7-18 years) together for a huge group warm-up until 10am when we break off into smaller groups by age. There are three groups – F1 (7-8 years), F2 (9-11 years), F3 (12-18 years) and the groups then rotate between acting, singing and dance. We have a 15-minute break at 11.50am where I sell toast, drinks and general tuck items, and catch up with what’s been going on in their lives, it gives me the chance to really get to know my students/clients. The teachers also get the opportunity to have a break and an essential catch-up with each other on progress in classes to ensure we are all on track for the show or end-of-term presentations.  Following the break it’s back to class and at the end we join together to present ‘Star of The Week’ and sign all our students out.