22 Locations, 270+ Coaches, 80% Admin Reduction with ClassForKids
After leaving his football career behind due to injury, Soccer Stars Director, Mark Molloy looked for a new way to continue his passion in the sport. After spotting a gap in the market for quality sessions, Mark decided to begin his own academy, using his experience to give kids in his local area the best experience with football.
Fast forward a few years, Mark now has a football franchise running across 22 locations in the UK that’s focused on getting children physically active and building their core life skills. But with so many franchise territories, 1000+ kids and over 270 coaches, how does Mark manage his franchise for success? And what key lessons can you take away from Mark’s journey?
See how
ClassForKids for the Franchisor
As a franchisor, Mark knew his role was about supporting his franchisees; from growing the franchise across territories to improving processes to venue performance, Mark wanted to build positive relationships with his franchisees. But he knew that no matter how good his model and support was, he couldn’t grow and support his network from a spreadsheet.
With a rapidly growing network, Mark needed a system in place to stay organised. With his main aim of having a clear oversight of how his franchise network was performing and automating as many of his processes as possible, Mark began the search for a booking software to support his goals. Having worked from spreadsheets in the past to manage bookings and payments, Mark knew this wasn't scalable. He wanted his franchisees to offer instant bookings and payments for their parents and have follow up communication without any manual intervention.
After demoing the ClassForKids system, Mark onboarded and never looked back. With a reduction in 80% of his admin, Mark can now fully support his franchisees in giving the best experience for customers across the franchise’s territories, support them in their journey to growth, and make their onboarding as easy as possible. With over 22 locations and 5 full time staff members to manage, ClassForKids is the tool that supports quality classes, growth and finding the right coaches to give the best Soccer Stars experience.
“As a franchisor, your role is to support your franchisees. There will be ups and downs – cancellations and growth to manage – but ClassForKids makes it easy to see everything.”
ClassForKids for the Franchisee
Following her passion for football and having worked alongside Mark in previous years, Laura knew that when it came to her goals and aspirations, franchising with Soccer Stars presented the perfect opportunity. Since becoming a franchisee, Laura has successfully franchised across 4 different locations with Soccer Stars spanning the length of the country, from Ayrshire to Inverness. But why franchising? Why didn’t Laura start her own academy?
Because so many of the processes were in place to get Laura off to a successful start. From session planning to operations manuals to staff management, Laura was able to create sessions to bridge the gap between playing for fun and getting into teams. And when it came to managing bookings, payments, and registers, Soccer Stars were able to provide a seamless onboarding experience to Laura and other franchisees with the ClassForKids system. By providing dedicated training time to provide the best customer experience, Mark was able to work with Laura to make sure he could support her by tying in finances and processes at a HQ level through ClassForKids.
ClassForKids has been a catalyst for Laura’s growth. By using the ClassForKids discovery site, Laura has made it easier for parents to discover and find classes in her local area alongside the booking software. With all venues, trial details, and finances available at a HQ level, Mark is there to support Laura in identifying areas for growth and improvement across the business.
As for the future, Laura aims to get Soccer Stars into more communities across the country through franchising, as well as continuing the development in relationships with schools and nurseries. ClassForKids will be a crucial tool in supporting the management of parent communication with features like the SMS tool, which updates parents instantly, as well as minimising admin time by automating bookings and payments.
Run your franchise with confidence
Speak to one of our business coaches and start today!
