02 - Building to Sell: Navigating the Journey of Selling Your Business

Mark Rasche and Mike Roberts are joined in the virtual studio by Get Active founders Shaun, Ryan, and Rob.

Learn how they built and scaled their sports and childcare business, the challenges they faced, and the process of successfully selling the company.

They also share insights on building strong management teams and the importance of staff training. Discover how their new venture, Storyy Group, continues to make a positive impact. This episode is packed with valuable advice for entrepreneurs looking to sell their business or grow in the industry.

Edited by Mike at Making Digital Real

Transcript

Rebecca Christian: 0:01

Welcome to playbook for success. The ultimate podcast for professionals in the world of children's activities, play, childcare, sports, leisure, and beyond. Hosted by industry veteran Mark Russia, and digital marketing expert Mike Roberts. This podcast is your go to resource for invaluable insights, strategies, and stories from inspiring leaders in these dynamic sectors. Join us as we sit down with experts, entrepreneurs, and innovators to uncover the secrets to success, navigate through failures and glean essential learnings from their journeys. Whether you're seeking to get to the next level, build a thriving business, achieve your ambitions or strike the perfect balance between work and life, among many other things playbook for success is your roadmap to excellence.

Mike Roberts: 0:58

Hey, everyone, welcome to another playbook for success podcast episode where we explore the strategies that transform goals into achievements. So as you know, I'm the co host, Mike, we've got the main host here, Mark. Hello, Mark. Hi, Mark. Hi, everyone. And we've got some amazing guests today. But before we do, I'll just have a very quick introduction. So in today's session, we are stepping into the world of exits, acquisitions, many entrepreneurs, you know, dream of the day that they might sell their venture, although some don'ts, which is what we're going to look at today. But what does that journey really look like? So we are joined today by the founders of is it get active? Is that right? We've got Shawn, Ryan and Rob. So over to you guys. Let's hear from you would love to you to introduce yourselves the business. And then we're going to get into some good questions.

Unknown: 1:54

Okay, so I'm Rob one of the three. We start getting to sports in blimey testing my memory 2012 2012. Yeah. So before we started out of the three of us had our own individual businesses, which I'm sure Shawn and Ryan will talk about. We had our own businesses in the same field in the sports coach in the childcare field. And mine had been going for about four years. And it just got to a stage where I started expanding. And I started to expand on Shawn and Ryan's territory, so to speak. We kept popping up and meeting each other at conferences and networking events. And we spoke about the work we were doing. And we both were all of us said exactly the same story that we're doing exactly the same thing. Was that the same challenges. So we're like, Well, why are we competing against each other? Why don't we put it all together? So we joined forces in 2012. That's when guy active was first officially formed. Like a lot of people in the sector, we reformed it, because we thought we were good at what we're doing with regards to coach in regards to childcare. And we didn't form it to sell it. We didn't form it to do anything else apart from trying to coach or teach or look after as many children as we possibly can. I'm sure Ryan and Shawn can talk about their businesses. Yeah, I am a little bit different journey from raw, I'd been in America for about four or five years, came back started coaching, small coaching business. And it got to a bit bit of the same point really is rock, I've got to the point where it was a little side growing. I couldn't really manage it on my own anymore. I'd grown to the point where I wasn't really sure what I was doing. And I'm sure one day we decided to put our businesses together. And then we moved over with short. Rob, after that, as well. Yeah, yeah. Very similar to Rob's to be fair, went to university, come out, was doing coaching, couldn't get a job. So basically decided to start my own business. Back then it was the first business was called sports idol. So it was a bit of a process of having idols around sports, coaching, and the delivery methods and then yeah, but these two and never looked back. But the strange thing was we actually didn't know each other on a personal level or business level at all, until just random conversations. That's probably a good thing, because wouldn't be sat here if we did.

Mark Rasche: 4:27

Can ask me a question around that thing, because obviously, it's not the normal thing where you kind of, you know, in normal business, you know, so, you know, accountants, solicitors, those sort of things. I don't know if it's normal, where they would keep kind of coming into competition with a rival and then speak to them and say, Do you want to join your own forces? I did those initial conversations. Go who brought it up? And how did actually

Unknown: 4:55

come together as a point trying to do it in like a timeline order. So As Rob mentioned before, or who's coming on to my patch. I'd like it really to be fair. And then we just got invited to like this business networking. But it was really weird because it was like a speed dating method. So we had to sit down on three had some people on the inside of the table on the outsides of the table, people on the outside stayed still. And I could see Rob getting closer and closer to me. So I was coming, going down, I was gonna say to this guy, and then we both sat and said, You know what you do know what I do. And just start talking. It was a nice guy. Hopefully, you felt the same about me. And then I cracked on then there was a coach that worked from myself and did a bit of work for Robin in the holidays. So I got out of the car to just met Rob. Was he like, he vouched for him. I then got his number. I think Rob probably just stepped out of the me and then got a phone call from me. So let's have a meet up and and take it from there, see if you would be interested in collaborating together. I think the other thing is, even though Ryan mentioned that we didn't know each other on a personal level before this, I think we quickly worked out that we worked well together. But also we've got different personalities, very different personalities. And also we've got very different approaches to business. And what we do in the background, like Ryan's qualified teacher, Shawn's extremely good at training and qualifications. And I'm not particularly good at those two things, particularly teaching and coaching. But from a business point of view, not that I've got more business acumen than that isn't true, but I just see things differently. And I look at numbers more and look at finances more. So the three of us actually gelled quite well together on it. Yeah, really well, how should I kind of met So Shawn was the link between the two of us, I guess. I have a sports coaching club. At one of the schools I worked at and had a really good relationship with the head teacher. We had holiday camps run in there. And it was a little bit of an unwritten rule that no one else is literature would come into the school. On one day, I saw this guy's flyer in the school. I think it said sports, it was awful. What's this rubbish, went to the head teacher said I'll do you mind just not putting it out. And she's like, Yeah, we had a joke about it. And I'm notoriously messy. So my car's always like just a dumping ground. So I put this plot in my car. And about six months later, I was having one of those days pulling my hair out, I think had a team of about five staff. And I was like, someone's not turned up, what am I going to do? And I looked down, I saw this flyer, and I'm gonna call this guy. So I just called him I haven't ever met him at all. And, um, we decided to meet up at this restaurant a bar place. And we both walked in in exactly the same model of like, uniform, but the branded, our branded logo was a little bit different. And that was it, we just got on really well. So we kind of move things forward from then it links with Rob as well.

Mark Rasche: 8:05

It's a good example of what happens, what's really good about this sector, I think that there is a lot of collaboration, you don't have to fight your competition, even if you're not going to partner with them or go into business with them. There's loads of collaboration you can do and the kind of the next question is, it's not easy working with other people on the same level. So have you made it work for 12 years or more together?

Unknown: 8:33

I think that kind of goes back to us having different strengths and different weaknesses, that each other, we could help each other in certain things. And we can help each other. At that time, we can help each other's businesses to merge into one bigger business. So I think it's just the fact that we we knew we had different strengths, we knew we had different weaknesses. And as a group, the three of us all knew that we wanted to make this bigger and better. no stage did we meet and say, right, let's build it bigger and better and sell it in five to 10 years, we just met and said, Let's let's make this as big as we possibly can. We knew those loads of opportunities out there as well. So we all had the same goal just to Well, the same goal is some people might say to coaches, many children's supports many children mind, to be honest, was trying to make as much money as we could by supplying a good service to these children into the schools. So I guess that's how it worked that we could all offer different things. I think, yeah, our morals and values probably quite aligned as well. What we try, you know, just general day, General, everyday life, try and do the right thing. So, Mark is the breakdown. Like Rob's holiday camps were huge at the time. Ryan's after school clubs were huge, and my PPA was huge. So combining all three of them, it just the untapped area of rubs flooded the PTA and clubs etc. We were able to do that quite quickly with the intros to the schools and the services that we're providing. And also, even more importantly, the staff during the staffer career pathway to start with the after school clubs, then go into your PPA and go into management basically. And then we progress on to like the wraparound care, later on, pretty much stumbled up on that to be filled through trying to do a different products. And we changed it completely.

Mark Rasche: 10:32

And you've kind of briefly mentioned that you've scaled it and built, you know, a pretty decent sized business, you just want to kind of elaborate a bit more on that in terms of all the different stuff you did and what sort of scary you got on your local area. And,

Unknown: 10:50

yeah, our peak, I think we had about 120 to 140 schools at any one time, that was probably the most we ever got to the initial scaling up was. It sounds ridiculous. It sounds like such an archaic way of doing it. But throughout sort of picking up the phone speaking to the schools, just ringing up asking them do you need this? Do you need that, and then going into a free session that was as simple as we've got to start with. Eventually, we moved away from that. And we got people in for marketing and people to do sales. But the more aggressive growth or guests came when we started a show much promoting staff members, and they became at first we had Eric coordinator, say looked after a group of schools that were theirs. And then we went down the franchising route, a couple of very successful franchises, and selected most fields, a couple of unsuccessful franchises, we learnt quite a lot from doing that franchise. And we learn what can make it work. I think our biggest franchise probably got up to about 40 to 50 schools. And then we scaled back on all the franchise and just get everything in house all within an hour to two hours of head office, which is infarction where there was a point where we actually, as the beginning, I guess we were just doing what we knew. And then we started, as we added more staff members and management, were able to kind of think a little bit more strategically. And we made a conscious, we sort of stumbled upon it. But it was a bit of a maybe an unconscious decision that turned into a conscious one around wraparound services. So there's a lot of schools we were working with that were just offering a one hour after school club with and we're looking at how we could get the staff more work. You know, recruiting a staff member for one hour was tricky. So we kind of looked at the three hour model of wraparound services where it's like snack and dinner and activities went down that model quite early. For a lot of other sports coaching companies offered that was a it was a decision to kind of diversify what we were doing. If you're familiar with like sports coaching, and sports in schools, there's a premium sports premium that's sort of given by the government. So that's always under threat. So we're looking at other ways to protect our business and grow, I guess. And then COVID Hit that. quickly adapt to that. And then like yeah, the delivery side is was always paramount to us of what we can deliver how we deliver it. And then who we deliver it to three, we did scale back and was working with what we have. So the holiday camps. It was predominantly boys. Yeah. And then we added in not I'm not saying this is just for boys and girls, but we added in arts and crafts, dress UPS drama workshop. Yeah, just so we've got we've got the product there. We've got the same venue, got the same staff, but we needed to add more people in and add a bit of service. Basically, it one of the thing, I guess just the just thing in life, if people trust you and you're providing something good, how we looked at it was if we're providing something good, and people trust us, how can we build on those relationships? We did that quite well with the school. So you know, if we were offering a lunch club to a school, we would and we were doing a good job of it, we would ask them about the other provisions that they were running and built up like that, really. And same with the holiday camps. If you you know, we would have people literally walk up to a holiday camp with a register and a boy into the club and the two daughters were kind of going somewhere else and they will be great if you can offer a wider variety of activities to sort of engage girls as well. So yeah, we've looked at that and got the trust of parents and customers and built from quite a lot of an education piece. because we've you guys remember the first time I've ran a holiday camp, you expect parents to know what to bring. And I had a child that came in, bless him with basically in a suit, suit and shoes to come and do a sports camp it had been looking at wrong. So it was like, Alright, what else I need to put onto that floor to make it more appealable. But also these instructions of bringing your own pack lunch, bring in some snacks, bringing your water bottle. So it was a massive education piece that we had to do on that which then tailored into the market and that we pushed out. And then we applied that to pretty much all of our services. So your after school, your birthday parties was another big one. And moving across the whole business?

Mark Rasche: 15:51

Yeah. Obviously, I know, you guys fairly well seems recommended since nearly the start. But the question that the other people ask is if you had a pretty decent business at that stage, so and we're talking about exiting, and so on and so forth. Why did you sell? How did it come about? You want to just kind of explain how it came about. And

Unknown: 16:13

so we got to the stage where not it became uncontrollable, because it certainly wasn't we knew what we're doing and where people were. But as Ryan mentioned, with sickness when he had four or five staff, when you've got nearly 100 staff and two or three people are sick every single day without fail it, it does start to grow in you. That was one reason. Another reason was actually the funding that came in for wraparound care. So I was I was part of a Commission Board that worked directly with the government. And they used to tell us about things that were going to be happening. And one of them was that Marco was going to get funded, which I think people say is it's two ways. One, one thing that that's surely a really good thing for GATT, if there's going to be additional funding in the company, but equally, there's going to be hundreds of childcare companies pop up to do background care, which is kind of what's happened. There's there's loads of them just within 10 miles of where we are now. So we saw the opportunity to sell and we knew we didn't want to be doing this forever, because skews the strange economics, it is always a young person's game and childcare and sports coaching. We didn't want to be massively involved in it. But equally, we had another company, which is called profit the time which is everybody knows that story group, which we just started, which we can talk about later. So everything kind of aligned to give us the option to sell. It was from COVID, wasn't it? Yeah, I think when COVID happened, we had a few people just write to us, we've kind of been toying with the idea and thinking about it. But a lot of there must have been like a campaign, just send out blanket loads of letters, no businesses were unsure what's going on. We had quite a few people writing to us asking to buy us. And we weren't really sure that we just started investigating it through from them really didn't mean exploring those options. But the fact that we had another business on the side, which was starting to be really, really successful that we knew we could exit, and we can access it, to be honest for a decent price. Because of what we'd built up and the contacts we had and the trust we boot up with a local community.

Mike Roberts: 18:21

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Unknown: 19:01

That sort of goes back again to what Rob was saying about our different skill sets. And again, around what we're saying around like diversify and our products and our services, I think was it was it about 2017. We started looking, I think it's about 2017. We started looking at what other businesses we could build up alongside get active. And the reason was because we would have you know is quite, quite tough. There were some tough times where we'd put money into investing staff and some of those staff on the you know, our model was always a staff member could earn X amount of money from their time at school. So when you invest in staff that aren't necessarily generating you income, that's really easy to see where it's tangible. You kind of go through a bit of a I guess a barrier. Yeah, we've sort of made a decision to diversify again what we were doing and we'd have like a really good management setup Rob was leading Get active. And that allowed read like the agreement between Rob Shawn and myself to go away and build these other businesses. One was an apprenticeship providing company in a BTech programme. And the other one was the alternative provision, which were upset about. And then they kind of started growing to the point where it, you know, we had to make decisions around whether we were going to exit again active, do

Mark Rasche: 20:21

you want to talk about the process of that? Because, you know, for people that haven't sold a business or haven't tried to exit, whatever, they might have no idea what it's like timescales, challenges, all those sort of things. Because, like you said, you know, the initial kind of seed was sown by people approaching you, but to talk through the process of you not to name any names, or anything that happened, just kind of talk about, well, obviously, we

Unknown: 20:47

had a brilliant business mentor, and someone called Mark rush. But the initial thing I'm trying to remember now, but I think Brian's spot on where we got a letter through the post about trying to do trying to buy our business, which to be honest, on the real cheap. And that's we discussed about selling the business. And we always kind of knew that there was the option, but we just didn't know how or why or any of those things. So I think the initial conversation was then we went to go and speak to our accountant who we've been with for years, since we have to start the business. And just really asked him the question, how much do you think we can get, which I know it's always a hard answer, because it's only how much someone wants to pay. But realistically putting numbers on a on a paper and saying that, you should be able to get this or you should be able to do that opened their eyes a little bit more as to what we could get, we actually got very close with a deal with a rival to purchase us. I don't really know what happened with that, to be honest, it's a long process is really real unprocessed, but because we were talking numbers with them, that really opened our eyes to see Oh, actually, we can definitely get this and we knew in the back of our minds that they will possibly lowball us to start with. But even the lowball offer, opened their eyes to the opportunities that we could do something really good with this, we massively strengthened our management team. As soon as that happens, we knew whoever wanted to purchase US would need a strong management team. So they could just take it over themselves, we changed our management team quite a lot, we got it in place. And then we actually approached some, I don't know what to call business agents, I think they're called people that physically sell your business for you. And that's the only thing they do. So we approached three or four of them to have a conversation about what they thought we could get how long it would take to get it, a couple of them felt like estate agents, and they're just telling us what we wanted to hear and given us a ridiculous valuation, but one of them came out with a very good valuation, he came back with a good plan of how it would work, it was clear, concise, does exactly what we needed to do, didn't give us any rubbish saying, Oh, we could sell it for you in six weeks like this is probably going to take you 18 months or two years. And then we went with them. And they they were they didn't sell it for us. But they kind of put it on the market for us to attach it to people that the investors or the whoever was going to buy, and we had probably four or five conversations with various people, before we agreed with anybody. So it did take a while. Once that was agreed, actually, once we started a grant, it still probably took another six months to a year. And that, you know, that was quite a quite an eye opener as well, because we had, we had someone going taking us through that process that was part of the buyers sort of package. And we had lots and lots of meetings, loads of zoom meetings with the buyer, his mentor, our sales agents, our accountant, and um, yeah, kind of navigated through that was probably one of the best things having to see kind of took you through that process, as opposed to the converse of any tricky conversations. You know, he mediated Well, and

Mike Roberts: 24:04

that's what I was gonna say was, was there any surprises in the final stages of the sale that I any of these listeners should be careful to look out for anything like that?

Unknown: 24:14

For me, the only surprises for me was people that were trying to purchase us. Not we didn't fully understand it, because we hadn't sold a business before but equally to the people that we're speaking to hadn't brought a business before. So some of the things they were offering a suggestion, and we were like, that really doesn't seem correct. So we went to go and speak to the people that knew about it. And they were like, No, it isn't quite correctly. They've kind of got things a little bit twisted, not that they're meant to do it on purpose. But that was the only thing that Ryan mentioned about having some immediate I don't think we would have solved if we didn't because not that we ever got to an argument but you know, when you can feel through emails or through things that something's gonna go slightly wrong. We got to that stage or the person actually brought us that we were like Well, we're quite close to cancelling this deal. And then we spoke to the advisor, and then I'll know, let me speak to him. And then they explained how it will work. So without that I don't think we would have sold as quickly as we did, or as efficiently as we did, to be honest. So having someone media that knows, and the only thing they do is buy and sell businesses was essential for us, and yet, also, the last one, so we're really, really close, like Rob said, really close to selling it about a year before that, maybe 18 months even. And we've gone through a process again for about six to 12 months with this company. And that actually fell down probably about two months before we went to complete on it. And no one mediated that it was, you know, feminists direct. There were a lot of tricky conversations, there were issues that probably could have been pretty easily resolved by recruitment. But yeah, just just broke down, really. So think having that process and the understanding. So someone that you didn't, like, we ask questions. So if we didn't understand something, we did ask that question of like, What do you mean by this? And then break it down? Because when you're dealing with solicitors, it's a whole different language, and trying to dissect and go through what they're going, what they're trying to explain to you. And does it actually does that work? No, I'm not happy with this. So again, just picking up on that mediator to tendency translator sometimes, where he's sold in an army businesses, so but probably the triple figures. Just knowing and having that understanding of this is what they mean, this is what's going to get this is how it's broken down. And then this will be the outcome. Again, without that we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near and making sure you have a good solicitor that that you understand and trust that knows your business. Sometimes the cheap ones are probably not the best ones. But someone that's around that industry would be would be brilliant, nice word. So again, made it a bit more smoother. When two solicitors are talking to each other. They understand and was able to take it to the next step.

Mark Rasche: 27:13

It's interesting to talk about the kind of timescales because when I speak to people that are thinking of selling their business, or they want some advice, I often say like, you know, it needs to be like a three to five year plan that needs to be properly planned for years in advance. Like I said, putting the management team in place and all that, you know, increasing the value and all the stuff that's going to make it a more saleable asset because so many people who want to sell their business it's like a last minute thing. I need to sell my business or what someone business needs to go by this date, NASA, that timescales, it takes in the complexity of it. I think people vastly underestimate and like I said, if it's blind leading the blind, the other person doesn't really know how fortunate

Unknown: 27:57

position that we didn't need to sell. There was no you know, there was no rush another half there was no you know, a lot of people sell because they have to, because they're going to struggle with something like that, but we didn't have to sell we were in the position where we want it to, but it wasn't essential.

Mark Rasche: 28:14

I think it's a really key thing of value as well because when I talk about online negotiation training, right, you've got to have a walkaway position got to be able to walk away at a decent level. Otherwise, you know, sometimes it's hard to dealing with someone who buys businesses all the time because they know how to nail people to the floor you know, so you've got to be initial that's that's why I feel like it's a three to five year plan because you've got to be in a really strong position to sell and be able to walk away because you don't don't have to if you've got any other advice to anyone who's maybe thinking around selling at some point in the future or

Unknown: 28:53

I guess it depends how how big or how small our businesses might my only thing would be know how much you want to sell for it sounds stupid thing but don't go in the idea to say I want to sell the business just because I want to sell the business like know what you want to get out of it otherwise you're going to negotiations and discussions completely blind we we knew exactly what we wanted to sell for probably about three years before we sold we said this is the very minimum we are going to take and that's it but yeah it I guess it massively depends how big the business is the fact that we also because a lot of my mates kind of asked me why did you sell one of the key things was that we had storage group in the background going that we had something else to do once we did sell we there was a clear plan a clear process and everybody that's the seven directors and storage group. The other four people knew when we were going to sell so that planning massively helped and guess if you're selling for 100 million you don't really didn't need to do another been sick and that's what I mean. Like if you're not selling huge, vast sums of money that you can retire then you need to have a very, very clear plan that you stick to and be massively organised because The buyers kind of want to know absolutely everything about your business. Don't try and hide anything that they try. And yes, yes, don't try to hide anything in that process be really transparent with who's buying it. So it will come sort of, by involved, yeah, and stuck somewhere and options as well. Because mostly people will think when you sell, you just got to get rid of the whole business. But when we're speaking to other people, there are so many different options of keeping a percentage of the business and selling part of the business. So find out what option fits you as a as a person. Or if you're a group of people. And then the explore those options you have, versus still has quite a few more options that we we didn't realise what someone would even present to us, but definitely seen those options.

Mark Rasche: 30:53

Yeah, that's really brilliant advice. along there. Just getting back to something you said, probably a bit of advice as well. But I remember having chats with you at the time in terms of the the money you might be getting, and what you're going to do afterwards. And kind of what Rob's kind of described as you know, are described as fuck off money. If someone's gonna refer you fuck off money, which means you can just fuck off or not work again. That's fine. But if it's not going to be that you have to have something else to go to. So we're going to talk a bit more about, you know, why you felt you could move into the training side apprenticeships, how you can help other people in the kind of sectors that you you work in and why that's so great, how it how it enables you to step to that. Yeah, so you can focus on those

Unknown: 31:48

fingers, the whole process of starting a business from nothing, going all the way through the heart aches, the pains, the glories, and then selling gives us that extra extra cloud. If you get I mean, someone that's been there done that water t shirt, how can we help other businesses, how we use apprenticeships for us, in our own business, to build the workforce to upskill our workforce? How to progress, which, again, when I'm speaking to employers currently in this industry, and also employees that suddenly industry have, they always ask him, How did you do it? What Why did you do it? You know, is out there, you got 95% 100% funded training, to progress people in those right places, always have that chocolate, chocolate fill of, well, not a chocolate with a box of goodies, really. So you as a company, I can come to you and say this box here is your customer service, we deliver that this box here is for your management. Here you go, we've got to train in part for that, and then you build your team progress it that way. Well, I think we said it earlier. We, we I don't know if this is Robin Shan skill set. Really, it's not really mine, around like networking, and using our networks of people. And all the businesses kind of linked in one way or another. So we had our sports coaching company where the really good network of schools that worked with local authorities, and people in that industry work staff wise. And then so the training arm was apprenticeships fed into that network because we were able to work with schools and deliver training for them and other sports coaching companies that we had met. So that kind of was a good use of that network. The alternative provision. Again, we have a massive network of schools in this area. So we decided to utilise that really and provide a different service, completely different service to what we're offering. But going back to that thing I said earlier about the trust, we're working with people that trust us offering a different service. And then that sort of opened up more doors within local authorities locally. And off the back of that we started a supported accommodation and children's home business but again, it works with a very similar network but slightly different service and product. So I think utilising your network that you've got I'm not sure people always do that the best is as a lot about going out grabbing new shiny business and new customers when you know repeat business or repeat customers or current. Your current network we utilise a lot better really.

Mark Rasche: 34:46

It's a really interesting story, which is where I wanted to kind of you guys to cover it you know, internally you might not think it's as as interesting because you got obviously think your own life is interesting as well. People's might be or someone that's famous or on the telly or, or some type, I think it's a really good story because a lot of people don't ever start a business thinking they're going to sell it, or if they've not sold a business before, don't think it's a saleable asset. And I think the fact that you had something else to go on to, is great, because it must have been kind of a, a double edged sword, because party is probably thinking, I need to free up some time to focus on these new businesses that we've started. But equally, you don't want to just walk away from a really good business without getting the right amount of money. Yeah,

Unknown: 35:38

it was tricky. But that's when that's why we made sure we had a really strong management team, a guy active, which is still there today. So we knew that they could run it with us not being there all day, every day. And they run out really, really well, to be fair, so then we could start looking at other options. But it was it was a tough one to move away from like, for me and Shawn from a lot younger than Ryan, it was, it was the only thing we've done like coming out University, that's the only thing I did was sports coaching, and set up my business within like six months of leaving universities, the only thing I've done so it was it did feel strange, like, just one day just stopped doing it.

Mark Rasche: 36:16

Yeah, I was I was coming through my next question because it's, you know, when you build your own business, you spend, you know, 1012 years or more, it's gonna feel like your own baby and then, you know, to, because you guys were sharing an office at one stage as well. So how does it feel kind of

Unknown: 36:34

strange some side of the bed you wake up on sometimes I felt really good. I don't have the stress on it. I don't worry about it. But sometimes I feel like quite missed the camaraderie that we had with the staff quite Miss speaking to some of the schools, not all the schools. So yeah, it varied from day to day really, but I think one of the questions you asked earlier mark as well about advice on selling the business was find out about the person that's buying you are the people that are buying you as well, because we were really comfortable with the person that brought us you know, when we spoke to the staff, we didn't feel at any stage we're pulling wool over their eyes saying that the person that's buying us is going to look after you and he's going to treat you with respect and it's going to keep you in your positions it's going to keep everything the same or improve things we had no stage didn't we feel comfortable saying that? Because we knew exactly that buyer would do that He promised us that that nothing would change and the people would be able to progress in their in their workload which which is what's happened to with with some of the staff journeys that we had actually from apprentice through to like operations managers and I think ash start ash now the managing director and he probably started us on like get back to work jobs funds going he was sort of gone from you know, part time coach through to high running the company so um yeah, what year was one of the girls in there started a 16 year old apprentice that a sports coach and apprenticeship went on to be a coach went on to be a middle manager moved went abroad for a year come back and is now like the second you know, running helping run the company. So you know, we had personal relationships we were working relations with them but um, you know, personal relationships as well so wanted to make sure they were looked after just thinking about like my daughter was probably born really similar times when we put the businesses yeah so like she all she's sort of known is that she's been to the campsite to dump off at the camps every now and again perk of business but um yeah, so when when I told her is no longer you know, run out she was like, What do you mean? So it was quite um, it's quite interesting as well actually know your friends they're like your Get active what's happened? What's going on? Got a couple of mates going oh, can I have a discount code now? Yeah, but yeah, it's again like grow we've we've seen some of this stuff and Mr. of work experience that young person to then start their families buying their first car you there for quite a few milestones so walking away was saying goodbye to him we took we did take them all out to me was quite hard bit like we don't share emotions too much. To be fair, we just hold it in saying goodbye. And then working in the office the same said bye to them and then you see them on a Monday. Sort of like I can't talk to them and you got your back. So that was a bit strange. Hence why we had to get a new office because probably living with your ex girlfriend type of things. You got your good times and bad times but a lot of good times with those those guys and that team. You guys are off out of him. We had some of them tomorrow meeting up with them. Yeah, yeah, they still got the relationships with them, which is good. And I think we've been all three of us have been really good at building relationships and being there for people. That's probably why we got into what we're into now, where we are helping people a lot more and changing people's lives. Yeah,

Mark Rasche: 40:21

I think, yeah, again, come back to that emotional thing of, definitely, I think having something else that you can go straight into probably helped you deal with that challenge, because you move in straight on, and you're not looking back too much. I think you're absolutely right about kind of, you know, I think it really, you know, obviously, I know who who bought the business. And I think it helps to have, you know, similar or shared values, so that, you know, that people are going to be looked after and, and those sort of thing, just want to cover off, because it is interesting, you guys talk about kind of, actually his journey from, you know, young kind of apprentice coach all the way through to managing director and other people who take on board just want to kind of quickly go over that, again, for anyone who is in the sectors that you guys work in and cover off those kind of how this training helped.

Unknown: 41:16

We, we actually put goodness wise things, we run the business, you kind of got to look after the costs and make sure books balance and trying to sometimes look a little bit further for the future and thinking about what the benefits of putting things in place will have. So we did that at one point, we actually started like an apprenticeship programmes would take on three to six apprentices every year. And this industry is well, all industries at the moment around sort of childcare teaching, really hard for recruitment. So we looked at a bit bigger picture that we might have to suck up, I don't know, five staff on 12 grand a year, that aren't really contributing to us for six months, we looked at it like that, but longer term, the sort of return on that investment, I guess, is return this investment of putting some value into developing like a apprenticeship programme, we have that consistent flow of people coming into our business, it was really good to be able to get the values and the force of the business into them that way as well. So we put like a bit of thought into that and put the apprenticeship programme into place for our business. So benefited us longer term and wasn't just within the coaches was it because then we didn't grow your own, as such. So Ryan said about the E forces and stuff, you could really have a home of what we are as active, why we're doing it, and then have your set qualifications within that programme as well that they they're achieving. But when you've again, that's something that Ash and Shannon, they would run through records for us. Because they understand what we're trying to do what we're trying to achieve as a business and what the outcomes are. And they knew once they got to a certain level, then there's another progression. And they could go and do some more qualifications and some more training around that piece. Yeah, it was, it was a good piece as well for recruitment for us. So we got to see, some people in some people didn't make it up to management, but they made it into some very good coaches and very good. Again, relationship building networking. Within the school sectors, met a constant flow turned into the academy as well as the Academy where we try to give people experience work experience that make it go and move into the apprenticeship. So we quickly had a progression, a career progression for people coming in with no experience, no education. And then we were able to do that within our business for them now to flourish and work sports coaches or managers or supervisors and understand the business. So it was a real good piece of ethos, building strategy, and everything else. To be honest, the training and the qualifications also came about I think through our own frustrations with the industry because we were interviewing people who were turned out to a practical assessment with level twos level threes. And then you put them in front of a group of 20 to 30 children and they just crumbled for a better word to be honest, they just didn't know how to work with children, because you can get these level two qualifications by teaching other people, other adults kind of things you teach in your mentors, you know, actually teaching kids whereas like, Ash and Shannon are good examples. They came to us with actually no qualifications, but you could just see that they're really really good with kids, that you knew what they're doing, they could relate to and they could talk to and they could direct them. So we're struggling to find what qualifications we could actually put and people will put them through which is actually meaningful, you know, I think everybody in the coaching industry has done a level one in football, which, in my opinion is a complete waste of time like it. I don't know anybody that hasn't passed that, you can get to level one, and then you can go start coaching. But you have no experience of working with kids. You've just done your level one. And I think it takes two weekends now at the time was one weekend.

Mark Rasche: 45:19

I think it's all online. Now.

Unknown: 45:21

They go there. Yeah. So that that was part of when we started, it was our frustration that we'll get in people that had so many qualifications. And you kind of know what it's like mark in the industry that recruitment, so hard to get a CV for and you're all excited, oh, we've got this person's got all the qualifications ready to start. And you put them to do a session, you're like, we can't leave this person alone. The kids like the kids are running right here, they haven't learned a thing. So and then you put someone that has no qualifications in front of the same group of kids, and they'll get them controlled, they'll get them understand. And they could teach them some basics of throwing, catching, dribbling, running whatever it is, but that's why we started doing it as well, because we're like, we could do these qualifications, like so much better, and they will get so much more out of it.

Mark Rasche: 46:01

So effectively, kind of saying is, you know, you can like we talk, I talk about recruiter on character you recruited on people who you think got that character church, and then you can train them up to be what you need them to be and give them the skills and is it just the young people or can any

Unknown: 46:21

one of the apprenticeship programmes where their six year old that come back in who needed to ring reengage basically have and then upskilled because he was saying, when he started, nothing was digital, every cause handwritten or typewriter. So he's reengaged, again, to understand a bit more of the digital side and our platforms, or digital industry with that was he was in a leadership who's a leader in a marketing company. So he's very devoted his job, but it just needed to be upskilled. So any age as well, so your 16 year olds? Right away 16 plus. So that's again, yeah, sorry, that's kind of what we did with get active. And we had, we had staff members come in as a sports coach, a level two coach, put them on a level three, team leadership course. And then they can even do an operations manager was at level five, level five course. So putting that programme in place, I think she was one of the biggest things we did for Get active having that pathway for staff and having, you know, helping us recruit and build our own team. So yeah, but then all the way up, not just you know, I think apprenticeships and training, especially friendships, this sort of stigma of 16 to 1819 year old. Yeah, we've got loads of different leadership courses, or more than more more mature students than the younger ones, or the younger ones are still coming through because we see, come July, when they finish, officially finish, I'd be looking to go into the industry. And it's a good way of getting that experience, the experience trends experiential learning whilst on the job. And when I finished university, I had all the paperwork in the world couldn't get a job, just because I didn't have the experience, like the hands on experience, like Rob alluded to earlier. So having the best of both worlds, working, getting paid. And also, the quality of meaningful qualification that's recognised is, in my opinion, the best way and the best move forward.

Mark Rasche: 48:41

It's, I mean, it's a really fascinating journey. And it's probably, you know, only halfway through or less than halfway through because you probably got loads more to do with, with story, but you know, definitely recommend anyone that's got any stuck to speak to the government funded training. Have you got any other questions, Mike?

Mike Roberts: 49:03

Now, all I was gonna say was that, you know, I'm 100% sure that the people listening to this, it's gonna absolutely spark some thoughts about the end game for their own ventures and exit strategies and stuff. But no, it's been fascinating. And it's been great. So thank you so much, guys. And yeah, and I've also downloaded the YouTube video for offer the Story Group website. So I was gonna throw the audio in for that at towards the end of the show as well so people can hear about Story Group and what you're all about. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks.

Mark Rasche: 49:39

Yeah, yeah, thanks again, guys. Really appreciate it. And that, you know, hopefully it was useful for you guys to actually talk about it. And

Unknown: 49:47

this is the first time we've talked about it really. It was really good first time to sort of spoke about it. So no, it was really good. Thank you. Meet James. James has been struggling lately to fit in at school. Miss See more days than he is attending and finding it hard to put on a brave face in the classroom. His teachers are finding it a real challenge to keep them engaged, and his behaviour is now affecting the rest of the class. Those around him do not understand the trauma he has experienced. James hasn't had an easy so far, a challenging upbringing and an unstable home life. They've all contributed to where he finds himself today. Anxious, uncertain, and unable to see a positive future. His school and local authority now have a tough decision to make. What can they do to get James back on the right path. That's where we come in. At Story Group, we believe in a world where every young person has a brighter future. We can help James his school and his local authority in three ways. alternative provision, we will take James out of his school for a period of respite to build his self esteem, confidence and resilience, then agree positive outcomes with his school and successfully reintegrate him residential care should the local authority feel it's appropriate. We can offer James supported living accommodation in one of our residential homes, where he will work closely with staff to gain his independence for the future, and apprenticeships and training. Through our apprenticeships and coaching. We can provide James with opportunities to identify a future career path, and then provide him the training he needs to succeed. James isn't alone. There are 1000s of young people who need support and we won't stop until each one of them has access to a loving home quality care and a pathway in place to write their own story.

Rebecca Christian: 51:36

Thank you for tuning in to playbook for success. We hope today's episode provided valuable insights for your journey in play, kids activities or sports franchising. If you found this episode useful, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with your network. Your support helps us deliver quality content. Keep striving for success. And remember, with the right playbook, anything is possible. Thanks for listening. This episode was proudly produced and sponsored by making digital real