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The Canberra Business Podcast
A podcast about all things Canberra Business.
The Canberra Business Podcast
From Classroom to Football Field: A Teacher's Business Journey
Meet Andrew Waghchoure, the passionate owner and head coach behind Little Kickers ACT, who's bringing structured football skills development to Canberra's youngest residents. After 14 years in the classroom, this primary school teacher is channeling his love for education and football into a growing business that's capturing the attention of families across the region.
Little Kickers isn't your typical sports program—it begins with children as young as 18 months old. Through age-appropriate sessions spanning four distinct developmental stages, children progress from basic motor skills and color recognition to structured match play by age eight. What makes the program truly special is its blend of imaginative play with physical development. Balls transform into rocket ships and pirate ships, while activities cleverly incorporate fundamental learning concepts. As Andrew explains, "It's not like they're playing soccer... they're doing games that they might have played in preschools or daycare, and we're just putting a ball element into it."
For parents interested in developing their child's coordination, social skills, and physical abilities in a structured yet imaginative environment, Little Kickers offers a unique opportunity to introduce sport at a foundational age. Follow Little Kickers ACT on social media to learn more about their weekend sessions and upcoming expansion locations.
Hello and welcome to the Canberra Business Podcast. I'm Greg Harford, your host from the Canberra Business Chamber, and today I'm joined by Andrew Wogchare, who is the owner and head coach of Little Kickers ACT. Andrew, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much, greg. Great to be here Now. It's great to have you on. Thank you. Little Kickers is a newborn in the Canberra business community, so tell us what is it that you do?
Speaker 2:So basically I'm a franchisee of Little Kickers ACT, so we have Little Kickers all over Australia. It came from the UK back in the early 2000s and, yeah, I thought I'd bring it into Canberra and see how the Canberra community enjoy the program. So basically what we do is I'll train the coaches up, set the program, which is targeted to 18 months old and I know people listening would be very surprised that an 18 month old can play.
Speaker 1:But they can't, sorry what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2:we're talking about football, football yes, so not soccer football, the proper, the proper one from the UK. So yeah, it's football skills drills for 18 months old all the way through to eight years old. We have four different age group classes, based on research-based activities and research-proven activities, and we have a 45-minute session and they run through the series of activities with a few drinks breaks and a few games to break up the whole session.
Speaker 1:So is this serious? I mean, do you have sort of big games between 18-month-olds where they're trying to score goals and all the rest of it, or is it more about the kind of the ball skills and social skills that come with it?
Speaker 2:It's more structured. So basically, for an 18-month-old it's all about the preschool fundamental developmental activities like grabbing, picking, colour, coordination. We look at things like kicking, looking at body movement, find your feet, find your elbow, all those kind of developmental needs that they need at that age. Then we progress on to the juniors, which is about two and a half to three and a half years old, and then they start to develop some skills through some active games. So it's not like they're playing soccer, it is they're doing playing games that they might have played in the preschools or daycare and we're just putting a ball element into it.
Speaker 2:Then we move on to the next group, which is the mighty kickers, from three and a half to five years old, and they basically are the prequel to the Megas kicking, which is like the match play there. So they're letting the skills and the mighties to build the confidence, the self-esteem, get rid of any shyness, any, you know any, me, me, me. It's all about us as a group, as a team. And, yeah, megas, we go into playing matches, structured matches, and then when they graduate at eight years of age, they get to play in the big leagues, the big clubs, and a club can scout them Fantastic.
Speaker 1:So where are you currently located? Where are your programs?
Speaker 2:So, we're located at two venues, one's at Waniyasa. We all have indoor venues, might I add, so no matter what the weather's doing outside it might be snowing, raining, hailing we'll be indoors operating every weekend. So the first venue we launched out of March is in Waniyasa at Trinity Christian School. The second venue we opened up in May, it is in the Carribba High School in Queanbeyan, just across the border, and we plan to open up a third venue, because I know that Northsiders would hate me for not having the program in Northside. So we're going to have a venue in Dixon coming up in September, which is really good, and we're going to branch out to Goldman as well in September as well.
Speaker 1:Right. So that's really quite widespread and I know the Northsiders listening to this will be really pleased to hear that you're not picking favourites, even though you started south of the lake. Yes, why are you here in the ACT, though? What motivated you? What's your background?
Speaker 2:So, basically, I'm a primary school teacher with a passionate love of football. Um, I thought I used to coach as well, because we started um liticus, canberra in 2018. I used to coach them, um, and then it stopped because of covid and I'm trying to bring it back into canberra because lots of people still are familiar with the name um and, yeah, I thought I'd bring it back as a trial see how things go, see what feedback I've got and the feedback that I've had greg is immense. Like we have registrations pouring in. We have one new registration every week at least. Um minimum, which is good. Um, and the parents are enduring it because they get to see, they get to be with the kids and it's really, really helpful for them to see the action, as the kids are engaging in the activities.
Speaker 2:Cool, and is it Saturday morning and stuff yes it's Saturday morning and Sunday morning, so they can choose which either one to attend. Yeah, from nine till one. There's four different classes about 45 minutes long, so that's quite a commitment.
Speaker 1:I mean, how big a team of people do you have doing this? You can't be doing it all by yourself.
Speaker 2:No, no, I wish I could fit myself in too, but I've got a very, very good team of coaches who I've recruited through word of mouth and they are running the show for me. I come in and help out whenever I can if they can't be there for a session. But yeah, I'm just making sure my job now is not to coach as such, it's to like do the admin-y sorts of things take registrations, help out support the coaches if need be. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So as a primary school teacher, you obviously care about the learning journey of children. How important do you think it is for kids to get into a sport and how early should they begin? I guess you'll tell me 18 months, but I mean does it start earlier than that even.
Speaker 2:Well, it starts when they're like in the womb. They hear all these noises, kind of thing when they're in their mother's tummies. But basically as soon as you can start. Like, we had our son who is now two years and two months old. He started swimming when he was three months old.
Speaker 2:So there's no age limitations on how um soon parents get involved in sport.
Speaker 2:Um, with us there is a limitation of 18 months minimum because of all the structured activities and the engagement that we require of the kids, um, and some sort of independency as well. So they need to be able to walk as well, which is the first thing. So, if your kids walking at 12 months, sure bring him, reach out to me and have a chat with me and we can surely push your kid into the program. But, um, yeah, look, it's very vital, it's important. Like, as a parent, I can know that I can definitely wave a flag and say, yes, it's important to have kids studying sports to build up their fine motor skills, their gross motor skills, their hand-eye coordination. Like I said, I'm a parent as well and we've got our son into lots of activities that are building his self-esteem, his engagement, his social skills as well as his athletic ability, but hopefully these early on interventions that we're taking will help him later on in life to be a well-rounded athlete or a well-rounded human being.
Speaker 1:We'll keep our fingers crossed for you. Thank you Now. You mentioned a little bit earlier that one of the things you do is mix kind of soccer skills, football skills, with colour and number recognition. How does that work?
Speaker 2:So basically we've got different games. So we have games where we throw all the cones up. They're all different colours and the kids have to. Children have to go and pick up a colour that the coaches call out. So if they say, pick up a red cone, the children have to sift through all the colours, find the red cone and put it back on the tree.
Speaker 2:We have very creative imaginations and our coaches are very creative. Like you wouldn't see any adult be as creative and imaginative as our coaches. So basically they'll do colour coordination. They'll put their bodies on different parts of the ball. For example, elbow on the ball, the knees on the ball, the feet on the ball, the nose on the ball. The ball isn't itself a ball. It could be a rocket ship, it could be a cannonball, it could be a pirate ship. We have different adventures to be had during the session. So it's really fun. We do the colour coordination. We also do body recognition as well, so the kids know what part of the body they're using or they're pointing to and also having fun running around, playing different activities and engaging in mindfulness and also different games.
Speaker 1:Have you thought about branching out into corporate team building as an adjunct to the business, because some of those things you outlined could actually be quite good at a corporate environment, I reckon.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm happy to do anything for them. If a corporate company or a business want to do some team bonding, we can definitely get them being just as engaged as the kids are, and they can bring out the inner child as well. So there's no limitations on that Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously you were a primary school teacher before you sort of started the business, um, but it is a bit different sort of teaching versus owning and operating a business. What of the what of the things you've learned along the way, and what are the things you find most challenging as a business owner?
Speaker 2:so it's a big um transition year, as you say. Uh, for me the most important part was to find different links. That was that I was familiar with, for example, the children, the clientele that I've got, the families. So, basically, above, above it all, I just want to make sure that the kids are happy and the parents happy. The children are learning, the coaches are learning um the parents are watching the kids being engaged at such an early age in the academy. Um, that's been my link and my kind of my safe to know that I can, I know I can do this and make it a successful business.
Speaker 2:The other thing, with the admin things in terms of um, financial fees, um paying coaches, all that I've it's been a learning curve, a big learning curve when handling money. I think I've gotten the hang of it um through help of some sponsors. So I've recently sponsored, I've been sponsored by, I've been approached by Quim in Toyota, who are going to be our sponsors later on in the um as the year goes on. So it'd be good um they'll provide some support as well and some advice as well, um, and things like that. It's really helpful.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, looking at the camera business, seeing how things run has been a bit of a challenge, especially getting on top of the systems and how to take invoices and send invoices has been tricky, but it hasn't taken away from the fun and the passion, which is why I wanted to start Little Hickers. So I've still got the vision of. You know, little Hickers is amazing. It's a great product, a great program and parent feedback is just amazing with that. So I think there's been some challenges, but lots of good points as well, why I'm here.
Speaker 1:So we're recording this in June or July of 2025. You've been going since March, so that's what? Three or four months.
Speaker 2:Three or four months.
Speaker 1:How are you going? Are you happy with the progress and uptake?
Speaker 2:Yes, I am happy with the progress, but ideally I want to be at a far higher level at the moment. At the moment we've got about roughly 75 kids enrolled, which is a massive improvement from 22 where I started in March. So it's growing. Like I said to you earlier, we're getting taking on board new engagements. Some parents regretfully have to leave because they the schedules in the weekend get a bit hard and tricky, but none of them have left for you know, saying that the program is bad, everyone, everyone said we wish we could continue, but we've got other commitments to prioritize and I'm like okay that's fine.
Speaker 1:So it is a crowded marketplace though, looking for kids' programs and sporting activities. And you're competing, I guess, with ballet and music lessons and swimming and everything else. How do you market yourself to parents?
Speaker 2:So basically, I will go out and go to the childcare centres, I'll do word of mouth and lots of parents are doing the work for me. They said this is such a great program, andrew. We want to tell our friends. We've had a couple of parents whose children go to daycare and they attend the program on the weekend, and they said I'm going to tell my mother's group, I'm going to tell daycare and their tender program on the weekend. And I said I'm gonna tell my mother's group, I'm gonna tell daycare everything. I'm like, please do. Um.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's basically word of mouth on social media as well. So, on, lillikickers act on the social media page on instagram and then lillikickers act on facebook as well. We're there. We're promoting different content, professional content from the corporate side of things as well. Um, I'll put on on a video as well of upcoming so they can know who I am and who the coaches are. We're really community-based. One of our coaches plays in the National Premier League and so we're sponsoring her to play as well, so she can get a name out as well. So it's really important to you know, have the whole of Litikaka's ACT involved in the community. There's a FATE coming up from. I think it's their 40th year, so we'll be there as well. Stalls up, demos out, it's going to be a great event. So lots of community events that I can source out going, drop off, childcare, drop offs, things like that, yep, handing out flyers to schools and just word of mouth.
Speaker 1:That all sounds really resource intensive. Is that a challenge for you.
Speaker 2:It can be, especially when you've got a young family, like I do. But I feel like the balance I've got the balance involved in it and there's coaches who are spreading the word out and parents as well, so I feel like I can manage my operations in that segment quite well.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So what's your customer journey like? Because obviously you're taking a product or service that you're essentially promoting in person or via word of mouth, getting people registered and getting them along. Do you have a good online channel for that? That that sort of signup process?
Speaker 2:yes, so basically we have a website which is little kickerscom. Today you slash find a class. So the parents hear about us through childcare, through social media, and they jump online and they can register online. It's quite easy to do that. They follow. When they register, they have an email account, they have a password, the whole yard, and then in three or four steps, they can definitely sign up the children in the booker section and they book in the time that they want to put the child into, based on their age group.
Speaker 2:So it's very, very easy because, like an 18-month-old parent, a child cannot go into an older class. It's very structured in how to place it, so parents cannot get lost in the timing of the scheduling or the choosing of selection of classes. And then you just move your weight to the payment and then I'll get a notification that the registration has been complete. I will reach out to them. So basically via email, I'll say look, here's a welcome booklet. Thank you for registering with Little Kickers ACT. My name is Andrew. I'll have a couple of requests for them, one of them which is basically they send me a name and number of what they want their child's shirt to look like. So they can have a name and number on the child's uniform, which is really good, and then send a welcome booklet and then they're all ready to go for the first session on the weekend.
Speaker 1:Right, so you're actually providing football shirts for the kids, so we do we make it look professional?
Speaker 2:We're an academy, so we have shorts and shirts provided for them. Hopefully, when they've taken more sponsors or more businesses tend to join up and partner up with us. We're looking at beanies for winter, hoodies and trackies as well, so we'll have the whole kit ready to go, so it'll look like a proper academy in the near future Sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:We'll look forward to seeing that on a Saturday morning sometime soon. So what's your long-term vision? Obviously you're talking about coming north side, going out to Carabao, going to Goulburn. Is that as far as it goes, or have you got bigger aspirations?
Speaker 2:No bigger aspirations, If only the clouds. You know, the sky's the limit at the moment for me. Basically, my head office and the manager has given me the ACT region so you can go down to Jervis Bay, you can go down to up to Goulburn, we can go wherever the wind takes us, really where the program takes us. So the Goulburn started with a family who comes to a caribou venue in Queanbeyan and they said we travel from Goulburn to Canberra every weekend. Is there a potential for you to go to Goulburn? Check with the manager. He says yep, go for it, no one's going to compete with you, it's all yours to take. So yeah, there's no limitations as to where we go. But I'd love to establish my north-south venues in Canberra and the ACT and hopefully have like between 1,000, 2,000 kids in each program so we can go in the week as well, which would be really good.
Speaker 1:I mean that becomes quite a sizeable operation Definitely and becomes much more challenging from a management point of view. How will you need to scale up your administration side of the business if you get to be that big?
Speaker 2:So basically, I'd have to hire up more employees who would be in charge of the social media promotions, like the taking photos, all that kind of thing. I'd have to hire up more employees who would be in charge of the social media promotions, like the taking photos, all that kind of thing. Our coaches now, who are starting to do the online training so they can be lead coaches and run the venues. They will be training up new coaches as well, new staff as well. There'll be someone who will be taking on registrations, looking at online stuff, making the online website feasible. There'll be people looking at the invoicing stuff. So it'll be quite a big project and I'll just be sitting on the beach saying thank you. I'll be happily just seeing the cogs in motion and doing the bare minimum if need be.
Speaker 1:Well, we hope it works out for you. Thank you. What you know as a franchise arrangement, I guess it's not quite the same as starting your own business. What systems and processes have been provided to you by the franchisor?
Speaker 2:So basically, yeah, my franchisor his name is Dan, he's a great man he has given me, provided me with online trading. He provided me with the equipment needed to start both franchises, so two sets of equipment. He provided me with the nitty-gritty around the system, how things work, what kind of payments will be needed to make as a business part of your own out-of-pocket kind of thing. He explained to me how, um the invoicing works to me, explained to me how the um, how to you know um bring um the local area marketing, um, how to do that effectively, um, and he just pretty much gave me the get-go, like the confidence I needed to just set up the business, set up the basics of the systems that I don't have to check in too many times, the system just runs itself. Like I said, parents can easily register their child in three, four steps and yeah, and take payment and there's monthly invoicing.
Speaker 1:So all that kind of thing has been really helpful. And are you having discussions with your other franchisees around the country? Are they kind of little kickers gets together and conversations about how it's all going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are able to do that. But with the business of all that, we tend not to just keep into our own little bubble. But there are opportunities for us to branch out and reach out. Like I've reached out with a person in Sydney and his name is Brad. He's a great guy, he's encouraged me, he's welcomed me to the team as well. So we've got a group chat as well with some coaches who are, you know, in Melbourne, in Sydney, in Queensland, and they just all come together and we just chat and share tips and all that kind of thing. So we do have that communication. How well you use it is up to you and how much you need from it, it's up to you.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's been really helpful as well to just see how things are going, and we've also got each other's social media pages, so we'll just like put a like in every social media and just get some ideas from them, which is really good.
Speaker 1:Cool, is this your first franchise arrangement? Correct, you've been involved in it. Yeah, first franchise, first franchise arrangement that you've been involved in Correct yeah, first franchise.
Speaker 2:So I've been a primary school teacher for 14 years in a classroom. You know teaching year after year, different challenges, different, new, exciting activities. But I thought I'll take leave without pay, as of last year. So 2024 was my last year, started the business in March 2025 this year and then hopefully I I've got leave with that pay for two more years. So hopefully I can really establish this and maybe return to teaching, maybe in a different capacity, as a casual teacher, because you know many teachers every day in Canberra, like my phone just bings every hour saying can you work here, can you work there. So I won't leave teaching, which is probably a good thing for all the Canberrans listening out that I've got a quality teacher here.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it would be really good to just keep hold of both things and see the business and put my hand in the business as well, as much as I can, and then also be part of the whole teaching and education process in Canberra.
Speaker 1:Fantastic Andrew Wogchare, the owner and head coach of Little Kickers ACT. Thank you so much for joining me here on the. Canberra Business Podcast. It's been great having you on and hearing a little bit more about what you're doing, and I hope it really works out for you, thank you. Thank you so much to our audience for joining us today. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast platform for future episodes of the Canberra Business Podcast. I'm Greg Harford from the Canberra Business Chamber and I'll catch you next time.