Children’s music and singing franchise Musical Minis have announced that Caroline Docherty, owner of Musical Minis Teesside and South Durham has been awarded the title ‘Franchisee of the Year’.
At their recent annual conference where franchisees gathered to hear founders Karen Sherr and husband Rob report on the overall performance of the franchise network, they also discovered that Caroline (31) who bought the business just over a year ago (Jan 2014), had achieved impressive figures, growing membership of her music and singing classes by 121%, all whilst looking after two young children and giving birth to a third child at the end of her second term in business.
Alongside recognising her incredible sales figures, Karen and Rob also praised her for her organisational skills, tenacity and for supporting all head office initiatives.
Said Karen: ‘I don’t quite know how Caroline does it, with three children under the age of 4 but she somehow manages to combine motherhood with running a very successful business and we are so proud of her. She is always the first to join in with PR campaigns and really contributes to the network as a whole. She is an ardent user of social media, using Facebook alone to fill one entire class in just 24 hours. Her business and administrative skills are to be admired and applauded.’
The franchise, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, has 12 franchisees operating across the UK, attended by approximately 1,500 children a week.
Caroline said, ‘I was thrilled to be named ‘Franchisee of the Year.’ Listening to Rob describing the person they had chosen, I was shocked to gradually realise, with each thing he said, that he was actually talking about me! I am really grateful that all the hard work I’ve put in has been acknowledged so officially by Head Office and would like to thank them for all their support. I would also like to thank my amazing staff for running so many sessions for the franchise.’
To celebrate their recent 25th anniversary, the franchise launched an online campaign to find the Nation’s Favourite Nursery Rhyme, which was subsequently revealed as ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. A donation was made to Great Ormond Street Hospital for every vote received. Before starting up Musical Minis, Karen worked as a Play Specialist at the world renowned children’s hospital. An interactive children’s app, which helps children’s fine motor and recognitions skills was also rolled out, as part of the quarter century celebrations. The app features jigsaw puzzles that children complete to be rewarded with a rendition of a nursery rhyme regularly sung in their Musical Minis class.
