What This Year Taught Me
One year into Kiddo Club and the lessons are bigger than the business.
A year on, almost to the day since registering this company, and it’s officially time to file my first accounts. That alone has been a learning curve. But it’s also made me pause and properly reflect on everything that’s happened since starting Kiddo Club.
Although I’ve been in the childcare industry for the best part of a decade, starting my own business from scratch with zero funding and a huge vision was something else entirely. But I wasn’t coming into this unprepared. Before moving into childcare, I built a career managing sales and marketing teams. Back then , let’s just say it was long before social media ruled the world , marketing was more about strategy, messaging, and getting sign-off on brochures (do those even exist anymore?) than managing algorithms or building reels. Today, marketing expects you to be a copywriter, designer, content creator, strategist, editor, and data analyst all at once. And although I’ve done my best to keep up, I’m far from an expert. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned? As soon as there’s money in the business, I’m absolutely hiring people who actually know what they’re doing.
That said, no matter how much content you post or how slick your branding is, nothing beats word-of-mouth. That’s been the single most powerful tool for Kiddo Club, and I truly believe it’s the reason we’ve grown the way we have. But as bookings increased and families kept coming back, I realised something else: growth comes with serious responsibility.
Becoming a company director introduced a completely different layer of pressure. It’s not just about running a club anymore. It’s about legal and ethical accountability. It means understanding and owning everything from safeguarding protocols to insurance policies, data protection, HR compliance, health and safety, payroll, and tax. It means registering with Ofsted and knowing what that means for me personally, not just professionally. When things go wrong, even slightly, it’s me who answers for it. That kind of pressure is heavy, but it also fuels a deeper commitment. I’ve had to educate myself constantly, ask questions, make mistakes, and fix them fast. Because once your name is on that paperwork, it’s not just your vision anymore. It’s your responsibility to protect it and deliver on it every single day.
Planning our first holiday club back in April was a major milestone. To be honest, I’d never done formal planning before. But as a naturally creative person, it quickly became one of the most fun parts of the whole experience. I threw myself into designing a varied programme , from arts and crafts to STEM challenges, team sports, outdoor games, and creative activities that gave the kids space to explore. I was sourcing materials, shopping for supplies, reaching out to new vendors, and even negotiating discounts. That said, a lot of what I planned was inspired by Instagram reels and Pinterest boards, and let’s just say real life doesn’t always match the aesthetic. One activity involved masking fluid, which sounded clever in theory, but didn’t land quite as well in practice. On the flip side, the galaxy jars were a massive hit. I’ve learned that while I love the process, sometimes the best thing you can do is hand it over to the people actually delivering the sessions , especially if you want the experience to live up to the vision.
That first two-week club set the tone for everything that followed. We opened our doors as a brand-new name with no track record and still managed to fill a little under half the spaces, which I was genuinely pleased with. Now, looking ahead to the Christmas holidays, we’re already almost full with six weeks still to go. That kind of momentum tells me we’re not just getting it right. We’re building something people believe in. Families are booking earlier, returning more often, and recommending us to others. I think that comes down to trust. They’ve seen what we deliver. They know their children are safe, engaged, and happy. And that kind of reassurance travels fast.
And just like families return because they trust us, our staff do too — because how you lead on the inside shows up on the outside.
If there’s one thing this journey has taught me, it’s that leadership isn’t about being in charge. It’s about how you show up for people. It’s not just the big-picture stuff like vision or strategy. It’s the small, consistent things. Buying someone a cupcake after a busy day. Checking in on how they’re feeling. Saying thank you like you mean it. Giving honest, respectful feedback when it’s needed. Building trust not by being everyone’s best friend, but by being dependable, fair, and human.
When people feel seen, respected, and appreciated, they give their best. Not because they have to, but because they want to. That’s what creates a culture people want to come back to. Across every club we’ve run, we’ve seen the same faces return time and again. That tells me we’re doing something right. We’ve built a team that’s stable, supportive, and proud to represent Kiddo Club , and that only happens when you make it a genuinely good place to work.
Leadership has taught me that you can’t be brilliant at everything. You have to be willing to listen, learn, own your mistakes, and make space for other people to shine. One of the smartest things I’ve learned is knowing when to step aside and let the experts take over , which is exactly why the planning runs more smoothly now, and why, one day, the Instagram might finally stop looking like it was made during nap time. That part’s still on me. For now. The more I lean into that mindset, the stronger this business becomes.
One of the biggest lessons this year has taught me is that when you focus on people, culture, and consistency, growth follows. Families book again. Staff return. And slowly, without forcing it, the brand begins to spread beyond where you started. That’s not a marketing trick. It’s the result of being open to learning, adapting, and trying. It’s not about getting everything perfect, but about staying committed, reflective, and always looking to improve. And that’s what will keep pushing Kiddo Club forward.
— Tanya Parker, Founder & Director
