Becoming Part of Something Bigger

We spoke to franchisee Chris Pipe to hear about his experiences with Premier Education and learnt how the support of his peers and central HQ helped make his territories so successful.

Name: Chris Pipe

Job role: Director

Territories: Berking, Dagenham, Havering, Thurrock, Newham, Illford

Number of schools you work in: 190

Number of years you have worked for Premier: 11

How did you become a Premier Education franchisee?

I was a football coach in Tottenham for 18 months, running community sessions after school and in the evenings. It was good but I was just teaching the same thing every day really. Then a role came up for a coach at Premier Education so I went for it. After a year or so, the franchisee wanted to sell to focus on other territories and they asked me if I wanted to run it with Jonathan Mills. I was already covering a lot of the admin because they lived so far away, so it made sense.

How was it getting started?

I hadn’t done anything like it before, but I wasn’t actually nervous taking it on – it was an exciting challenge. Gareth and Jonathan helped me a lot, especially at the start. That made a huge difference. Plus, HQ gave a load of support – even 10 years ago the training was great.

How did you find the switch to be your own boss?

To be honest, I loved it. From a young age I was quite driven, determined and organised. At first, I guess it was stressful, the extra responsibility, but I also relished the opportunity. I loved being in control, setting my own targets.

When I took it on, we had 3 members of staff. Now we have 22. I had to learn a lot about staff management and development. HQ put on some great courses which helped me improve with those areas. It’s so good to see coaches succeed and reach their goals, I love that part. In fact, I’ve been a tutor at TrainWithPremier.com for 5 years now, as well as a franchisee.

What’s the best thing about Premier Education?

It’s great to work in an industry where I can make a difference to primary schools and even better that it’s in the area I grew up in. Everything we do puts the children first. It’s what we’re about, but it’s also actually a great way to help the business grow.

Our aim for the end of the year is to reach 15,000 children a week and I think we’re going to make that. I don’t think there’s many industries where you can see such a huge impact so I feel lucky to be part of Premier Education.