Hirer Q&A with Chrissy Foulds...

Chrissy Foulds, Hirer at John Smeaton Academy, Leeds and user of our BookingsGuru service talks about the growth of her Martial Arts franchise and working with the team at Kajima Community:

What is the nature of the club you run?

I run a franchise of Aegis Martial Arts, we teach martial arts and self-defence classes for anyone from the age of three upwards, in the Yorkshire area. Our classes range from tots to family classes, where parents and kids can be on the mats at the same time. Everyone learns a mixture of kick-boxing, karate and jiu jitsu from our black belt instructors who strive to teach personal development over competition.

How long have you been hiring school facilities?

While the Aegis Martial Arts organisation has been around for 37 years, my franchise has been hiring facilities at the John Smeaton Academy for just over two years, and I couldn’t be more content!

Has hiring school facilities helped your club to grow?

Definitely- without the facilities at John Smeaton we wouldn’t have been able to grow the way we have, they are flexible, we can store our equipment and without that facility it would have been a totally different starting point for us. We began with 0 students and now have 70, we have expanded from 2 days to 3 days and increased the number of classes in that time, who knows what’s next.

Tell us about a special event/occasion for the club:

My favourite events of the year are the black belt test day and black belt graduation. Getting my black belt and earning the knowledge and experience to keep going made me realise this is what I want to do with my life. Sharing this experience with others and seeing how they have progressed makes me feel really proud of what I do, it’s a shame these events are only twice a year!

What is your experience of working with Kajima community?

I’ve had really positive experiences with Kajima Community, they are extremely flexible and accommodating. They update us on everything, I really can’t fault their communication.

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