10-Year Anniversary Interview with Louise Heath

In this blog, I talk to Louise Heath who I worked with in early 2022 to help migrate her to a new booking system and link this up to her website.

Louise is an ex early-years teacher. She set up her business in 2019 and runs school sessions for preschool and homeschool families as well as school children in the holidays.

What were the biggest challenges in your business before you started to outsource?

I set up unofficially a couple of years before we set up properly in 2019 as a CIC and a partnership. When I started off, all my business was done via Facebook and word of mouth. So I would have a real ebb and flow with my attendance. and I had my friend and her partner, they helped me with the website.

That did help a lot because there was a lot of information on there but it was set up in around the pandemic, in COVID times and I didn’t think that was quite the right moment to put the booking system in. In the end, it has saved me an enormous amount of time. It’s really time efficient because I was responding to individual emails and sending the same information out. It was back and forth. Now it’s much more time efficient and that’s a massive win.

I’ve found it a relief because there were so many different things that I needed to ask people in terms of photo consent, and food allergies, because we cook them a snack and there were all these different things and information about the kids. Anything I needed to know and now that’s all done in a form and I can look that over and it’s much more efficient. I think when people are booking there’s a greater level of trust. It’s more professional. It’s all set out there and it’s clear.

How have you found the process of finding the support you need and working with the freelancer?

I wanted to put in the booking system. I went onto the Blue Stocking Society and asked for recommendations and I was linked to you. I think that was important getting recommendations just makes sense.

You can pinpoint someone and then look at their work and know someone that’s worked with them and have an idea of how that might be. So, I found it relatively easy. There were a couple of people recommended but your name came up the most. It was a really positive experience for me.

What have been the benefits for you both personally and in your business from outsourcing?

I don’t think I’m a natural businesswoman. I’m really good at what I do and I connect with the families and we have a really great time. But when you are running a business, you need to develop those skills as well. I learned a lot about the process of doing practical things to manage my own website. I wanted to learn how to do it with support.

It feels easier to know how to add a page and create something new and then you can advertise it on your various social media. It’s all very well organised.

Watch the Interview

Louise’s Bio