“We lived for two years on about 200 dollars a week. Failure was not an option because we would have lost everything… But it’s worth it, they say you work hard enough, smart enough, long enough and eventually you’ll get there.” Tina Tower.
Just hang on.
Three words Begin Bright CEO Tina Tower knows the true value of.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur recently took out the Young Business Woman of the Year for her franchise of 18 school readiness centres.
But as you’re about to learn it’s been a tough eight years for the mum-of-two; she nearly lost the family home before things started to go her way.
Scroll away for some terrific business insights…
Martine Harte: Tina you owned your first investment property at 18, moved out of home with your then boyfriend (now hubby) worked three jobs studying primary teaching at uni, married by 21, mother by 24.. sheesh!
Tina Tower: It was quite normal for me, I never got tired til I had my two boys. Only since I’ve had them that lovely mother guilt creeps in and you’re torn. Before that the world’s your oyster really. When I talk to young women now I say, “go hard while you can.”
What is Begin Bright all about?
Tina Tower: What we focus on is creating happy, smart and confident children. Everything that we do revolves around children’s attitudes towards learning.
Did you identify a gap in the market?
Tina Tower: Yeah when I started my first tutoring centre I was twenty and started just with primary tutoring. We had a lot of students coming in, typically boys – the year two, year three stage – who had trouble reading. They’d built up that real tough guy exterior, then you’d get them in for an assessment and they’d just burst into tears.
After tutoring for a year I thought I want to start readiness classes so we can give children positive foundations and attitude to learning.
And then you took the brave move to franchise the business?
Tina Tower: At 27 I decided to start franchising, the best and worst thing I have ever done. (laughs)
I thought I was all over this business thing; had it all worked out but franchising was a completely different kettle of fish. We opened seven in the first nine months – then I had a bit of an emotional breakdown – feared I didn’t have the right constitution for this, because you need to be quite tough and firm.
A lot of people were saying, “it’s going to destroy your soul, you can’t do it.”
Being a young female it’s really hard to find your leadership style, in the early days I read a business book every couple of weeks.
So many of those books had an autocratic style, that old male leadership way of thinking.
Alpha male stuff?
Tina Tower: Yeah so I had to figure out what was working for me cause I wasn’t getting the right responses I thought I deserved.
I wasn’t being myself, I wasn’t being authentic, I was being what I thought I had to be. That was really the hardest lesson in the franchise journey.
I realised I needed to bring people in to do the stuff I couldn’t do.
Was that one of your best decisions?
Tina Tower: Yes, I put together a board of advisors of franchising experienced people that I couldn’t afford to hire full-time so I met them once a month.
We’ve always spent money on good advisors and great accountants.
I went to Price Waterhouse Coopers where I paid 16,000 a year for my accountancy.
I saw the value in saying, ‘if we put this investment in now, it will pay off in the long run.’ and it has.
The franchising costs were more than I anticipated; the graphic designing, infrastructure, all that sort of thing. The accountant rang me and said, “You’re going to lose your house in about 7 weeks if you don’t change something. Either stop growing the business or lose your house.”
From there we worked out how much we had to fund, decided to rent out our four bedroom house and lived in one room for three months with a mattress on the floor at my parents house.
My husband was then working full-time so we got half of his wage, pumped it back into the business and I wasn’t drawing a wage.
WE LIVED FOR TWO YEARS ON ABOUT 200 DOLLARS A WEEK.
Failure was not an option because we would have lost everything.
We really had no choice than to put everything we had into it but just back it 100% and just go for it, which was very hard on my marriage. (laughs)
But it’s worth it, they say you work hard enough, smart enough, long enough and eventually you’ll get there.
So good to hear, what’s the five-year plan?
Tina Tower: We’re hoping to grow to 100 centres by 2018. Everything’s working towards that goal. Once we get there we’ll figure out whether it’s worth getting investors on board to grow to the next level and go international.
HOOK UP WITH: Tina Tower
Keen to hear more about Begin Bright? head here.
Find Tina at her blog here.
On Twitter right here.