Bambini Lingo - The Lovely Little Language Club

This month we talk to Emma Boardman, Founder & Creative Director of Bambini Lingo, who came up with the idea for a language club when her son was a baby. It was so successful she has been able to franchise the business around the world. Here we find out more about the business and how you can become part of the Bambini Lingo family, running your own successful franchise whilst achieving a wonderful work / life balance.

Tell us about yourself and your business?

My career started out in show business, then I went on to run one of London’s leading event and entertainment agencies, working for clients such as JP Morgan, Barclays, BP & Givenchy. Despite having successfully entertained people around the world, I regretted only speaking English. In a multilingual world, monolingualism was a weakness that I did not want that for my son. I was frustrated with the local offerings of the language classes available, so I developed my own language club, which was such a success I turned it into an international franchise business.

Working with experts in linguistics, I used my performance background to create a methodology that turned little learners into little linguists. Over time I added more languages and in 2018 my own music was spotted and bought by Amazon as an Amazon Original.

What makes your business successful?

Bambini Lingo is not just another children's language class, we've taken all the key benefits of an early years activity class and added a high production soundtrack, choreographed movement programme and then we immerse little ones and their carers 100% in a foreign language - it works like magic and no-one even realises they're learning! You sing, dance and play your way into understanding a new language, and the most special thing is that the grown ups come away learning as much as the kids! We also only choose high energy, authentic native speakers to deliver our programme, this makes a huge difference to the experience our customers have.

What’s the best thing about your job?

I’m totally and utterly fulfilled running Bambini Lingo - it scratches all the professional itches I could possibly have, and it works brilliantly around my private life. I am primarily a creative person, so I love that I spend my days writing songs for our album, choreographing simple dance routines and writing stories for Bambini Lingo StoryTime. There are lots of other aspects involved with running the business too, especially I love bringing our franchisees through our on-boarding programme, empowering them and then seeing them fly with their own businesses.

What are the benefits of being a franchisee?

• High quality materials and content as evidenced by our Amazon Original Music deal
• The widest choice of languages available
• A scientifically backed, highly immersive and entertaining methodology
• A warm, family run business culture where our customers and franchise partners always come first
• A good value franchise fee which includes £2,500 worth of equipment (including a tablet loaded with digital flashcards)
• A founder committed to the development and enhancement of ever more content to benefit little learners, parents and franchise partners
• High quality training and support
• The opportunity to be part of a brand that has ambitions to grow through, not only published music, but also storybooks, audio books, games and video content that will allow children to spend more time immersed in their new language and encourage more parents to visit classes run by our franchisees
• Ultimately an attractive commercial opportunity that offers a highly valuable service to little learners and their parents, whilst also providing a wonderful work life balance for you

Who is typically suited to being a franchisee?

If you’re a positive, driven, open, passionate and hardworking person

What training and support are available?

Our on-boarding programme is delivered both in person and via our online training system. You will have continuous live support available to you and the accompanying training videos will enable you to re-watch the content as often as you need.

What hours would I need to work?

We expect our franchisees to put in a minimum of 10 hours work a week, between admin, training and running the classes.

What has been your own experience as a mum returning to work?

I really struggled with NOT working and I needed to feel challenged, relevant and independent again. Being struck with the idea for Bambini Lingo was an enlightening experience as it gave me the much needed focus I’d been lacking. However, I soon realised that working as a mother was very different to any kind of working I’d ever done before. The hours are limited and often interrupted and quite often you’re struggling with lack of sleep, especially in the early days. I’ve learnt to be more accepting of the amount I can achieve in a day and I don’t put too much pressure on myself as burnout doesn’t serve anyone well.

The culture focused ethos we have at Bambini Lingo is we teach you to avoid stress by managing your expectations and boundaries. We don’t allow business communication after 6pm, unless its an urgent matter and we encourage you to plan your working week around the needs of you and your family.

What advice would you give to someone looking to buy into a franchise?

You need to be really excited by the brand you’re buying into, its a lot of work becoming established with your own business and you need to have an avalanche in your chest if you’re to really make it work. If you are only lukewarm about the opportunity, it’s probably not the right choice for you. Also, get a legal professional to check that you fully understand your franchise agreement and what you are signing up for.

How can I find out more about becoming a franchisee?

We have a complimentary franchise info pack that we can send you by email.

You can find out all the information on our website or apply here

Or you can contact me via email emma@bambinilingo.co.uk

Where can I find information about your classes?

Visit our website for class information