Interview With Ann Williams Maughan from Education Take-Away

Tell Us A Little Bit About Yourself-

Married with one daughter who is going into secondary school in September. 

In Your Own Words, Tell Us About How You Came to Start Your Business and Some of the Hurdles You Have Faced-

My inspiration for starting Education Takeaway came when my daughter started school.  She brought home a Story Sack, and for those of you who don’t know what Story Sack is, it’s a large sack/bag containing a book with information/props for parent on how to bring the story to life.  It contains the book, some soft toys that are relevant to the book, a game or flashcards and information to parents on how to use the book/game.

 In the first Story Sack she brought home was games, we had so much fun with the games by the time it was to be returned to school my daughter was sad to see it go.  I was on a mission to find this game.  I searched my local high street but the games were not available.  I contacted the company that had manufactured the game to see if they could point me in the direction of my nearest retail outlet.  Instead they posted me a catalogue.  The catalogue was lying around my house for days when a friend said she liked the look of the games and if I was ordering anything could she have something.  Another friend expressed the same interest.  By the time I phoned them up I had over £150.00 in order from different people.  They asked me if I was a business, I said No, they offered at this point to set me up as Party Plan business and gave me a good discount.  With this small order from family and friends I had made a small profit.  I contacted a few local mother and toddler groups asking if  I could come along to their group and sell some of the range, they agreed and before I knew where I was I had bookings for fairs, mother/toddler groups and other events.  I re-stocked added a few more products to the range and slowly built my business.