Today we’d like to introduce you to Anson Ainsworth.
Hi Anson, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I knew from an early age that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My father was a candy salesman and had lots of samples at his office. In high school, I would fill my backpack every morning and make my own candy store to class with me. Usually, by lunchtime, I was sold out, and that was my lunch money for the day. This was really the first business I ever ran myself. I spent the next 15 plus years in restaurant and bar management, and I also worked in sports talk radio during that time. In 2008 my wife, Cortney and I moved to Houston. I owned a mobile DJ company providing entertainment at weddings and private parties. My wife could not find a job in her field because the economy was so bad at the time. So she took a job as a swim teacher at a local swim school. Neither she nor I knew that this was the beginning of our next chapter. She found out very quickly that she was a talented swim instructor. The owner of the school noticed too. After just three months, she was named assistant director. After six months, she was named director.
A few months later, she had an instructor quit without notice during the Thanksgiving break. Cortney “forced” me into learning how to teach swim lessons over the weekend with an intense training session. The next week, I took over a full schedule of lessons and found out that I was better than expected at this too. After a few months, I was named operations manager of the school, and my wife and I ran the business together for a few years. Eventually, we realized that there was a virtually untouched market in at-home swim lessons. Traditional swim schools offer at-home lessons, but they are a very small percentage of sales. We saw that the overhead for an at-home swim lesson company would be much easier for us to start with little to no start-up costs. Our first summer in Houston was such a success. We had to start hiring other instructors to work for us the next season. One problem we continued to run into, however, was the weather. Since we teach in backyard pools, we are limited by the temperature outside. Between November and March every year, I would have to pick up a second job to pay our bills. We decided that we would need to look into expanding into a new market that had more favorable weather year-round. We looked at Phoenix, Los Angeles and Miami as our possible landing spots.
After doing our market research, we determined that Miami would be the best choice. We hired an instructor to teach for us there and ran the operations from Houston still. It became obvious quickly that we needed to focus more attention on the South Florida market since there was so much opportunity. Cortney and I spent a week together in Miami and made day trips to Broward and Palm Beach counties to familiarize ourselves with the areas. She fell in love with the area right away, and we knew we had to move here. Within two weeks, we were on the road to Palm Beach Gardens to start our new life here. That was six years ago now and we have never regretted anything. We absolutely love it here!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When you bootstrap a company, I don’t think it is ever completely smooth. We have certainly had growing pains along the way and learned some hard lessons. We made a mistake one year of running a Groupon for lessons. At the time, it seemed like a great idea. We get a ton of exposure, and the lower cost of lessons we would offer could be considered a marketing cost. Groupon ended up overselling the deal and we were swamped. That summer, I would spend 8-9 hours a day on the road teaching swim lessons and then come home to take care of family matters. After these kids were off to bed, I would take my laptop to Denny’s and do office work until 3 or 4 in the morning. Needless to say, we have never run another deal like this again. I think the other biggest struggle is hiring. I understand this is a struggle for most businesses, but our industry is very small, and it makes it hard to find qualified instructors to work for us. Most instructors are also college-aged so turnover is high from season to season as instructors graduate and move into new careers.
We’ve been impressed with Safe Swimming School, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a “back-based” mobile swim school that brings the swim lesson to you! Back-based means that we teach children to roll onto their back to float should they ever fall into a pool or body of water. Floating saves lives! We offer lessons from three months old all the way up to adults. The majority of our students are between 1-4, though. We focus on drowning prevention and safety as our #1 goal and stroke development as our secondary goal. We specialize in those that are afraid of the water and getting them over that fear. Most swim schools are run or owned by former swimmers, which tends to make them more stroke-focused. We came into the industry as entrepreneurs, so I think that allows us to have a different approach and philosophy than our competition. We understand that swim lessons are likely the scariest thing most of our students have ever faced in their life. This led us to find the key to successful swim lessons. The instructor/child relationship. If you can gain the trust of a child, they are much more likely to do the things we need them to do that are scarier for them, such as floating on their back or putting their face in the water.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We are very active and always welcome new partnerships and opportunities to serve the community. You can find out more about us at safeswimmingschool.com or on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Safe Swimming School.
Pricing:
- Lessons range between $40 – $48 per half hour lesson depending on the package chosen.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@safeswimmingschool.com
- Website: safeswimmingschool.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/safeswimmingschool/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/safeswimmingschool
