“He’s gone” were the two words that changed Kate Ball’s life forever.  Kate, 24, was working in graduate recruitment in South Wales when her mother rang to say that her younger brother had died. Matthew, 22, had graduated from Portsmouth University that day and was celebrating with friends on the beach. Video catches them running up and down the beach, with Matthew coming into shot saying, “I’m knackered”. Seconds later he suffered a heart attack brought on by undiagnosed cardio myopathy. His friends attempted CPR, but it wasn’t effective and despite medical teams battling to save him it was too late. In the memorial book at the funeral one of Matthew’s friends from that night on the beach wrote: “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you”, a phrase that would stay with Kate and eventually, inspire her new business.

Boring First-Aid Training
“When working for large companies I’d seen people half asleep during dull first aid training,” said Kate.  “Obviously I knew how important learning to perform CPR effectively was and it annoyed me that these opportunities were effectively being wasted. When my first child Alfie was born, I knew I would do anything to keep him safe and suddenly, the pieces fell into place, and I knew what I was going to do. I was going to deliver first aid training for children, in a way that was engaging and most of all memorable.”

Mini First Aid is born
Kate launched Mini First Aid in her home town of Leeds in March 2015. She had written her own training plan and delivered classes with her characteristic zest, which proved popular with local families. Soon afterwards an old school friend Zoe said she’d like to run a Mini First Aid too, and her first pilot franchisee was born. 

Franchising, ‘a dirty word’
“When Zoe joined, a consultant suggested I franchise the business. I actually thought franchising was a dirty word; just fast food outlets and people taking your money; I had no idea it was actually about helping people develop their own businesses” said Kate. “One of my main worries was, would it work if it wasn’t me delivering the classes and would it work outside of Leeds where we were well known?” Thankfully, yes. Kate will admit that everything was pretty ‘back of an envelope’ at the beginning, and although it’s not the way she would advise anyone to do it today, it did allow the franchise to grow organically, ironing out the wrinkles as they came. “When I think about it, it scares me a bit. I worked out territory sizes with an OS map and a red marker pen.”

Dragons Den
In June 2021 Kate and Matt appeared on Dragon’s Den. Kate explains: “We practised our pitch in the car on the way down.” Luckily for them, it was successful and Sara Davies MBE offered them £50,000 for 20% of the business. “That was a pivotal moment for the business. We received six months’ worth of franchise applications overnight and welcomed 10 new franchisees into the business. Sara’s also been massively supportive of us in our journey.”

Double the money
Appearing on the show not only gave them Sara’s investment but also the fees from 10 new franchisees. “That cash injection made a massive difference to the business,” said Kate. “We used the money for marketing, and, recognising we needed to mature operationally as well, we built a better website, invested in more people in the office and on internal training.”

Today
Today, Mini First Aid has 72 franchisees. Some are owner operators; others are large businesses employing up to 10 full time trainers and demonstrating significant turnover. The entire network turns over £4m a year. 

Franchise advice
What are Kate’s words of advice for someone considering franchising their business today? “Test it. Walk before you can run. You need to know that your idea is scalable and write your operations manual now, to ensure the model can be replicated. Take proper franchise advice. Also join the BFA as soon as you can; we didn’t join for a few years and now wish we had for the education, the support and the camaraderie from other franchisors.”

The future
With only a handful of territories left to sell, is that the end of the very successful story? “Absolutely not. There’s still a lot of scope to grow and we’re focused on making our franchisee’s businesses bigger and busier. Eventually, we’d like to expand overseas, but we’re in no rush. For now, we’re just happy that a business started in Matthew’s honour is helping save lives all over the country every day.”

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