Xaveon Caesar

I first started learning to swim because I wanted to join the navy. I also volunteered at the place where I was learning to swim and started helping with their swimming program. The coaches saw that I was good with the kids so they started offering me regular teaching hours and I found I really enjoyed it so that’s how I built up my career as a swimming teacher and coach. 

After being there for some time I decided I wanted to start doing this for myself, not working for them, so I’ve always had an ambition to have my own swim school. 

I moved to the UK in 2020 from St Vincent’s in the Caribbean and I basically had to start over but the ambition to have my own business and my own swim school was still there. I had a lot of things to figure out being in a new country so I had to learn a new way of doing things. It’s a more relaxed industry in the Caribbean; it’s very different here and my qualifications were American so I had to redo all of my qualifications when I moved here and I needed to decide how I was going to do this. 

I started off working in the leisure industry and taught swimming in private schools which gave me an idea of how they were running their businesses.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs; my mother, grandmother, uncles had their own business so I think it was in me to pursue being a business owner growing up surrounded by entrepreneurs who did their own thing.

At one point I actually considered giving up swimming altogether. I couldn’t see how I could achieve what I wanted to achieve but these people continued to support me and encourage me and ultimately this is what made me decide the time was right to go for it and open my own swimming school. The community support was a massive part of it, it wasn’t just one person, there were loads of people. I’ve always found myself put into leadership positions whether I wanted it or not; in other jobs other teachers would ask me what they should do in certain situations and one manager would always leave me in charge when he was off so I wondered “Why am I always in the position and not just doing it for myself?”

After some thinking about the best approach I came across franchising where the structure is already there and you get support and guidance going forward as well so it was appealing that I wouldn’t have to do it alone. We spoke to other franchisors and finding out about the BFA, we had to learn who was part of that, who was the best franchise to go with, what they were offering etc. and we came across Swimtime.

I was impressed by Franscape, the bespoke platform they use to make bookings etc easier, and this was important for me because everywhere I had worked previously, all this was done manually and for me it seemed like a lot of unnecessary work which meant longer hours etc so to have a platform that makes all that quicker and easier was great. 

Also, I’ve always been hot on standards, it’s not just about making the money for me, I would always prioritise the quality of the service over the money and this really came across for me with Swimtime; that there was emphasis on the progress of the children, the quality of what we’re offering. 

We also spoke to Keri, one of the existing franchisees, which gave us a real feeling for the network and he was really helpful. We got a real taste of what it would be like to be a part of it which none of the other franchisors offered. Rachel took her time with the process, made sure we understood what we were getting involved in which we really appreciated.

That was it for me and the rest is history – now we’re Swimtime franchisees!