Making Business a Mess with Kirky Kids
This week’s Business Spotlight feature looks at a Perthshire business with a flair for messiness, a mess that the local kids and parents love...
Founder and mother of two Kelli Kirk, set up Kirky Kids in April 2013 and the business has already kicked up a colourful storm in the Perthshire region. After attending various activity sessions on holiday with her children, aged 2 and 1, Kelli identified a gap in the local market for similar fun, themed, and messy activity sessions.
When the first session took place on May 29th at Active Kids in Stanley, this market gap highlighted a yearning for parents and kids to get messy, with well over 20 babies and toddlers attending.
Kelli highlights that these activity sessions can be fantastic for child development:
“Messy Play is great for early-years development and encourages babies and toddlers to explore a wide variety of textures, tastes and smells, helping to improve their gross motor skills.”
Amongst all the pasta, jelly, paint and gloop however, there’s no sacrifice of safety or business ability. Kelli holds a range of qualifications including SVQ Level 4 in Business & Management, Event Management, and Risk in Play and Child protection. Kirky Kids also holds full public liability insurance covering all events and sessions.
Despite being operational for less than 4 months, Kirky Kids has sessions booked right up until the end of the year at Active Kids Adventure Park, Stanley, and sessions also beginning at the Black Watch Museum from September 7th. Kelli also identified that there was a market gap for school holiday activities for school age kids- so “Let’s get crafty” Craft Workshop with Crafty Tikes, “Chocolate Crazy Chocolatiers”, and “Wacky Wizards” workshops were set up. Sessions can also be booked for any event.
Kelli offers two main packages. “Messy Bugs" - from birth to 4 years, includes lots of messy play, and “Junior Artists” – from 5-10 years lets them discover their artistic talents by painting their own canvas and decorating them with different textures and patterns.
She also adds:
“Messy Play is great fun and I can run my business with both my children by my side. They are my inspiration for a lot of the ideas I have and seeing them enjoying the sessions keeps me motivated and encourages me to explore different ideas and themes”
Kelli is also grateful for the role Business Gateway has played in helping her shape and achieve her goals, along with providing the motivation that it could be done:“Following my meetings with my business adviser, I came out feeling extremely motivated with lots of ideas for growing my business. After my meeting I also signed up for the Woman into Business workshops, and I am looking forward to them.”
And what does Kelli have planned for the future? Kelli hopes to eventually roll the sessions out to Dundee, and spread the fun and development to get even more kids diving into fun and colourful mess!
Kirky Kids
Telephone - 07850362563
Facebook – www.facebook.com/kirky.kids
Web - www.kirkykids.co.uk
If you would like help to make your business ideas a reality, pick up the phone now and become your own boss.
Tayside - 01382 443 400
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