How I started my maths business

Maths business adds up for teachers

Most parents of primary school-age children know the uneasy feeling of trying – but failing – to help them with their homework.

Maths is a particular problem as the way the subject is taught now is very different to when most parents were at school.

Wiltshire teachers Jan Heppenstall and Rosie Mayes realised there was a viable business in producing a novel, easy-to-use method of allowing embarrassed parents to brush up on their adding, subtracting, multiplying and division in a way that would also help their children.

Jan, a former primary school teacher, said: “We were always getting parents asking us questions about how we were teaching maths. They were struggling at home because it is now taught very differently to the way they remember when they were at school.”

They came up with 24 colour-coded cards aimed at parents of children aged between 7 and 11 year olds working on maths at Key Stage 2 level.

After nearly two years of working on the design they took the plunge last October and launched Hycah – which stands for Help Your Child At Home – with the help of Business Link.

Like many teachers, Jan and Rosie loved their jobs but were tiring of the endless paperwork and other admin tasks.  “We had started thinking about a way out – something that would draw on our teaching experience,” said Jan, who has been teaching for around 20 years.

“I think it was Rosie who came up with the idea of cards. We worked at it for quite a while, looking at various options and got a designer involved. That was in January last year and we spent quite a bit of time looking at various designs and also getting a simple website up and running.”

Jan and Rosie, both of whom live near Marlborough, expected to pick up sales over the internet but almost all have come from local schools.

“We’ve contacted a lot of schools directly,” said Jan, who is now a part-time swimming teacher.
“We’ve both been teaching long enough to know the schools around here. Most have been really supportive and can see the benefits of offering parents the cards.”

The lack of online sales surprised Jan and Rosie, a former headteacher who has 30 year’s classroom experience, and they are now hoping to update their website to increase its showing on search engines.

The cards have been sold to a school in London where Rosie had a contact and they are now targeting schools in nearby Berkshire and contacting parent-teacher associations. They are also working with a designer on a new flyer.

The cards, which sell for £14.99 a pack, are also being used by adults with learning difficulties and some teachers are using them as classroom aides.

“It’s still early days and we both have other jobs but we’re pleased it’s going well,” said Jan.
“We’ve been asked whether we can produce cards for Key Stage One maths and for reading, so there are other things we can look at.”

Jan is delighted with the help they received from Business Link before they even started up Hycah. She attended a three-day course ahead of launching the business.  “Our adviser Christopher Pearson has been a real boost,” she said. “We’re teachers, not business people so we’ve really appreciated the help he’s given us.  “It’s good to talk to someone on the same wavelength to us. It’s been a real boost.”

Christopher Pearson said: “Jan and Rosie have been really focused on getting this interesting business off the ground and I’m sure they’ll be successful.”