Faye Smith of Nature Makers: Strategic Growth Means Looking Beyond What Works Today
There’s a big difference between reacting to change and preparing for it, and that difference sits at the heart of Faye Smith’s approach to building Nature Makers.
Faye is a finalist for Service Innovation Award, sponsored by Super Simple Websites, at The Class Business Awards 2026.
Nature Makers began as a preschool class inspired by Faye’s love of nature and creativity. Today, it’s a UK-wide franchise delivering mindful nature art, craft and play across schools, nurseries, care homes, charities, stately homes and adult workshops.
What makes the story interesting isn’t simply that the business has grown. It’s that Faye has kept looking ahead, reading what’s changing around her and making decisions before she’s forced to make them.
From corporate strategy to Nature Makers
Before Nature Makers, Faye spent 15 years in the automotive industry as a chartered senior buyer, with a degree in business strategy.
When her son was young, her priorities started to shift. She began thinking more seriously about what she wanted work and family life to look like, and found herself reconnecting with two things that had always mattered to her: nature and creativity.
She started testing the idea of bringing those two elements together in a preschool class while still working in her corporate role.
“I started to create the Nature Makers ethos, test it locally, the feedback was amazing.”
That feedback was one of the first signs that the idea had legs. Then people began approaching Faye asking how they could do it too, and the route into franchising began to take shape.
Look for the green flags
One of my favourite things Faye talked about was what she calls “green flags”.
We often wait for the huge milestones before we allow ourselves to believe a business is working, but Faye sees the smaller signals as just as important.
Those green flags might look like:
- customers returning and recommending you
- someone asking whether they can bring your model to their area
- a new service starting to gain traction
- a partnership opening an unexpected door
- your numbers showing that an idea is commercially viable
As Faye explained, the big wins are often the things that happen much later. The green flags are what tell you, while you’re still in the middle of building, that you’re moving in the right direction.
“You start seeing what I call green flags, which are not necessarily the big, big wins that everybody celebrates.”
That’s such a useful way of thinking about growth, especially when the end goal still feels a long way off.
Don’t jump before the business can catch you
Faye was also very open about the decision to leave secure employment.
As the sole income earner for her family, she couldn’t afford to treat that move as a leap of faith without a plan underneath it. Before leaving, she wanted a visible pipeline of franchisees, new services coming through and enough certainty around future income to know the business could support her family.
That wasn’t fear. It was strategy.
Faye has seen what can happen when people leave employment too early and instantly put the new business under enormous financial pressure.
“When people are operating in the fire, their nervous system takes over and it is fight, flight or freeze.”
At that point, it becomes much harder to think strategically because every decision is driven by the need to generate money immediately. Instead of directing the business, you end up reacting to it.
For Faye, the goal was to make sure she could leave employment from a position of strength, with enough visibility over the numbers to think about the future rather than simply survive the month.
Franchise without creating clones
Faye chose franchising because she wanted Nature Makers to grow without building a traditional employed team that depended on her directing every move.
She wanted franchisees to have a clear model and strong brand foundations, but also enough freedom to shape the business around their own lives, communities and strengths.
That means Nature Makers provides the structure around:
- the brand and ethos
- the core services and activities
- training and support
- business development
- multiple routes to generate revenue
Within that, franchisees can make decisions about where they work, what services they focus on and whether they deliver personally or build their own team.
As Faye put it:
“Here, you go, take this, make it your own.”
That approach has also created a network where new ideas can travel in both directions. Franchisees bring their own experience and creativity into the business, and when something works well, it can be shared across the wider network.
Diversification isn’t an optional extra
One of the strongest strategic lessons in Faye’s story is the way Nature Makers has diversified.
The business began with preschool classes, but the market around baby and preschool activities has changed. Birth rates have fallen, family spending has shifted and buying behaviour isn’t what it was a few years ago.
Faye didn’t ignore that or assume it would simply return to normal.
She looked at what was happening in the wider market and asked whether the change was a short-term storm or something that required a genuine shift in direction.
“You are the director of your company. You’re setting the direction for it.”
That thinking has helped Nature Makers expand into schools, nurseries, care homes, charities, adult workshops and visitor attractions, giving franchisees more than one route to income.
The result is a business where revenue can be layered rather than relying on one timetable or one type of customer. If one area is quieter, another can grow.
That’s not diversification for the sake of having more offers. It’s diversification designed to create resilience.
Innovation can be about recognising what’s already there
Nature Makers has also evolved much more deliberately into the wellbeing space.
Mindfulness, creativity and connection with nature had always been woven through the sessions, but Faye realised the business needed to make that value more explicit.
That led to accredited training through the International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine, with all franchisees now completing the training as part of their onboarding.
What I really like about this is that Nature Makers didn’t suddenly bolt on a completely unrelated service because wellbeing was a growing market.
The team looked at what was already at the heart of the experience and strengthened it.
That’s a really smart form of innovation. Sometimes the next opportunity isn’t about inventing something completely new. It’s about recognising the value already sitting inside what you do and finding a stronger way to position, package and deliver it.
Training alone doesn’t create a business
Faye is also very clear on the difference between teaching someone a methodology and helping them build something sustainable from it.
There’s a huge amount of training available now, but being qualified to deliver a service doesn’t automatically mean someone knows how to find customers, communicate the offer or build consistent income.
That’s why Nature Makers’ training goes beyond the activity itself.
“You don’t just post in a group and sell out your class anymore.”
Franchisees have to understand visibility, pipelines, repeated messaging and how to reach customers both online and offline.
That’s a point I think matters across the whole class business sector. Loving what you deliver is important, but you also need the commercial skills to make sure enough people know it exists.
The impact goes far beyond the activity
For all the strategic thinking behind Nature Makers, some of the most powerful parts of Faye’s interview were the stories about what happens when people actually come into the room.
She talked about a child who hadn’t realised birds built nests or laid eggs, which was a reminder that access to nature isn’t equal for every child.
She also shared the story of an adult willow-weaving workshop where one woman sat quietly for most of the six-hour session. At the end, she explained that she had recently been widowed and, apart from the television, the voices in that room were the only voices she had heard.
That really stayed with me.
The visible outcome of the session might have been a basket, but the real value was connection, comfort and being around other people.
That’s why the move into wellbeing feels so natural for Nature Makers. It isn’t a new direction that has appeared from nowhere. It’s an acknowledgement of the impact the business was already creating.
Strategic leadership is about looking up
Faye’s story is a strong reminder that leadership isn’t only about managing what’s happening inside the business today.
It’s about looking outward.
What’s changing in the market?
Where are customers moving?
Which parts of the business are becoming more difficult?
What new opportunities are appearing?
And where can you diversify before you desperately need to?
Nature Makers has changed significantly from the preschool class Faye first tested with her son, but the core idea hasn’t been lost. Nature, creativity, mindfulness and wellbeing still sit at the centre.
That’s the clever bit.
The delivery model can evolve without losing the thing that made the business distinctive in the first place.
Watch the full interview
In our full conversation, Faye shares how she moved from corporate strategy into Nature Makers, why she built financial security before leaving employment, what she’s learned from growing a franchise network and how diversification has helped create a more resilient business.
👉 Watch Faye’s full finalist interview here.
Faye Smith is a finalist for Service Innovation Award, sponsored by Super Simple Websites, at The Class Business Awards 2026.
And if this conversation has got you thinking about where your own business is going next, come and have those conversations with us in the room on Saturday 10 October.
We’re bringing the class business sector together at the National Conference Centre in Solihull for a HUGE day of learning, connection and celebration.
The Class Business Live runs from 9:00am to 3:00pm, and this isn’t about sitting quietly at the back of another business conference taking pages of notes you’ll never look at again. We want you talking, sharing ideas, getting involved in the mastermind discussions, meeting people who understand this sector and leaving with fresh thinking you can actually take back into your business.
Then from 6:00pm, it’s time to celebrate properly at The Class Business Awards & Afterparty as we shine a spotlight on the incredible founders, teams, tutors, franchisees and businesses making this sector what it is.
If you’ve been craving a day away from the day-to-day of running your business, surrounded by people who GET IT, with new ideas, brilliant conversations and one very good excuse to get dressed up and celebrate afterwards, this is your invitation.
👉 Get your ticket, come and join us on 10 October and be part of what is going to be an unforgettable day for the class business sector:
