Jen Hoe of Happy Kids Yoga: Scale Works Better When the Model Is Ready
There’s a lot of noise around scaling.
Grow faster. Add a team. Franchise it. Reach more people. Move before someone else does.
But one of the things I loved about my conversation with Jen Hoe, founder of Happy Kids Yoga, is that her story offers a completely different lesson.
Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is wait.
Jen is a finalist for Brand Excellence Award, sponsored by Club Hub UK, and Scaling Business of the Year at The Class Business Awards 2026.
Happy Kids Yoga began with one children’s yoga class in Warrington and has since grown into a national franchise helping children build confidence, resilience and emotional wellbeing through yoga and mindfulness. But the franchising part didn’t happen quickly. Jen spent nearly nine years proving the business before she decided it was ready to scale.
And that decision is a huge part of why the growth happening now feels so strong.
One class was enough to start
Happy Kids Yoga began in a brilliantly simple way.
Jen was already attending an adult yoga class when the teacher suggested running a children’s class next door, so parents who struggled with childcare could attend yoga while their children did a session of their own.
That one class led to sessions in her daughter’s nursery, then her mum’s school, and the business began to grow from there.
Jen didn’t come from a traditional education background. Before this, she had spent ten years working in marketing for Bank of America before moving into children’s swimming with Puddle Ducks, eventually working in marketing and franchise management there too.
That combination of marketing, franchise experience, children’s activities and her own love of yoga ended up becoming a really useful foundation for what came next.
Don’t franchise just because you can
One of the strongest parts of Jen’s story is how long she waited before franchising.
She had seen first-hand that a franchise model needs to be proven before you hand it to someone else, and that idea stayed with her for years.
“I need to prove that this works as a business before I can bring anyone else in.”
That meant running Happy Kids Yoga independently, refining the offer, surviving COVID, moving classes online when needed and continuing to work with schools and nurseries through a period that tested just about every children’s activity business.
By the time franchising properly came onto the table, Jen wasn’t asking whether the business might work.
She knew it did.
And that makes a massive difference.
Before you scale something, it’s worth asking:
- Is the offer genuinely proven?
- Do customers understand the value?
- Can the delivery be replicated consistently?
- Are there systems behind the service?
- Does the model work commercially, not just personally?
Scaling amplifies what already exists. If the model is strong, growth can create momentum. If the model is messy, growth can magnify the mess.
Sometimes an outside perspective unlocks the obvious next step
Interestingly, Jen didn’t suddenly wake up one morning and decide to become a franchisor.
She was talking at a mastermind day about how much she enjoyed mentoring a friend who was building her own business and mentioned that she might become a coach alongside Happy Kids Yoga.
The response was wonderfully simple:
“Jen, why don’t you just franchise your business and mentor the franchisees?”
That was the lightbulb moment.
Jen had almost forgotten that franchising was an option, but once the idea landed, the timing finally felt right. The business had survived, matured and proved itself.
That’s such a good reminder that sometimes we’re so close to our own business that we miss the most obvious route forward.
Slow preparation can lead to fast growth
Once Jen decided to franchise, things moved quickly.
The first franchise agreement was signed in January 2025. By May 2026, Happy Kids Yoga had five franchisees. By September, that number had doubled to ten.
That’s a big shift after years of working largely on her own.
Jen described the first team get-together as almost surreal. Twelve people sat together in matching uniforms, sharing goals, talking about what was working and building relationships.
“It’s such an amazing place to be when you’ve been working on your own for so long to suddenly have people around you. You’ve got a team.”
And I think that captures something people often miss when they talk about scaling.
Growth isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet.
It’s identity.
You move from being the person who delivers everything to the person responsible for the environment, systems, culture and support that help other people succeed.
A strong brand is more than a logo
Happy Kids Yoga is a finalist for Brand Excellence Award, and you can see why when you hear Jen talk about what the business actually delivers.
The brand isn’t simply “kids doing yoga poses”.
Jen is very clear that the sessions are designed to teach children much broader skills:
- confidence
- emotional resilience
- teamwork
- breathing techniques
- focus and relaxation
- positive self-talk and affirmations
For younger children, those ideas are woven into story-based yoga. As children get older, sessions evolve into longer relaxation, partner work, yoga flows and techniques they can use in real situations such as SATs or bedtime anxiety.
That’s what strong branding really is.
It’s not just what the business looks like.
It’s knowing exactly what you want people to experience, understand and take away from it.
The impact happens outside the class
One of my favourite stories from Jen’s interview was about a little boy who had learned “bumblebee breath” in yoga.
Later, he told Jen that he had used the technique while waiting to jump into the deep end of a swimming pool because he was terrified.
“I did my bumblebee breath while I was standing in the line, and then I just jumped in.”
That’s the moment you know the learning has travelled beyond the session.
Jen also talked about Year 6 pupils using breathing techniques before opening an exam paper, practising yoga before bed to help them sleep and using relaxation tools during stressful periods at school.
Those are the outcomes that matter.
The pose is the vehicle.
The confidence, coping skills and self-belief are the real product.
Scaling should create room for more innovation
What’s particularly exciting is that Happy Kids Yoga isn’t scaling by simply repeating the same programme in more places.
Jen is already developing the next stage.
Since February, she has been teaching in a special needs school and has seen first-hand how powerful adapted yoga can be. Staff have been surprised to see children who normally struggle to settle lying calmly in relaxation for five or ten minutes.
That experience has sparked a new project: developing specific SEND lesson plans and a dedicated curriculum franchisees can use in both mainstream and specialist settings.
This is such a good example of what scaling can unlock.
Once you’re no longer carrying every part of the business alone, you can start asking bigger questions.
Where else could this work?
Who else could benefit?
What needs adapting?
How can the whole network learn from one person’s experience?
The best franchisees don’t need to be yoga experts
Jen also has a really clear idea of who she wants to bring into the brand.
And interestingly, being brilliant at yoga isn’t the first requirement.
“I actually would prefer somebody who is amazing with kids because we can teach you the yoga, but teaching kids is a skill.”
That’s a powerful recruitment principle because it gets to the heart of what can and can’t easily be taught.
Yoga techniques can be learned.
The ability to connect with children, understand them, engage them and make them feel safe is much harder to manufacture.
Strong scaling comes from knowing which parts of the business are trainable and which qualities you need to recruit for from the beginning.
Scaling isn’t about rushing
Jen’s story is a brilliant reminder that growth doesn’t always reward the person who moves fastest.
Happy Kids Yoga existed for years before franchising.
Jen learned.
She refined.
She proved the model.
She survived a pandemic.
She built experience around children, marketing, yoga and franchising.
Then, when the timing was right, she scaled.
The result is a business that has moved from one class to a growing national franchise without losing sight of why it existed in the first place.
And that’s probably the biggest lesson here.
Scaling works best when there’s something strong enough underneath it to carry the weight.
Watch the full interview
In our full conversation, Jen shares how Happy Kids Yoga grew from one class into a national franchise, why she waited nearly a decade before scaling, what she’s learned from building her first franchise team and why SEND provision is becoming such an important part of the next chapter.
👉 Watch Jen’s full finalist interview here.
Jen Hoe is a finalist for Brand Excellence Award, sponsored by Club Hub UK, and Scaling Business of the Year at The Class Business Awards 2026.
And if this has got you thinking about the next stage of YOUR business, whether that’s scaling, building a team, developing a franchise, sharpening your brand or just finally getting out of your own head and into a room with people who understand what you’re building, then come and join us on Saturday 10 October.
We are bringing the class business sector together at the National Conference Centre in Solihull for a full day of ideas, conversations, connections and proper business growth at The Class Business Live from 9:00am to 3:00pm.
This isn’t a day for sitting quietly taking notes and disappearing home with another notebook full of things you’ll “get round to”. We want you involved. We want you talking to other founders, sharing what’s working, digging into the challenges, getting fresh perspectives through the mastermind sessions and meeting the people who could become your next collaborator, supporter, supplier or business friend.
And THEN we celebrate.
From 6:00pm, The Class Business Awards & Afterparty takes over as we shine a HUGE spotlight on the brilliant founders, franchisees, tutors, teams and businesses moving this sector forward.
Honestly, if you’re building a class business and you want to feel inspired, challenged, connected and properly celebrated in the same day, you need to be in this room.
👉 Grab your ticket, get 10 October firmly in the diary and come and be part of one of the biggest days our sector has had.
