Jenni Drewery of Music Makers Northants: How to Grow Without Losing the Quality People Came For

Sep 18, 2026

Growth can be exciting, but it can also be the point where a really good class business starts to wobble.

More sessions, more venues, more staff and more income streams can all look like progress from the outside, but if the customer experience starts slipping, the business can lose the very thing people loved in the first place.

That’s why I found my conversation with Jenni Drewery from Music Makers Northants so interesting.

Jenni has spent the last seven years growing a long-established local music business in North Northamptonshire, but she’s done it incredibly deliberately. From writing original music and expanding into nurseries to exploring intergenerational work, every new step has been weighed against one question: can we grow this while keeping the same quality, values and connection families already trust?

Jenni is a finalist for Customer Excellence Award, sponsored by Nick Welsh from WOW Customer Experience, and Strategic Partnership Award, sponsored by Bex Howe from Howe to Consultancy, at The Class Business Awards 2026.

Taking over an established business comes with a different responsibility

Jenni didn’t start Music Makers from scratch.

She had actually attended the sessions herself with her daughter before the opportunity came up to buy the business.

At that point, Music Makers had already been running in the community for more than ten years, which meant Jenni was taking on something with an existing reputation, customer base and history.

That creates a very different challenge from launching something completely new.

You’ve got room to evolve the business, but you also need to understand what customers already value.

Jenni began by giving Music Makers a clearer visual identity, introducing uniforms and developing its own version of the existing lion mascot. More importantly, she started thinking carefully about how she could bring her own professional background into the content.

Before becoming a business owner, Jenni had spent more than 14 years working in Early Years education, specialising in early language development and SEND.

She wanted that knowledge to become much more visible within the sessions.

Then COVID removed the only income stream

Just eight months after Jenni bought the business, COVID hit.

At that point, Music Makers relied entirely on face-to-face community sessions, so the impact was immediate.

Jenni said:

“It pulled the rug from underneath me because that was a time where, wow, we’re not face to face. How am I going to make a living out of this?”

But that disruption also gave her something class business owners rarely get: time to stop and rethink the model before restarting it.

Instead of simply recreating what had existed before, Jenni began evolving the content, brand and longer-term structure of the business.

That’s where Music Makers’ own original music really began to develop.

Build assets that make the business more distinctive

Jenni started writing songs specifically around the learning outcomes she wanted to bring into sessions, including musical concepts such as dynamics and tempo.

By the time Music Makers returned to face-to-face delivery, it had its own catalogue of music.

Today, there are three completed albums, a fourth in its final stages and listeners across 112 countries.

That’s a brilliant example of turning expertise into an asset.

Jenni could have continued relying on familiar nursery rhymes and existing material, but instead she created something owned by the business, shaped around its teaching approach and instantly more distinctive.

That original music now does several jobs at once:

strengthens the Music Makers brand
reinforces learning between sessions
gives families something they can take home
creates another income stream
keeps the business present in customers’ lives outside the class itself

That last point is particularly important.

Customer experience doesn’t stop when the class finishes

Jenni made a deliberate decision to stream the music rather than making families buy CDs or albums.

She explained:

“I really wanted the music to go home with families as much as possible rather than it just being you only if you can afford to do that.”

That decision is a really good example of customer experience and commercial thinking working together rather than against each other.

The streaming income itself might not be enormous, but it creates passive revenue while also strengthening the relationship with families.

Parents tell Jenni they’ve listened to the songs on the way to class, on holiday and even after moving abroad.

The customer journey doesn’t stop at the venue door.

For me, that’s one of the strongest lessons from Music Makers. When you’re thinking about additional products or revenue streams, don’t just ask what else you can sell.

Ask what else can deepen the relationship people already have with your business.

Test the model before you scale it

The nursery programme grew from a completely different kind of opportunity.

A nursery approached Music Makers and asked whether they could deliver sessions within Early Years settings. Given Jenni’s professional background, it was a natural fit, but she didn’t simply copy the community session format and start selling it.

She spent around a year testing and adapting it.

A nursery environment is different. There isn’t an adult alongside every child, attention spans vary and sessions have to fit into the setting’s wider routine. Jenni shortened and refined the format before she felt confident enough to hand delivery over to Beth.

That process is such an important lesson in sustainable growth.

Before scaling a new offer:

test it yourself
understand how the customer environment changes delivery
refine what doesn’t work
document the model clearly
make sure somebody else can deliver it confidently before expanding further

Growth gets much safer when the model works before more people are added to it.

Your first hire needs to protect the experience, not just fill the diary

Jenni and Beth have worked together throughout Jenni’s seven years running Music Makers, and their relationship has become an important part of how the business operates.

For Jenni, the biggest consideration when bringing someone into a class business is shared values.

She said:

“You want someone that you gel with that shares the same values as you for your business. You know, they’re going out, they’re representing you and your business.”

That matters even more in children’s activities, where the teacher often becomes the brand in the eyes of the customer.

Jenni has considered bringing in a third person, but she’s cautious because she doesn’t want growth to compromise the quality families already associate with Music Makers.

That means recruitment isn’t simply a capacity problem.

It’s a customer experience decision.

The person delivering the class needs enough training, support and understanding of the business to make families feel they’re still getting Music Makers, rather than just somebody who happens to know the session plan.

Partnerships can help you reach the people who aren’t already coming

One of the reasons Jenni wanted to expand into nurseries was access.

Community sessions are valuable, but not every family can attend. Parents may be working, budgets may be tight or there may be practical barriers that make weekly classes difficult.

Working with nurseries means Music Makers can reach children who might otherwise never experience the sessions.

That’s where strategic partnerships become far more interesting than simply “getting more customers”.

A strong partnership can help a class business:

reach new groups of people
remove barriers to access
build credibility in new settings
use existing expertise in a different way
create another sustainable revenue stream
increase impact without relying entirely on direct-to-parent sales

That same thinking is now extending into intergenerational work, which Jenni has been developing in collaboration with a childminding duo over the last 12 months.

Again, it isn’t growth for the sake of adding another line to the timetable. It’s a new way of using what Music Makers already does well.

The outcome isn’t always becoming a musician

What I also loved about this conversation was Jenni’s wider view of impact.

Some children who attend Music Makers later go on to learn instruments, and families have come back to tell Jenni about that progression.

But that isn’t the only measure of success.

Jenni said:

“For me, more than anything, it’s about having the joy that music will bring.”

That could mean dancing, singing, moving or simply seeing a baby start bopping along when they recognise a song.

That matters because class businesses can sometimes get so focused on measurable progression that they forget the emotional outcome.

Not every child needs to become a pianist.

Sometimes success is confidence.

Sometimes it’s connection.

Sometimes it’s the little head-bang when the favourite song comes on.

Sustainable growth can look quieter

Jenni describes the development of Music Makers as “baby steps”, and I think that’s actually one of the strongest parts of the story.

There’s no rush to add a huge team or roll out dozens of locations.

Instead, she’s built original intellectual property, added nursery partnerships, strengthened the customer journey, diversified revenue and started exploring new collaborations, all while protecting the quality and connection at the centre of the business.

That’s growth too.

And in many cases, it’s the kind that lasts.

Watch the full interview

In our full conversation, Jenni shares how she took over an established business, navigated COVID less than a year later, created Music Makers’ own original music, developed the nursery programme and built a strong partnership with Beth while remaining incredibly intentional about sustainable growth.

👉 Watch Jenni Drewery’s full finalist interview here.

And if you’re thinking about how to grow your own class business without losing the experience people already love, come and have those conversations with people who truly understand the challenge.

The Class Business Live takes place on Saturday 10 October 2026 at the National Conference Centre in Solihull, bringing together founders, tutors, franchisees, finalists, judges and sponsors from across the sector.

Come for the ideas, stay for the conversations and finish the day celebrating with a room full of people who GET this sector.

Book your ticket for The Class Business Live and Awards here.