Nicola Roseby of Kidslingo South Derbyshire & Burton: How Organic Growth Can Take You From First Classes to Full Capacity
Some businesses grow because of a big launch, a clever funnel or a major advertising push. Others grow because one good experience leads to another recommendation, which leads to another opportunity, and before long the business looks completely different from where it started.
That is exactly what has happened for Nicola Roseby from Kidslingo South Derbyshire & Burton.
Nicola spent 13 years working in secondary education, including 10 years as Head of Languages, before launching her Kidslingo business in January 2024. She wanted to keep teaching, but after becoming a parent and regularly working more than 60 hours a week in school, she knew the way she was working had to change.
Less than three years later, Nicola is delivering 22 French and Spanish classes across four teaching days, working with nurseries, schools, childminders, community groups, home-educated children and private tuition clients. She has now reached a point many emerging businesses dream of reaching: there is more opportunity than one person can physically delivery.
Nicola is a finalist for Emerging Business of the Year at The Class Business Awards 2026, and her story is a brilliant example of what can happen when strong delivery, local trust and word of mouth start working together.
Leave what isn’t working without leaving what you love
Nicola had wanted to teach from a very young age, so leaving school education was never about falling out of love with teaching. What had become unsustainable was everything surrounding it.
After having her first child in 2020, she began thinking much more seriously about the impact 60-hour-plus working weeks were having on family life. Rather than abandoning the career she had built, she started looking for another way to use the same skills with more control over her time.
That distinction is important. Sometimes the problem is not the work itself. It is the model you are trying to do it within.
Nicola had already seen children’s activity classes as a parent and recognised that her teaching and language experience could translate naturally into that world. She briefly considered going independent, but also knew she had very little experience of actually running a business.
As she explained:
“I feel like I’ve got the teaching bit nailed, but everything else, it’s so nice to be part of the franchise.”
Choosing Kidslingo gave her the support she needed around the business side while allowing her to focus on delivering the teaching she already knew she loved.
Start somewhere, then let reputation do its work
Nicola began with community classes and a couple of nursery settings.
The first six to nine months were relatively slow, but then she started seeing the knock-on effect of the relationships she had already built. Parents who had attended toddler classes began recommending her to schools. Those schools got in touch about clubs. Other opportunities appeared through people who had already seen what she could do.
Nicola described the growth as having:
“grown quite organically.”
That phrase matters because organic growth is sometimes mistaken for passive growth. It is not.
The recommendations only happen because the service gives people something worth recommending.
For a local class business, that creates a powerful chain:
- deliver a strong experience
- build trust with the family
- give them something easy to talk about
- let one relationship introduce you to the next setting
- keep delivering consistently when the opportunity arrives
The early community class may only look like one small revenue stream, but it can also become the door into a nursery, school or private tuition relationship later.
Diversification can happen naturally
Today, Nicola’s 22 weekly classes span community sessions, nurseries, school clubs, childminders, home education and private tuition, with a mixture of French and Spanish.
What is interesting is that she did not necessarily sit down at the beginning and design every one of those income streams.
The home education group, for example, began because a group of parents approached her and asked whether it was something she could offer. That then led to further tuition and new learners joining the group.
That is such a useful reminder for an emerging business. Your customers can often show you where the next part of the offer should go.
If several people start asking for the same thing, pay attention. If one setting creates enquiries from another, follow the thread. Diversification works best when it responds to genuine demand rather than adding services simply because growth feels like it should mean doing more.
Full capacity creates a different kind of problem
Nicola is currently delivering all 22 classes herself.
That is an incredible achievement in less than three years, but it has also created the next challenge.
As she said:
“The barrier, if you will, to me being able to take the business any further now is my own capacity.”
She knows the next stage will require building a team, something she describes as both exciting and “mildly terrifying”.
This is a really important point in the journey of an owner-led class business. At the beginning, being able to deliver everything yourself is an advantage. Later, it can become the thing that limits growth.
The skills needed for the next stage are different too. Nicola already knows how to teach and how to build demand. Now she has to learn how to recruit, train and trust other people to represent the business.
That is growth in a very real sense. Not simply more classes, but moving from being the person who delivers the business to the person who starts building the business around others.
The impact goes beyond learning French or Spanish
For Nicola, the outcome is not simply whether a child can remember some French or Spanish vocabulary.
She sees the classes helping children build confidence and self-esteem, particularly because learning another language requires them to speak, listen and be willing to make mistakes. She also loves the shared experience for families, with parents telling her that classes have become special one-to-one time with their child.
Nicola believes getting children comfortable with languages early can also reduce some of the fear that often appears later.
“You’re hooking them in at a younger age before all of that fear of speaking in front of other peers.”
That is why Kidslingo’s use of songs, movement, games and play is so central to the experience. Children are learning without the process feeling intimidating, and the learning often follows them home. Nicola hears from parents whose children are singing the songs weeks later or counting vegetables in French or Spanish at the supermarket.
Emerging businesses do not have to stay small for long
Nicola’s business is still young, but it has already moved through several distinct stages: leaving teaching, starting local classes, establishing trust, expanding into different settings and now reaching the point where solo delivery is no longer enough.
That is what makes her story such a strong example of an emerging business. The growth has not come from trying to do everything immediately. It has come from doing the work well, listening to where demand is coming from and allowing each successful relationship to open another door.
The next stage will look different again, because Nicola now has to build capacity beyond herself.
And that may be the biggest sign of how far the business has already come.
Watch the full interview
In our full conversation, Nicola shares more about leaving secondary teaching, choosing the franchise route, growing through word of mouth, reaching 22 weekly classes and why her next step is building a team.
👉 Watch Nicola Roseby’s full finalist interview here.
Nicola is a finalist for Emerging Business of the Year at The Class Business Awards 2026.
Join us at The Class Business Live on Saturday 10 October 2026 at the National Conference Centre in Solihull for a full day of speakers, mastermind conversations, practical ideas and networking with people who understand exactly what it takes to build and grow a class-based business.
Then from 6:00pm, we move into The Class Business Awards & Afterparty to celebrate the founders, teams and businesses making an impact across the sector.
There’s still time to book your ticket here!
