Former professional footballer Luke Chadwick is now director of Football Fun Factory, one of the fastest-growing children’s football coaching organisations.
His passion for football, growing the game and helping children develop their personal and technical skills has helped Football Fun Factory continue on an exciting upwards trajectory.
- Tell us a little bit about your business…
Football Fun Factory is one of the country’s fastest-growing football coaching organisations and we have centred our philosophy on the enjoyment of the game – we teach kids to love football regardless of their ability level, while also placing an emphasis on developing children’s life and personal skills.
- How did you get into the industry?
Upon retiring from professional football, I obtained all of my coaching badges while working in the academy of a professional football club. Although a role based at the elite level of football had some incredibly rewarding elements to it, I wanted to help and develop aspiring footballers further down the footballing pyramid and step out of the comfort zone I had grown to be accustomed to as a professional footballer.
This passion to help kids around the country fall in love with the game led me to work alongside my former colleagues within the academy coaching set-up – James Cutting and Jonny Martin – who co-founded Football Fun Factory. And I haven’t looked back since!
The reason I now do what I do is the recognition of what’s important to me. Growing up, I fell in love with football because my early experiences were so much fun and enjoyable. I don’t remember any of the tactical or technical advice I was given at a young age, but what I do remember is how much I loved it and the way coaches made me feel.
Working with The Football Fun Factory is so rewarding as it gives me the opportunity to give something back to the game that gave me so much, play a part in what will hopefully be millions of children playing the game purely for enjoyment and using football as a vehicle to develop positive life skills.
- What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in your industry?
Breaking down barriers to participation – our goal is to give every child the opportunity to play football regardless of ability or gender.
We truly believe every child should have access to brilliant coaches who are there because they love what they’re doing and have the skills to engage and inspire so that every single child has a fantastic experience and develops personally using football.
- How would you describe your leadership style?
I would describe my leadership style as transformational. I never ask people to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.
I like people to have freedom and be creative with focus on the bigger picture rather than the individual success.
- How do you get the most out of the people who work for you?
Because of the industry I work in, our whole team is trying to get the best out of themselves which in turn strengthens the organisation.
The beauty of franchising is working for yourself as part of a team. There is no promotion or bickering to get the next job, it is a group of highly driven people using our model for their success.
- What are the most crucial elements to your business running smoothly and being successful?
A huge amount of work has gone in to lay the foundations of our business model – it’s of paramount importance that we recruit the right people to keep making our brand stronger.
We’re extremely grateful for the wonderful Head Coaches we have been able to recruit that are bringing incredible football experiences to their local communities.
We have a proven business model that brings fantastic rewards both emotionally and financially for our Head Coaches.
- How has the past 12 months been for you?
The last 12 months have seen huge growth in very challenging times. Obviously the pandemic was extremely tough with our programmes not running, but it also gave us the opportunity to do a massive amount of work to make the business stronger.
We have an ethos at The Football Fun Factory to turn every challenge into an opportunity, and this attitude has set us up for an exciting future.
This accumulated with us agreeing a football coaching partnership with Center Parcs which will permit parents to book Football Fun Factory experiences for children at each of their villages across the UK and Ireland from June 2022.
- What will the next 12 months look like for your business?
We couldn’t be more excited about the next 12 months as we have a number of exciting projects and partnerships to launch which we believe will take our business to the next level.
Without the cloud of COVID-19 hanging over us, we have huge confidence the next 12 months will be the tipping point of setting us on our way to fulfil our ambition of becoming the world’s leading children’s football coaching organisation.
- What are the highlights of your career so far?
The highlight of my business career so far, although very short, is being able to play a part in people having the opportunity to work full time in football.
It’s not an easy industry to get into with jobs very few and far between, while more than often than not the pay is not great at a lot of places.
To support passionate football coaches set up their own franchise, earn good money and do something they love is most definitely a massive highlight.
- What’s the biggest business mistake that you’ve learnt from?
Returning to my experience in academy coaching, I realised that by not doing what I love, I couldn’t give the best version of myself.
I was lucky enough to do something I loved for 18 years as a professional footballer, and that helped me understand that if I’m not truly enjoying my job, I should try something different. That has been a real blessing in my life and has been an important lesson in my life.
- What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
The best piece of business advice I’ve received is: don’t take anything personally.
I’ve made loads of mistakes and had lots of knock backs, but if you truly believe in what you’re doing, these can only serve as learning tools to make the business stronger.
We always make long-term decisions rather than look for quick wins or fixes at Football Fun Factory and that is at the foundation of a sustainable, exciting future.
