A Year Ago, Clara James Was Lots of Ideas. Now They're Starting to Connect.

If you'd asked me a year ago what Clara James was, I probably would have told you that it was a tutoring business.

And it was.

We supported children with maths and English. I had a team of tutors. I'd written books and created more resources than I could probably count.

But I also had lots of other ideas.

I'd started thinking about franchising. I'd experimented with a membership. I wanted to do more to support other tutors. I had ideas about training, SEND, resources and ways we could help parents.

The problem was that they were all just that.

Ideas.

Some I'd started. Some I'd stopped. Some existed in notebooks or as half-finished plans. And some were probably just floating around in my head waiting for me to decide what on earth to do with them.

I knew I wanted Clara James to grow, but I don't think I really understood what I wanted it to grow into.

Sometimes you need someone who dreams bigger than you do

Over the last year, one of the biggest changes I've made has been investing in a mentor.

That wasn't a particularly comfortable decision for me. It was a significant investment, and I think there's always that little voice asking whether you should really be spending the money.

But one of the things I've realised is how valuable it can be to have someone alongside you who doesn't just listen to your ideas, but challenges you to think bigger about them.

My mentor hasn't created Clara James for me.

The ideas, experiences and values behind it have come from the last 14 years of building the business, working with children and families, working alongside tutors and, quite often, learning by getting things wrong.

What having a mentor has helped me do is connect the pieces.

An idea that once sat over there suddenly connects with something else I'd been thinking about over here.

And gradually, instead of lots of separate projects, I'm beginning to see an ecosystem.

It all comes back to one thing

Recently I finally managed to put into words what sits at the centre of everything I want Clara James to become:

Helping people help children learn and succeed.

Sometimes we do that directly.

A Clara James tutor sits with a child and helps them understand something that previously felt impossible.

But that isn't the only way to help that child.

If we give a parent an idea that helps them explain something differently, we've helped a child.

If we help someone become a fantastic tutor, that person might go on to help dozens or even hundreds of children.

If we support an existing tutor to build a successful business and eventually bring other tutors into it, the impact grows again.

And if we can build Clara James tutoring businesses in communities around the country, we can reach children I could never possibly work with myself.

Suddenly, all those seemingly separate ideas make sense together.

Some of those ideas are becoming real

This week I've launched a new membership designed to give parents practical ways to support their children's learning at home.

I'm also creating support for people who are thinking about becoming tutors or who want to grow the tutoring business they've already started.

There is 1:1 support, a tutor membership is coming, and of course I'm continuing to build the Clara James franchise.

They're different things for different people.

But they all lead back to the same purpose.

Helping people help children.

It's made me think differently about mentoring too

It's also made me appreciate why having somebody alongside you can be so useful when you're trying to build something of your own.

Sometimes you don't need somebody to hand you the answers.

You need somebody who will listen to the slightly muddled idea you've been carrying around in your head and ask the question that makes you look at it differently.

Someone who can see possibilities you haven't seen yet.

Someone who doesn't think your big idea is too big.

And sometimes, someone who gives you the nudge to stop thinking about it and actually do it.

That's a big part of what I want my own 1:1 support for new and developing tutors to offer.

Not a blueprint that says, "This is how I built Clara James, so you need to do exactly the same."

Because I don't believe that would work.

We all come with different experiences, strengths, circumstances and ambitions.

The aim is to help someone work out what their tutoring business could become.

I don't think I've reached the destination

If anything, I think I'm only just beginning to understand how much bigger Clara James could become.

There are still ideas scribbled in notebooks.

There are things we're testing.

There will undoubtedly be things that don't work and need changing.

And I'm sure I'll have another idea tomorrow that wasn't part of today's plan. 😂

But for the first time, those ideas don't feel like lots of unrelated things competing for my attention.

They're starting to connect.

And perhaps that's one of the biggest lessons I've learned this year.

Sometimes growing a business isn't about having another new idea.

Sometimes it's about finally seeing the connection between the ideas you already had.