We recently connected with Hannah Collishaw and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

From past experiences, I believe that to create a successful business, there has to be a burning passion & desire to succeed and believe in what you do.

It takes a certain type of individual to create a business model and see it through and stick with it through thick and thin. Owning a business is not for everyone and it will test all aspects of your life. You have to have passion, drive, be prepared for endless sleepless nights and be able to rise above when the going gets tough.

Starting out from scratch and in another country is one of the hardest experiences and I am thankful for a supportive family that believed in me and my dream.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My passion and now business started in 2003, when my oldest son, Toby, was 8 weeks old.

I was a young, first-time mom looking to meet other moms similar to me. I enrolled us in a water safety program ‘Swimbabies’ not really knowing what to expect. From the first lesson, I was mesmerized with how relaxed my son was in the water and how from a very young age he was starting to learn lifesaving skills.

It didn’t take long before I approached Lucy, the founder of Swimbabies and told her that I wanted to make a difference in parents life’s and join her team. Lucy was an amazing mentor and will be forever grateful to her.

In October 2007, my husband and I had the opportunity to come to Austin, TX with his company. It was a hard decision to make but we felt it was the right one for us and we have never looked back.

I soon realized that not working was not for me, so I used to offer free lessons in the neighborhood pools. We live in Texas, there are pools everywhere and I was shocked at the amount of children that couldn’t swim or able to afford lessons. Once I had my work authorization card, I offered my services to a local YMCA doing lessons in the winter months and then offering my own lessons in the summer. I was know as the travelling swim instructor.

Throughout the years I worked with many special needs children and young infants and they were wanting lessons throughout the winter months. It was frustrating as there are outdoor pools everywhere but they close once school starts back in August.

My husband, Darren, who has always supported my dream to own my own swim school starting reaching out to therapy centers to see if we could lease their therapy pool. We were very fortunate to meet Charise Boone, from Reavis Rehab. We presented her with our new business idea and she agreed to allow us access to her pool.

2013, we launched ReadyGoSwim. I had a handful of people that would come for lessons but still knew I wanted more so again started to offer free workshops for infants and children/adults of all ages and abilities. It was all word of mouth and Facebook that pushed us to the next level. Before I knew it, we had taken on 2 more instructors and were running a healthy small business.

In October of 2016, Reavis Rehab moved to another location and we had an opportunity to build our own pool next door to their new facility. After a lot of sleepless nights and months of putting a business plan together we finally got financial support from our bank and took the plunge. We opened our first facility, November 4th 2017. It’s been a journey with ups and downs.

From website…..

Coach Hannah’s Philosophy:

“My vision and goals are to educate parents about the importance of water survival and water safety while providing water confidence and basic swim techniques.”

Hannah has been teaching infants and children of all abilities for more than a decade.

Her career started in the UK with Swimbabies, where she underwent intensive training and had a successful working career before relocating to the United States.

We have swimming lessons in Round Rock, Texas (a hop, skip and jump from Pflugerville and Hutto) for all swimmers’ skill level, age , and also offer the best times to meet your needs.

At ReadyGoSwim, we are passionate about educating children of all ages and people of all abilities.

We take a more custom approach to learning how to swim.

Every lesson utilizes keywords and teaches vital skills like breath-holding, strong kicks, proper body position, strong arms and floating on the back.

The journey to mastering these and additional skills is going to vary for each child and our coaches are empowered to adjust lessons for individuals as they grow and advance.

We have experience working with special needs of all kinds, including people with autism, Down Syndrome and cerebral palsy, as well as deaf students and those who are visually and physically impaired.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

All our business has come from word of mouth and social media.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The personal touch. I don’t see it as a business, but as my family. I have met so many wonderful parents that come through our doors and stay with us for years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.readygoswim.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ready_go_swim
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ReadyGoSwim

Image Credits
Shari Landa, Oh My Landa LLC