We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sandra Milena Jurasz-Cruz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sandra Milena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
My heartfelt inspiration was ignited by the desire to provide a unique and immersive Spanish experience for my own children. While I always spoke Spanish to them at home, I had the idea to create a space where they could connect with their language and culture alongside children their age. We started first a children’s playgroup for the community raising bilingual children with the help of a community church and the volunteering mums, then we were thinking to offer opportunities for our older children in primary school. This aspiration gave birth to El Recreo.
Joined by two dear friends, we embarked on this thrilling adventure together. Initially, our focus was on offering classes for our own children nd children with a Spanish background and we did just that on the first year. Later on, my business partners step out of the business to take a permanent job, I was determined to continue with the classes and over time, my passion led me to diversify, developing classes catering to different age groups from very young babies with our unique baby massage with Spanish class to primary and school children and even adults of all language proficiencies. Currently, we proudly conduct a wide number of classes each week, including online classes.
After years and as the community was growing I started getting requests from different locations in London as well as other cities in the UK, this is when I decided to start the franchise opportunity. Launched in October 2022 and with many different worries and little expertise in the field I was amazed by signing the first franchise launching classes in January 2023, it has been one year now with lots of learning opportunities and today we have 5 franchisees nationally and soon internationally. This passion has made me see the business in another different level and also made me realised how the big purpose of helping families raise their children bilingual, learning Spanish language and culture can have a much bigger impact as I am now coaching leaders to start their own business in their communities.
Sandra Milena, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am originally from Colombia, a proud mother of three wonderful children, and happily married to my Polish husband. My educational background is in Business, and when I became a first-time mother, my primary focus naturally shifted towards motherhood, life took an even more delightful turn when my twin boys came into the picture. I was blissfully immersed in the joy of motherhood, and the thought of embarking on a career in the UK was temporarily set aside.
I strongly believe that parents we are the first teachers to our children, therefore although I wasn’t a teacher myself I started teaching children and on the journey I gain some qualifications to improve my teaching skills.
We now provide Spanish classes for all ages:
Spanish Classes for parents and their children under 4 yrs
Spanish Classes for children 3-11 yrs
Spanish classes for secondary school aged children
Adult classes from beginners to advanced
Family events
Holiday Camps
Workshops
Online classes
Private classes
Classes in Schools and. nurseries
We aim to provide a community for parents raising bilingual children, with wide variety of opportunities and resources to immerse into Spanish language and culture. Providing parents with or without Spanish background with resources to introduce or reinforce Spanish as a second language in their families. Our clients are of all levels and ages.
Now with the franchise opportunity I am looking for Spanish language and culture passionate people to start their own business under El Recreo Spanish brand with training and support.
Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.
One of the things that my entrepreneurial journey has taught me was delegating, I wanted all my students and parents to have the same amazing experience in all of the classes, it was when I knew standards will have to be a priority and this help me on my franchising journey. When I decided to franchise my business I realised that I needed to split my business into two locations, it was when I decided to sell 50% shares of each location as I was getting ready to move from London to the US I needed someone in charge and selling was the more viable option.
For me it made more sense to have someone that was partly owner to be in charge of the business than someone working for the business doing all the admin job etc… I had to trust and let go, and to my surprise my business partners are just amazing at what they do and are a very important addition to the franchise, we have now created an amazing team of franchisees helping and supporting one another, we are a community doing what we love with passion.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I think for El Recreo Spanish Franchise has been amazing to be part of communities of likeminded entrepreneurs. Nowadays with social media and all the resources we have available it is very easy to connect with people with experience and great knowledge in the specific industry you are involved. For me walking this journey within a community is priceless.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elrecreo.co.uk
- Instagram: elrecreospanish and elrecreospanishfranchise
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elrecreospanish
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/el-recreo-spanish/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElRecreoLondres
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtxCxgf1nCfgUiAsr8n2XQ?view_as=subscriber
Image Credits
Corporate pictures by Omaira Dillon from Omis Photography