Startup Story
Any parent with young children knows just how critical it is to encourage early emotional development as the basis for a strong learning journey. In South Africa, well-known author and entrepreneur, Meg Faure, founder of Play Sense, has created a unique business focusing on unique play-based learning programmes for 2-4 year olds.
LoA chatted to founder Meg Faure this month to find out more.
Tell us about yourself
I am an Occupational Therapist with a passion for the care and development of babies and young children. I am also well known as an author of Baby Sense and founding the Baby Sense Company. I have worked in paediatrics in the USA and South Africa for two decades and have written 8 books about parenting and child development. I co-founded Play Sense with Lara Schoenfeld, after developing the concept 19 years ago for my own children. I believe that Play Sense is reimagining early childhood education for the better and we are currently expanding Play Sense’s reach to the global market.
“Early childhood education is often focused on developing fine and gross motor skills, and while this is important, we believe that developing little one’s soft skills such as creativity, problem solving and self-regulation are paramount to growing confident, powerful little beings.”
What does your company do?
Play Sense is a unique play-based learning program for 2 to 4-year olds that is designed to encourage little one’s emotional development as the basis for the rest of the learning journey. Early childhood education is often focused on developing fine and gross motor skills, and while this is important, we believe that developing little one’s soft skills such as creativity, problem solving and self-regulation are paramount to growing confident, powerful little beings. Our program is delivered by trained teachers either in small in-home play schools or online where the teacher guides and supports parents as they home school their little ones.
What inspired you to start your company?
I was inspired to start Play Sense because I had my own little ones at home with me and when I wanted to send them to play group, I realized that the big playgroup environment wasn’t right for them. It created a huge amount of anxiety for them to be separated from me and to be out of the home. I decided to initiate a home-based playgroup in my own home where I would employ a teacher or an au pair to carry out a curriculum with my little ones and a few other children in my home. What was remarkable was that my little ones had the socialization and stimulation they needed but all in the comfort of my own home. To this day I believe it is the absolute best way to educate little ones until they are 4 years old. And what’s exciting about the business model is that we can really create sustainable businesses for women in Africa, as teachers and business owners.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
We believe that we have truly reimagined early childhood development with our curriculum and learning methodologies. Both our online and in-home offerings give children much needed stimulation and socialization and at the same time parents are reassured of the best education for their little ones. And teachers can own their own businesses, earning a lucrative income doing what they love.
“Our program is delivered by trained teachers either in small in-home play schools or online where the teacher guides and supports parents as they home school their little ones.”
Meg Faure and Lara Schoenfeld
Tell us a little about your team
We are an all-women team and an all-mother team. This is important to us because we believe that women give an enormous amount and are very committed to companies when they have the right amount of flexibility to care for their families and carry out their work. It’s part of our value system that we recognize that flexibility as a working mom is absolutely paramount and that we prioritise their time with their children as well.
Our team is made up of 3 key people in operations, and 2 key people in marketing. The curriculum and educational side of the business is headed up my co-founder, Lara Schoenfeld, where she leads the development of our program, implements that standards and runs our incentive programs.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I didn’t come from an entrepreneurial background. My father worked 9 to 5 in a traditional corporate environment of the time and my mother was a teacher who was at home with us kids. So, I don’t think it was necessarily in my genes, but I remember from the youngest age coming up with different solutions for things and having entrepreneurial ideas. I studied Occupational Therapy which is certainly not an outright entrepreneurial career choice but went on to work with little ones for about 5 years before writing my first book. It was out of that first book, entitled Baby Sense, that amassed an amazing following that I realized that I was onto something that could be leveraged as a business. So, I founded my first business in 2005 and sold it in 2015. Play Sense is my second business, I’ve written 8 books since Baby Sense and I’ve developed two mobile apps so I think it’s safe to say that I’m a serial entrepreneur.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
We have developed an incredible curriculum and it would be wonderful to roll it out worldwide across regions and different socio-economic backgrounds. We want to use technology to minimize the barriers to access to the Play Sense program and truly reimagine early childhood education for all little ones, regardless of location or LSM.
“We believe that we have truly reimagined early childhood development with our curriculum and learning methodologies.”
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Seeing something that I’ve created come to life. I love problem solving and when I see a solution that I have created working for people, it gives me the greatest amount of gratification.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
I think the most important piece of advice I would give women getting ready to launch their start-ups is to utilize your education and/or skills you’ve developed in your career. I think it’s very difficult to step out of a space you are familiar with into a completely new industry because it takes a lot of time and learning. I was always in infant and childcare and I have stuck with that to build my businesses. So ideally, create your start up in the same sector you are familiar with so you can leverage your experience. The other piece of advice I would offer women is to expect to work much harder than you think you will, for less reward and for a long period of time. People often glamourize the entrepreneurial and start up journey when in actual fact it’s really gritty, dirty and difficult. You need to have an incredibly positive mindset to be able to look for rewards in places you wouldn’t expect them because it is tough. But having said that, being an entrepreneur is one of the most powerful ways to create jobs and empower people in Africa, and I think it lies with women to be a very key part of that journey.
Contact or follow Play Sense
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | EMAIL meg@playsense.org
Why LoA loves it….
At Lionesses of Africa, we love meeting women entrepreneurs who think big and think about impact. Meg Faure and her team at Play Sense are doing both of those things. It is wonderful to see Meg’s vision to roll out her incredible curriculum worldwide, providing access to her program for children across different socio-economic backgrounds. She really is a pioneer when it comes to reimagining early childhood education for all little ones, regardless of location or social background. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo of Lionesses of Africa