Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is iHeartRadio's Maryland Business Spotlight. Each week we hear
from one local business owner letting us know where they
are in their business journey and how they got there.
I'm here today with Mike Zarinsky, president of Kids First Swim.
Thank you for being here, Mike, I appreciate the time.
So tell us about Kids First Swim.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Kids First administers kids swim lessons. We focus on children
that really infants that are three months old through a
parent in me program actually up to adult lessons. Even
(00:38):
though our name is Kids First Whim School, we do
do a good bit of adult lessons, but most of
the lessons and what we really focus on are our
younger children up through about age ten or eleven, and
that's really the sweet spot of where we find most
of our swimmers. That age group is part of a
(00:58):
lot of what we do is we have pools. We
custom build the facility to make it comfortable for kids.
For instance, the water's ninety degrees in the pool. The
air temperature in the pool room is also ninety degrees.
We have non flip surfaces throughout the facility. We have
(01:21):
one way glass in the what we call our observation rooms,
which is where parents are sitting watching the kids lessons.
We do one way glass of parents can see into
the pool room, but the kids can't see out. That way,
they don't get distracted and they can focus on the
on the lessons.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, fantastic. I love this idea because you know, you
get them at a young age and then as they
grow up, they're obviously used to the water already. And
I just remember as a toddler. I mean, I know
that you guys are dealing with, you know, babies up
to ten years old. But maybe the best thing is
my mother forced me to take some lessons I think
very vital for any kid growing up. When did this
(02:05):
all start for you guys? I know you have a
couple locations around the Maryland area, right.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, So we're a franchise owner. We have eight franchise
location okay, and we have two of our eight locations
are in Maryland, ones in Dundalk and the others in
Hunt Valley, so both in Baltimore County. And then the
corporate side of the business has twelve schools, and I
(02:35):
believe seven of the twelve of their schools are in Maryland.
And the Kids First has been around for almost thirty years.
In fact, the first school they opened was in Maryland.
They're a Maryland based company.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Oh well, yeah, that's great, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So I assume when somebody comes in with their child
or baby, what is the first thing, what are the
steps to get involved with kids for a swim, like,
what's that first day for them?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So before they come in for their first day, they'll
likely have a conversation with with one of our staff members,
whether they we get we get walk in. Some people
are will walk in to our center. Most of our
pools are in shopping centers. They can be very large
shopping centers with a lot of foot traffic, or others
(03:30):
will call in. But either way, they'll have a conversation
with with one of our front ask representatives to talk
about what level is right for their child. So there's
a there's a number of questions that we that we
asked to find out what based on their age and
their experience and what they can do and can't do
(03:51):
in the water, and what they're comfortable with and not
comfortable with, what level we put them in. So when
they when they show up, you know they'll they'll show
up milling their level. They'll be placed in the lesson,
They'll be introduced to the instructor. We try to match
the instructor as well with the with the child, you know,
where sometimes it's a we try to place it with
(04:14):
the right gender, if it's a if it's a younger,
if it's a if it's a younger son or daughter,
and maybe they they would like to have an instructor
that's more comfortable with the with their gender, so we'll
we'll try and match it that way, and then they'll
they'll come in, they'll be introduced, the instructor will assess
(04:34):
during that first ten minute period of the lesson just
to make sure that they are in the right level.
And that's usually what their first day looks like.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Mike, let me ask you this, can can can kids?
Can children go in every day of the week or
is it like a once a week thing or it
just depends on the package.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Some of our swimmers swim once a week, so generally
they'll pick the parents will pick a time and day
of that week, and then they'll stick to that time
and day until either they graduate to another level or
their schedule changes and they need to they need to
change that time and date. We have other swimmers that
(05:17):
swim with us multiple times a week, and sometimes, for instance,
as we get closer to summer, we see a lot
more of that. Parents want their kids to be swim
safe and swim ready for the pool or the beach
or the lake, and so they'll have them swim multiple
times a week so that by Labor Day or sorry,
(05:38):
by Memorial Day, they're ready to go and they're feeling
good in the water. We also have swim intensives, and
the swim intensives or thirty minutes a day for the week,
so Monday through Friday, and it'll be the same time
Monday through Friday. And that's again a great way for
(06:00):
kids to get water safe and we're comfortable with the water,
and especially in the spring in the early summer.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, I love it. Mike. How did you get your
start with kids for a swim We.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Have two children. They were a year apart, so they
were taking swim lessons together at the same time. And
I have a strong swimming background. I was a competitive swimmer.
I swam through college that was the Division I swimmer,
so that it was always important to me for my
kids to learn how to swim so I had taken
(06:32):
them to a spy that had what would we you
and I probably grew up swimming in which is an
adult pool. And you know, in the adult pool it's
a competitive pool. The water temperatures generally high seventies, low eighties,
which is not quite warm enough for especially younger kids.
(06:53):
They just don't have the body mass right keep themselves warm.
So they would you know, they would turn per their
teeth would chatter, and they wouldn't pay attention. Also, the
water is usually a little too deep for them to stand.
So I thought, you know this is this isn't working great.
Wonder if there's anything else out there that I could
(07:14):
I could try. And my wife stumbled upon at kids
first swim school. You know, it's just going back a
dozen years and they were building a location near us
in uh outside of Philadelphia and suburban Philadelphia called Plymouth Meeting.
And so my wife said, hey, I found this swim school.
They're building it in a shopping center. It's an indoor school.
(07:35):
And I said, I don't think you saw that correctly.
I've never heard of anything like that. So she said,
go check it out. So I went over. They were
still under construction. I took the kids at their first
lessons and I thought it was a great idea, and
I contacted the the owner and that's how it started.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, that's a great idea though, to have a pool
specifically for children and kids and babies temperature wise, and
I'm sure the construction of the pool itself, I'm sure
is a big plus for something like this, right it is?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It is? Yeah, we find that, you know, the way
that we're the way that we build them, and the
way that we have our processes in place, that kids
tend to be more comfortable, they tend to learn faster,
it tends to be more organized, and the the overall
(08:32):
experience for parents and kids are better than it was
when we didn't have options like this.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Hey, where do you see the future of kids First Swim?
Any new initiatives coming up too?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So we are i am I should say as franchise
or we're continuing to build new locations. We have a
new location going up in suburban Philadelphia. We have some
other locations in Pennsylvania that we're at different phases of
negotiating with and lords. So we'll continue to build in
(09:04):
the really on the East coast, the Northeast Corridor is
is where we're is what we're focusing on. We do
a lot of special events as well. So one of
our philosophies is that even if a family is not
actively taking lessons with us, we want to try and
open it up to the community so they can come
(09:28):
see what we're about, have a chance to swim. And
so we do events like Parents Night Out for instance,
and that that's generally on a Friday. Parents can drop
their children off or go out and get something to eat.
We we feed them, We get them pizza and drinks
and snacks. They swim. Yeah, we have we have TVs
(09:51):
up in your observation rooms, well, movies, World, arts and crafts.
They'll have games. So it's a it's a way for
them to you know, parents to do it, get some
time to themselves and for the kids to go have
some fun. And we kind of get a lot of
swimmers that don't know that don't swim with us or
hadn't known we were there. So we do activities like that,
(10:12):
and then we do things around the holiday. It's like
we do a we have an Easter Bunny come in,
we have Santa come in. We uh, we do uh,
We do other activities with local artists, local authors. Oh
that they'll come in and they'll read children's books and
we'll have our kids come in listen to the author,
they get the book signed, and they can go for
(10:34):
a go for a swim as well.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Wow, guy's got a lot going on. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And I'm sure there's tons of parents out there who
might not know about Kids for Swim and I think
would love to get signed up. So where can they
get their kids sign up? Their babies signed up? Also,
where do they go.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Kids First swim dot com And that's specific to our
franchise location. So you'll see that there's eight locations under
that umbrella. And you can also find us on Facebook
and social media Facebook and Instagram. And we have a
lot of open houses throughout the year, especially this time
(11:13):
of year because it's more this is our busier time,
right and the open house allows people who have never
been to our location before to come in. We usually
host these on weekends and we'll have swim instructors. You
bring the kids in, they'll get a free trial lessons
and an assessment to get a sense of what a
lesson would look like and what level they would be in,
(11:36):
and it's a good opportunity for the parents to talk
to our management team and get a tour and get
an idea of what to expect if they would swim
with us.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Absolutely. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
All right, Mike, Is there anything else you want to
say about Kids First Swim We didn't cover in this
introduction here.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You know, one of the things that we also do
in the summer is we have summer camps and we
have this we we've introduced us at all the locations
and the camps are in July and August at most locations,
and it gives the it's an outlet for kids to
(12:14):
really have a camp experience where there's where're they're swimming.
We do a lot of art programming, we do ourts
and crafts games, and it's it's a little different at
each location, but it's a full day camp. Campers can
do a half day as well. But it's something that
we recently added on and it's been it's been really popular.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
All right, Kids First Swim. Mike Srensky, thank you so
much for your time. I love the idea, I love
what you guys do, and I really appreciate you letting
us know about it.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Thank you, Bob.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's Maryland Business Spotlight
This is iHeartRadio's Maryland Business Spotlight. Each week we hear
from one local business owner letting us know where they
are in their business journey and how they got there.
I'm here today with Mike Zarinsky, president of Kids First Swim.
Thank you for being here, Mike, I appreciate the time.
So tell us about Kids First Swim.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Kids First administers kids swim lessons. We focus on children
that really infants that are three months old through a
parent in me program actually up to adult lessons. Even
(00:38):
though our name is Kids First Whim School, we do
do a good bit of adult lessons, but most of
the lessons and what we really focus on are our
younger children up through about age ten or eleven, and
that's really the sweet spot of where we find most
of our swimmers. That age group is part of a
(00:58):
lot of what we do is we have pools. We
custom build the facility to make it comfortable for kids.
For instance, the water's ninety degrees in the pool. The
air temperature in the pool room is also ninety degrees.
We have non flip surfaces throughout the facility. We have
(01:21):
one way glass in the what we call our observation rooms,
which is where parents are sitting watching the kids lessons.
We do one way glass of parents can see into
the pool room, but the kids can't see out. That way,
they don't get distracted and they can focus on the
on the lessons.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, fantastic. I love this idea because you know, you
get them at a young age and then as they
grow up, they're obviously used to the water already. And
I just remember as a toddler. I mean, I know
that you guys are dealing with, you know, babies up
to ten years old. But maybe the best thing is
my mother forced me to take some lessons I think
very vital for any kid growing up. When did this
(02:05):
all start for you guys? I know you have a
couple locations around the Maryland area, right.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, So we're a franchise owner. We have eight franchise
location okay, and we have two of our eight locations
are in Maryland, ones in Dundalk and the others in
Hunt Valley, so both in Baltimore County. And then the
corporate side of the business has twelve schools, and I
(02:35):
believe seven of the twelve of their schools are in Maryland.
And the Kids First has been around for almost thirty years.
In fact, the first school they opened was in Maryland.
They're a Maryland based company.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Oh well, yeah, that's great, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So I assume when somebody comes in with their child
or baby, what is the first thing, what are the
steps to get involved with kids for a swim, like,
what's that first day for them?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So before they come in for their first day, they'll
likely have a conversation with with one of our staff members,
whether they we get we get walk in. Some people
are will walk in to our center. Most of our
pools are in shopping centers. They can be very large
shopping centers with a lot of foot traffic, or others
(03:30):
will call in. But either way, they'll have a conversation
with with one of our front ask representatives to talk
about what level is right for their child. So there's
a there's a number of questions that we that we
asked to find out what based on their age and
their experience and what they can do and can't do
(03:51):
in the water, and what they're comfortable with and not
comfortable with, what level we put them in. So when
they when they show up, you know they'll they'll show
up milling their level. They'll be placed in the lesson,
They'll be introduced to the instructor. We try to match
the instructor as well with the with the child, you know,
where sometimes it's a we try to place it with
(04:14):
the right gender, if it's a if it's a younger,
if it's a if it's a younger son or daughter,
and maybe they they would like to have an instructor
that's more comfortable with the with their gender, so we'll
we'll try and match it that way, and then they'll
they'll come in, they'll be introduced, the instructor will assess
(04:34):
during that first ten minute period of the lesson just
to make sure that they are in the right level.
And that's usually what their first day looks like.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Mike, let me ask you this, can can can kids?
Can children go in every day of the week or
is it like a once a week thing or it
just depends on the package.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Some of our swimmers swim once a week, so generally
they'll pick the parents will pick a time and day
of that week, and then they'll stick to that time
and day until either they graduate to another level or
their schedule changes and they need to they need to
change that time and date. We have other swimmers that
(05:17):
swim with us multiple times a week, and sometimes, for instance,
as we get closer to summer, we see a lot
more of that. Parents want their kids to be swim
safe and swim ready for the pool or the beach
or the lake, and so they'll have them swim multiple
times a week so that by Labor Day or sorry,
(05:38):
by Memorial Day, they're ready to go and they're feeling
good in the water. We also have swim intensives, and
the swim intensives or thirty minutes a day for the week,
so Monday through Friday, and it'll be the same time
Monday through Friday. And that's again a great way for
(06:00):
kids to get water safe and we're comfortable with the water,
and especially in the spring in the early summer.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, I love it. Mike. How did you get your
start with kids for a swim We.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Have two children. They were a year apart, so they
were taking swim lessons together at the same time. And
I have a strong swimming background. I was a competitive swimmer.
I swam through college that was the Division I swimmer,
so that it was always important to me for my
kids to learn how to swim so I had taken
(06:32):
them to a spy that had what would we you
and I probably grew up swimming in which is an
adult pool. And you know, in the adult pool it's
a competitive pool. The water temperatures generally high seventies, low eighties,
which is not quite warm enough for especially younger kids.
(06:53):
They just don't have the body mass right keep themselves warm.
So they would you know, they would turn per their
teeth would chatter, and they wouldn't pay attention. Also, the
water is usually a little too deep for them to stand.
So I thought, you know this is this isn't working great.
Wonder if there's anything else out there that I could
(07:14):
I could try. And my wife stumbled upon at kids
first swim school. You know, it's just going back a
dozen years and they were building a location near us
in uh outside of Philadelphia and suburban Philadelphia called Plymouth Meeting.
And so my wife said, hey, I found this swim school.
They're building it in a shopping center. It's an indoor school.
(07:35):
And I said, I don't think you saw that correctly.
I've never heard of anything like that. So she said,
go check it out. So I went over. They were
still under construction. I took the kids at their first
lessons and I thought it was a great idea, and
I contacted the the owner and that's how it started.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, that's a great idea though, to have a pool
specifically for children and kids and babies temperature wise, and
I'm sure the construction of the pool itself, I'm sure
is a big plus for something like this, right it is?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It is? Yeah, we find that, you know, the way
that we're the way that we build them, and the
way that we have our processes in place, that kids
tend to be more comfortable, they tend to learn faster,
it tends to be more organized, and the the overall
(08:32):
experience for parents and kids are better than it was
when we didn't have options like this.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Hey, where do you see the future of kids First Swim?
Any new initiatives coming up too?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So we are i am I should say as franchise
or we're continuing to build new locations. We have a
new location going up in suburban Philadelphia. We have some
other locations in Pennsylvania that we're at different phases of
negotiating with and lords. So we'll continue to build in
(09:04):
the really on the East coast, the Northeast Corridor is
is where we're is what we're focusing on. We do
a lot of special events as well. So one of
our philosophies is that even if a family is not
actively taking lessons with us, we want to try and
open it up to the community so they can come
(09:28):
see what we're about, have a chance to swim. And
so we do events like Parents Night Out for instance,
and that that's generally on a Friday. Parents can drop
their children off or go out and get something to eat.
We we feed them, We get them pizza and drinks
and snacks. They swim. Yeah, we have we have TVs
(09:51):
up in your observation rooms, well, movies, World, arts and crafts.
They'll have games. So it's a it's a way for
them to you know, parents to do it, get some
time to themselves and for the kids to go have
some fun. And we kind of get a lot of
swimmers that don't know that don't swim with us or
hadn't known we were there. So we do activities like that,
(10:12):
and then we do things around the holiday. It's like
we do a we have an Easter Bunny come in,
we have Santa come in. We uh, we do uh,
We do other activities with local artists, local authors. Oh
that they'll come in and they'll read children's books and
we'll have our kids come in listen to the author,
they get the book signed, and they can go for
(10:34):
a go for a swim as well.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Wow, guy's got a lot going on. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And I'm sure there's tons of parents out there who
might not know about Kids for Swim and I think
would love to get signed up. So where can they
get their kids sign up? Their babies signed up? Also,
where do they go.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Kids First swim dot com And that's specific to our
franchise location. So you'll see that there's eight locations under
that umbrella. And you can also find us on Facebook
and social media Facebook and Instagram. And we have a
lot of open houses throughout the year, especially this time
(11:13):
of year because it's more this is our busier time,
right and the open house allows people who have never
been to our location before to come in. We usually
host these on weekends and we'll have swim instructors. You
bring the kids in, they'll get a free trial lessons
and an assessment to get a sense of what a
lesson would look like and what level they would be in,
(11:36):
and it's a good opportunity for the parents to talk
to our management team and get a tour and get
an idea of what to expect if they would swim
with us.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Absolutely. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
All right, Mike, Is there anything else you want to
say about Kids First Swim We didn't cover in this
introduction here.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You know, one of the things that we also do
in the summer is we have summer camps and we
have this we we've introduced us at all the locations
and the camps are in July and August at most locations,
and it gives the it's an outlet for kids to
(12:14):
really have a camp experience where there's where're they're swimming.
We do a lot of art programming, we do ourts
and crafts games, and it's it's a little different at
each location, but it's a full day camp. Campers can
do a half day as well. But it's something that
we recently added on and it's been it's been really popular.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
All right, Kids First Swim. Mike Srensky, thank you so
much for your time. I love the idea, I love
what you guys do, and I really appreciate you letting
us know about it.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Thank you, Bob.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's Maryland Business Spotlight
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