inspires Hertfordshire businesses

back in February 2023, we were delighted to learn our application was successful to join the Entrepreneur Foundation, as we knew in order to maximise the businesses potential and cement the TOTFest brand as a household name we needed to alter our way of thinking from a reactive to proactive approach, creating a long term strategic business model.

Just a few months into the 2-year long programme, we have already had the opportunity to access valuable mentoring, giving us an opportunity to zoom out and think more strategically, as well as attend key courses in topics such as finance and business law. The network within Herts Chamber is a powerful one, and we look forward to maximising this over the coming months.

We are Kerrie & Maddy, friends first, and on maternity leave together in 2016, we found ourselves frustrated by the lack of dedicated baby and toddler activities running at the weekends which we could attend with our respective families.

Although we saw an abundance of playgroups and local baby classes midweek, this exasperated our frustrations that parents returning to full time work, or those wishing to spend time together attending activities with both parents, had nowhere to go.

We began by hosting small, localised events in community centres in and around North Hertfordshire, our mission was and still remains to create opportunities for families with very young children to connect and make special memories together. Realising a gap in the market and with these events quickly gaining momentum, often selling out within a few days we then launched our first under 5’s Festival in 2018, at The Hitchin Priory, Hertfordshire.

TOTFest® is now a multi-award-winning all-inclusive festival catering entirely for under 5’s. Gaining considerable momentum since our first festival in 2018, we now welcome over 19,000 visitors spanning across four counties in the UK every summer. A kid’s festival with a BIG difference, TOTFest is an entirely immersive event focused on igniting babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers imaginations.

The festival is unique in both demographic and its concept, making it quickly take the number one spot as the largest under 5’s festival in the UK.

Although we had seen organic success to date, the business had quickly reached a position where it was gaining momentum we were struggling to keep up with, so

Looking to the future, we want to continue to reach more families across the UK and build a lifestyle brand that is widely recognised within the under 5’s market. TOTFest is a business built largely on reputation, with word of mouth being the biggest factor in our rapid expansion, and with 90% of our sales generation coming from social media platforms, we have now implemented a focussed, clear and consistent customer led authentic marketing plan, allowing us to be more strategic in our growth, something we hadn’t considered before joining the Entrepreneur Foundation.

TOTFest was created for children by parents, and as we have travelled through the last few years, growing and evolving, our passion for creating a safe, meaningful space for families with very young children to switch off and spend time together remains just as strong. But alongside our passion and determination we now have the opportunity to finesse the formula, creating a sustainable, successful business with the Entrepreneur Foundations support.