The Heelan family dove into the swim school business while seeking a suitable swimming program for their three young children.
It took John Heelan and his wife, Beth, two years to develop the business model for a modern, intimate, small-town swim school experience for children in the Rhode Island area. Their operation, Ripples Swim School, has two locations: one in Bristol and one in West Warwick.
“It was a full dive; a full leap of faith; a full gut check,” said John Heelan, who swam competitively at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “It was a new concept, so our fingers were crossed, but failure wasn’t an option.”
Heelan said the pair came up with the idea after living in Orange County, Calif., for two years while he served as senior vice president of sales for surfing and swimming apparel company Hurley. There, the Heelans discovered swim schools operating out of customized facilities catering to young families.
When they moved to Portsmouth in 2012, Heelan said they pursued his wife’s idea to start a similar operation and take advantage of an untapped market.
“Luckily my wife and I pair up really, really well,” he said. “She is the idea person. Ideas just come to her. It’s a gift, it’s her superpower.”
Heelan said his superpower is the compulsion to see things through. The pair works tirelessly on concepts until they are figured out. “The concept of starting a business is pretty daunting.”
John Heelan has a sales and marketing background and an economics degree from Clark University, while Beth Heelan worked in finance and earned a political science degree from the University of Rhode Island.
As part of their process, they courted swim school franchises, most designed for big cities, and researched pools, he said. What they realized was there wasn’t a swim school that met their needs and catered to small-town families. The local YMCAs were archaic and uninviting, John Heelan said.
So, in 2015 they launched Ripples, an operation that has 60 staffers, about 45 of which are certified swim instructors, offering a swim lesson program to children starting at 4 months old.
John Heelan said the couple rolled the dice, and within three months of opening, they gained an audience.
“It exploded right out of the gate,” he said, noting that the school now has 3,000 children attending its classes.
Ripples offers an inviting environment with air and water temperatures at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so parents and their children are comfortable while they learn. Parents can bring their babies into the pool, acclimating them to the water, so the progression of learning begins at an early age.
John Heelan said the business has been so successful that it will be offering franchises starting in the spring of 2022. Franchising will begin locally in the southern New England region, and expand outward from there, he said.
“I don’t see us doing any more company-owned locations,” he said. “I see it all being done through franchising. The most sensible thing is to start places close enough locally so that we can help them succeed.”
OWNERS: John and Beth Heelan
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Children’sswim school
LOCATIONS: 15 Gooding Ave., Bristol, and 255 Legris Ave., West Warwick
EMPLOYEES: 60
YEAR FOUNDED: 2015
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND
Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Shuman@PBN.com.
