#A-Star Sports Wins Guardian`s Best Practice Award

A-Star Sports, the UK-wide multi-sports coaching franchise business, has added to its already impressive awards tally by winning the Guardian newspaper`s Small Business Network’s Best Practice Exchange category Starting Up.

The fledgling company, which is just over a year old, was founded by three couples – Gary and Sharon Bassett, Kevin and Caroline Key and Alister and Lorna Ramm.

Since it started in business, it has won a clutch of awards, including at the What`s on 4 Junior 2012 awards and the prestigious Startups 100 list, a highly coveted accolade for the UK`s business newcomers.

The latest accolade from the Best Practice Exchange, which showcases the innovation of the UK’s small and medium enterprise community, allowed A-Star Sports to share useful, informative examples of best practice in starting up a business with the Guardian`s readers.

The award followed the go-ahead franchise being featured in both the Guardian`s print edition and on its widely-read website. Sharon Bassett said: Everyone in the A-Star Sports family is delighted to have been recognised on such a significant platform for the UK`s thriving small business community.

Best practice is vitally important for growing businesses, both from an ethical and from a practical point of view, and it was important for us to demonstrate how we pass this on to our franchisees through our best practice manuals and policies.

A-Star Sports is designed to make sport fun and accessible for children, and its peer-reviewed programme includes weekly classes, parties and holiday clubs, as well as regular sessions in nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools, and supporting wider school activities, which are attracting thousands of attendees per week.

A-Star Sports franchisees are offered a full training package to get them started and ongoing coaching- and business-orientated support, including help with finance, marketing, general management, health and safety, HR and the benefit of a regularly reviewed coaching programme.

The company recently has signed up GB hockey star and Olympic bronze medallist Helen Richardson as an ambassador, who has met and will continue to inspire the children who come to the firm`s classes and holiday clubs.