Blending Business and Family with Alison & Allison

We had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with our old friend Debbie Archangeles and chat a little about a lot: work life blend, re-evaluating and reinvesting to help business growth, personal causes and of course franchise business.

Hear the whole interview HERE

Keep Moving Forward - Re-inventing Your Brand

At Beyond Mom we often discuss how to start a business from ground up! But what about building a business and growing it over 8-10 years and beyond? We turn to the founders of apple seeds indoor play spaces and songs for seeds music classes, Alison Qualter Berna and Allison Schlanger. They met 9 years ago and bonded over having twins and quickly realized they shared a desire for a new Beyond Mom life. The ladies share their favorite company mantra (keep moving forward!), a typical day on the job, their inspiration behind their successful company and the fact that they are looking for other Beyond Moms to partner with to bring their children’s music program to their own communities. If you are interested in a meaningful career, with flexible hours, and the ability to bring your kids to work with you – read on!

And read on HERE at BeyondMom.com

Two couples strike a chord with family music-class franchise

photo credit Buck Ennis

An excerpt from the Crane's Business Article...

Alison Qualter Berna and Allison Schlanger became fast friends at a baby music class in 2005. Besides sharing a name, both were working moms with twins trying to solve the work-life balance conundrum.

A dozen years later their company is making millions of dollars helping parents keep their preschool kids active and stimulated. Now they are their own bosses, allowing them the freedom to make time for family.

The women's working relationship began with dinner and wine with their husbands, the conversation moving to how to strike out on their own. Soon the couples put a plan into action: They pooled more than $1 million from savings, family and friends to develop an indoor play space called Apple Seeds. From the get-go they wanted to create a brand that could become a franchise operation......

Read the full Crain's Business article HERE

NYC’s ‘apple seeds’ founders want to meet you

Here's an excerpt from our interview with LollygagBlog.com. You can see our full interview HERE

So now you’re offering the opportunity to franchise! Tell me a little bit about your ideal market and who your ideal franchisee might be!

Our ideal market is really any community where there are enough babies and young children! We are excited to see just how much songs for seeds could thrive in a city like Chicago. Our ideal candidate is usually a parent or someone who loves children. She wants to incorporate her family life into her work life and most importantly, she wants to have flexible hours and control her own time. She is outgoing, a doer with entrepreneurial drive. She wants to make an impact in her community and bring a new program to other parents in the neighborhood.

We have a comprehensive software platform that organizes franchisees from day one, [plus] an easy to use help center, marketing portal and customer feedback system. We have week-long intensive training program in NYC that is so fun we call it band camp. We give our partners ongoing support from contract signing throughout the running of their business. They are not alone and we can’t wait to share in their successes. No retail location is required, which means there is no lease nor build out. There are no full-time employees required- just the part time band, and who doesn’t like hiring cool musicians that love kids? Songs for seeds is a high profit margin business that is highly scalable and offers growth quite quickly. In fact, three of our franchise owners have opened their second locations in less than a year.....

Read the rest HERE

For Moms Who Want To Start a Business but Don't Have a Business Idea

photo credit: Keelyn Mitchell

There are many women who change careers once they have children— either by necessity (like me) or by choice, like Alison Berna and Allison Schlanger, two new friends I made recently who started the apple seeds playspace in NYC.

Just to give you a bit of background— I was introduced to the Al(l)isons shortly after my book came out. We have a mutual friend who gave them a copy and they loved it so much, they decided to order a whole bunch to give as gifts to their most loyal customers. Then we ended up using their party space for Harlow’s birthday party. As I got to know them, I realized we have a lot in common and wanted to help them spread the word about their new franchise opportunity, which they say works best for moms who find themselves in the exact same spot as they did back when they first became parents.

Read the rest of the article by Ilana Wiles HERE

Mommybites Chit-Chat: Alison & Allison

Prior to starting a business together, we both were in careers that we loved. Allison Schlanger was a television producer. She worked at MTV for most of her career in the News and Docs department and also volunteered as a teacher for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders teaching conflict resolution and current events.

photo credit Keelyn Mitchell

Mommybites Chit-Chat: Conversations with luminaries, entrepreneurs and influencers in the parenting world

Tell us a little about you (your background, your job, what makes you tick or anything else you think our Mommybites moms will find interesting).

Alison Qualter Berna had two prior careers. She worked at NBC News Dateline and then at UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund managing a global program using sports as a tool to address issues affecting children’s healthy development including child protection, education and HIV prevention.

In 2010, both of us had twins. Alison S had twin boys and Alison QB had twin girls. While we were both on maternity leave we signed our kids up for music class – and that is where we met each other…in a freight elevator because the regular elevator didn’t fit our twin strollers! We immediately connected over the fact that we had the same name, both had twins, were both from New Jersey and could not decide if we were going back to our jobs.

We started dreaming of a life where we could bring our kids to work with us, and along with our husbands, started an indoor play space for families with young children called apple seeds. A couple of years into apple seeds we launched a music program called songs for seeds. songs for seeds is a three-piece rock band for kids that teaches so much more than music hitting many aspects of early childhood development. It quickly became our most popular class and so we are now franchising so we can share the program with kids across the country.
Find out more from our interview HERE at MommyBites.com

For Today's Entrepreneur, There Is More Than One Way To Drive Growth

Photo Credit: Karen Haberberg 

Check our latest article in Forbes Magazine!

For those of you who reside in Manhattan, there’s a very good chance you’re familiar with apple seeds . For those of you who aren’t familiar, apple seeds is a unique and extremely high-quality children’s play center that attracts the likes of Chelsea Clinton.


Their flagship location is enormous, especially by New York standards, and is almost always full of tots, caregivers, and parents enjoying the immaculate play centers and classes.

The concept is such a hit that I often wondered why there weren’t more apple seeds locations across the country. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me, and I met up with the company’s founders to learn more....

And to read more click HERE to go to the article at Forbes.com