Learning how to start an after school franchise is all about business analysis. In this article you’ll begin to understand how to make your business more attractive to prospective franchisees. Plus, you’ll learn how you can streamline your operations to improve your chances of success.Consider this article a first step in evaluating how prepared you are to start an after school franchise.Let’s dive in!

Profit Needs for After School Franchising

Every business needs to turn a profit to grow. However, profit is even more vital for franchises.Why?Franchises need to be able to share their profits with franchisees who buy into their business. This means if you're going to franchise, your business needs to have enough profit to attract a franchisee while also supporting your own business goals.Ideally, your profits are strong enough that your franchisee can see a clear path to recouping and surpassing their initial investment in the near-term.But your profit needs aren't just about investment returns and business growth.

Profits also acts as an important defensive tool in a crowded market.

For example, what happens if new competitors open up shop next to one of your franchise locations?If new competition crops up and your franchisee doesn’t earn enough profit, they won’t be able to lower prices, improve their marketing or invest in other competitive advantages to combat this new competition. As a result, they could find themselves getting pushed out of the market.However, if your business has strong profits, your franchisee can comfortably lower their prices or invest in other competitive advantages. In doing so, they’ll be more likely to maintain a strong position against this new competition.

Replicating Your Product

Beyond the importance of profit, your business must be easy to replicate. Analyze all of the factors that make your after school business a success. How can you replicate and package these factors as part of your product?An obvious example would be replicating your curriculum. Ensure your curriculum is easy to understand and replicate for potential instructors and franchisees. Include everything from example reports to reward systems for younger students.And don’t stop there.Consider who your best instructors are and try to understand what makes them so successful.

Talk to your instructors and ask them why they excel. What resources have they used to help shape their instruction style?

Your best instructors may tell you about a book that changed the way they look at interacting with kids. If so, read the book and give it to your other staff. If it resonates, consider including key takeaways from the book as part of your staff training.Better yet, consider reaching out to the book’s author and asking if they can provide hands-on training for your staff. If it works, you could even include the author’s training as part of your franchise product.

Whether it’s your hiring process, training or continued education for staff, make it easy to replicate.

Your franchisees will want to fully understand the ‘secret ingredients’ that make your franchise successful. And as the franchiser, you want your product to be foolproof. So, be prepared to distill and clearly communicate every little aspect of your product’s success.The easier it is to replicate, the easier it will be to sell.

Turnkey Registration and Management Software

One of the most vital parts of your entire franchising effort will be your registration and management software. These systems will handle class registration, recurring payments, and a wide array of student management tasks.

But don’t burden your franchisees with finding their own registration and class management software. Shopping for software is time-intensive and numerous providers require long-term contracts. These contracts can lock-in your franchisees before they understand how well the software fits their needs.Plus, if you ask your franchisees to buy their own software, you’ll be asking for a major administrative headache when it comes time to review and synthesize payments and membership data from across all of their different systems.To avoid this mess, you need to find a system that fits your business.

To meet the needs of your individual franchisee locations and your head office, you need software that follows a federation model.

How to start an after school franchise with a federation software model

Software that follows a federation model will allow your business to easily streamline operations, synthesize membership data from across franchise locations, collect licensing fees or royalties, manage marketing opt-ins, and control your branding in one central system.Most importantly, all this occurs while giving each location the tools they need to handle their own class registration, waitlists, payments, student management and more.

Using software like Uplifter, you can give franchisees a turnkey system. No more endless add-ons and plug-ins.

Plus, because software like Uplifter is able to share data between each franchisee and head-office, it's easy to see which locations are excelling, and which ones may need more help to reach your growth targets.

When it comes to empowering your franchisees, make sure your federation model software can save them time with semester cloning capabilities, card-on-file practices, built-in recurring tuition payments, automated waitlists, and self-serve accounts. A great software solution will even include a website builder and hosting built into their plan.When you're shopping for after school franchise software, remember this:

High-quality software providers won’t require a contract.

If they don’t require contracts, it means they’re truly confident in their product. It means they have a long track record of keeping their clients happy and creating new features that meet the needs of tomorrow.When a software provider doesn’t require contracts, it ensures your after school franchise won’t get stuck with old software and bad support.At Uplifter, we’re proud to say that our after school software doesn’t require a contract. Our clients stay with us because they love our product and the support services we provide. It’s a win-win.Ultimately, remember that when you choose software for your after school franchise, you’re trying to give your franchisees a turnkey solution, and simplify your own operations all at the same time.

Replicating Your Learning Environment

The next factor you need to analyze when learning how to start an after school franchise, is the physical learning environment.Review and list all the elements that make your learning environment a success, then ask your instructors for their input.Are there any elements that could be improved before you franchise? If so, make the change and observe whether or not it has a positive impact in the months that follow.

Perhaps just as important, consider creating a list of elements that can differ from one location to the next. These elements may typically seem like afterthoughts, but it’s good to plan ahead. The physical space at each location will always differ, so compromises will have to be made.For example, your current learning environment may have windows looking out onto a private outdoor space with trees and playground equipment. But, what if a prospective franchisee can only find space with windows facing a busy street?Are you comfortable having a franchise location with fully or partially covered windows? If so, do you want the windows covered with branded, artistic decals? Or, are plain white blinds preferred?

Ask your customers

Pay attention to customer reviews and consider asking your students and their parents about the learning environment you provide.For example, if parents say they love how open and safe your parking lot is for drop-off and pick-up times, consider whether or not that will be a requirement for each prospective location. If so, this will likely eliminate the potential for having a location in the downtown core of a major urban center.Some other common elements that contribute to your brand and learning environment will include:

• Lighting
• Furniture
• Smartboards
• Computers, tablets, and other devices
• Learning supplies
• Posters or murals
• Paint colors
• Signage

When coordinating you physical space, remember that you have to protect your brandmark. This means all signage, posters and supplies that are brandmarked need to meet your logo, branding color and dimensional requirements.If you’d like to minimize any margin of error in your branding, consider establishing relationships with national signage companies. Or, make sure it’s clearly communicated that signage and brand related products will be shipped straight from your preferred supplier.

Determine Franchisee Responsibilities

Lastly, as part of the franchising experience, you’re going to need to determine which operations your head office will be responsible for, and which operations franchisees will be responsible for.

Begin closely monitoring your existing business to understand the impact of each operations activity. Moreover, assess the costs and benefits of each party managing an activity.

For example, is it cost efficient and beneficial to hire and provide training for a cleaner as part of each location’s staff? Or, is it better for each location to coordinate and hire their own cleaning company so long as your head office can review the hire?Try to be exhaustive with this list. The more detailed your analysis, the more prepared you'll be for your next steps.

How to Start an After School Franchise: The Next Steps

Making your business easier to replicate and sell to potential franchisees takes time. But, as you go through the process it's good to have your next steps in mind.Get in touch with legal counsel that specialize in franchising in order to seek some preliminary guidance and ensure you're on the right track.Your legal counsel will be crucial in preparing and finalizing your franchising efforts. This includes registering your franchise with the necessary governing bodies and preparing all your legal documents.Also, begin working with a company that provides after school franchise software. It may take you some time to fully assess your software needs, so don't leave your software decisions until the last minute.At Uplifter, we can easily adapt our software to meet the prospective needs of your new franchising effort. These preparations will help you confidently onboard your first location and provide peace of mind as payments begin flowing through your locations, up to your head office.Still have questions? Feel free to schedule a call with us, we're always happy to help.