Are you thinking about franchising your Children’s Activity Business? Or have you already begun your franchise journey and need ways to stand out in a crowded market? At Enrolmy, we understand how franchises work because we collaborate closely with many children's activity franchises and multi-site operators every day. In this article, our CEO, Dean Pendergrast shares his journey to franchise success along with valuable insider advice for both aspiring and current franchisors.
Prior to starting Enrolmy, Dean founded the successful music school, MusiqHub, which grew to five thousand students across three hundred schools in two countries. His experience running MusiqHub gave him the know-how to transform a children's activity business into a thriving franchise. Reflecting on his journey, Dean highlights how careful planning, smart decision-making, and a strong sense of commitment contributed to MusiqHub’s success.
Read on as we reveal our six key ingredients for building a strong, unique franchise that will set your kids' activity business up for success! Here are some key lessons he learned along the way:
1. Create a win-win for franchisees and franchisors
A truly sustainable and robust franchise is one where franchisees and franchisors work hand-in-hand, sharing the passion to achieve the goals together. Franchisees are a part of your network. It’s good for your brand and your business when your network feels supported and finds fulfilment in what they do. Dean says he was able to grow MusiqHub
“because the teachers were successful. If we wanted the best students, we needed the best lessons and the best teachers.”
To support your franchisees and keep them engaged, providing them with ongoing training and development opportunities is essential. This will help them stay up to date on industry trends and best practices, as well as improve their skills and knowledge. Retaining and improving talented staff also helps facilitate a great and longstanding customer and child experience as some teachers, for example, deliver irreplaceable mentorship to kids in their care. Communication is also key in maintaining a strong relationship with your franchisees. Keep them informed about any updates, changes, or initiatives within the organisation, and seek their feedback and input on important decisions. This shows that you value their opinion and respect their input. Overall, investing time and effort in supporting and engaging your franchisees is crucial for the success of your brand and your business.
2. Utilise Technology
Due to the scale of their operations, franchises need processes that are both replicable and scalable. This is hard to achieve without the aid of smart, cloud-based tech. Dean explains that once he implemented MusiqHub’s technology:
“it took away a massive amount of business admin [that saved time so] we could reinvest in marketing, like promoting and visiting new schools.”
The system that was developed for MusiqHub was the first of its kind for franchises in the Southern Hemisphere. It allowed franchisees to take bookings and payments and operate their business with clear financial principles in line with best accounting practices. As Dean exclaimed:
“MusiqHub exploded when we got the tech in place.”
The system allowed MusiqHub franchisees to manage bookings, payments, and finances seamlessly, adhering to best accounting practices. Smart, cloud-based tech ensures franchisees can focus on core activities like teaching rather than being bogged down by admin, which ultimately leads to a more efficient and successful franchise.
3. Focus On Customer Engagement
This is a no-brainer, but it’s even more critical as you scale and franchise your business. The key is to make your customer pathway and experience familiar, consistent, fast, and enjoyable. This can be done through having an optimised website and a familiar and engaging brand voice.
Having an attractive and functional website that provides a familiar experience to your customers is a good start. Ask what your customers know already, and they’ll probably think of the imagery of Instagram or the easy tile booking system of Airbnb. Think about how your website could emulate this ease-of-use experience. Make sure to put your unique stamp on your website and customer correspondence by building a brand voice (engage and talk with your customers in a way that is easily identifiable as your brand). Also, don’t forget to take this opportunity to review all your communication and copy, as well as the type of images and vocabulary you use. You might want to create a word bank or branding guidelines/kit to improve the consistency of your communication if you haven’t already.
Don’t overlook the importance of engaging customers through various touchpoints, such as social media, surveys, and loyalty programmes. This allows franchisees to solicit feedback and address issues promptly to better align your company with its stakeholders. This proactive approach not only strengthens present customer engagement but also drives franchise growth and lead generation.
By implementing personalised marketing strategies and proactive brand-aligned communication, franchises can nurture long-lasting relationships with their customer base.
4. Reporting and Oversight Across All Sites
Franchising your business can lead to increased risks of dark corners and compliance mishaps. That’s why you need reporting and visibility across all you do.
This is not just to satisfy compliance regulations but also to allow you to check in on how your franchisees are doing to support their growth and challenges. When you are looking for a system that delivers reports, ask for one that gives you both an overview and the ability to drill down into the details. Track key performance indicators, such as sales numbers, customer satisfaction scores, and employee productivity, to ensure each franchise meets its goals.
Visibility into individual franchise operations can help you identify trends or patterns that may be affecting performance and take proactive steps to address them. For example, if one location consistently underperforms, you can provide additional training or resources to help it improve. Importantly, having access to real-time data on all your sites can help you make informed decisions and strategically allocate resources where they are needed most.
5. Franchising from a place of strength
Franchising isn’t easy—it requires strong financial, market, and structural foundations. Dean explains:
“It’s tough to franchise and do it well. You need market penetration, and it takes a lot of thought, planning and investment.”
To discover if you are franchising from a place of financial, market, and structural strength, ask yourself these crucial questions:
- Are you in a strong financial position? You can’t franchise yourself out of debt, and without careful consideration, your money problems will only be magnified.
- Have you done your market research? Is there a true demand for your services and activities on a franchise scale?
- Do you have the systems and staff in place? You can’t do everything yourself, so ensure you are backed by a dedicated team and software that automates your business planning and operations.
- Have you considered all the legal factors? Find legal advice from a group that is familiar with Franchising.
You're on the right track to a successful franchise business if you can confidently answer “yes” to these questions. As Dean advises:
"Once you're certain, back yourself."
6. Document your processes and share them
For succession planning, troubleshooting, training and following best practices, franchisors must have a centralised place to create, store and share their processes. Dean suggests creating a hub where all your procedures—like booking, payments, refunds, health and safety, and customer service—are easily accessible to franchisees.
"Franchises must have centralised, step-by-step guides for everything, from daily operations to handling unexpected situations."
You may also like to brainstorm and note your solutions to different scenarios: What if this happens? What is our compliments and complaints process?
Don’t set and forget your processes. Regularly update these processes based on feedback from franchisees, who are on the frontlines and can offer insights for improvements. Documentation also supports training and troubleshooting, making your franchise scalable and sustainable.
Enrolmy Can Help You Wherever You are on Your Franchise Journey
Whether you are a seasoned franchisor looking to expand your network or a first-time entrepreneur venturing into the franchising world, Enrolmy offers comprehensive solutions to support your journey. Enrolmy empowers franchisors to streamline operations, optimise performance, and drive growth across their franchise network with a range of tools, resources, and expertise. Using Enrolmy to provide the essential infrastructure to enhance visibility, oversight, and collaboration within the franchise ecosystem is a smart move.
As an Enrolmy Enterprise customer, you get access to exclusive benefits:
- Automated systems tailored for large-scale operations
- Comprehensive reporting across all your sites
- A dedicated support team to ensure a smooth transition and ongoing success
- Customised support documentation designed just for you
With Enrolmy, franchisors can focus on building a successful network while we handle the tech side of things!