With the demand for quality child care and early education consistently growing as more parents continue to work outside of the home, the child care market is expected to surpass the $88 billion mark by 2033. As the market surges, there is a strong opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to start a preschool with Children’s Lighthouse. Here’s what it takes:
The pathway to owning a Children’s Lighthouse franchise starts with the initial phone call. During this conversation, the development team and franchise candidate are learning more about each other to ensure alignment on key details.
“On the initial call, we want to know a bit about them,” said Matt Kelton, vice president of franchise development. “We want to understand their goals, background, timing, and why they are interested in us.”
The Children’s Lighthouse team also takes the chance to ensure prospective franchisees are clear on what the process will entail early on. Starting a preschool is both an expensive and time-consuming process, and it’s important that the prospective owner understands this before proceeding.
“If it looks like we align on these key points, we’ll schedule a more detailed brand review,” Kelton said.
The brand review session is a longer virtual meeting with Kelton to dig deeper into the business model, core values and financials of the investment.
“We’ll jump on a Zoom call, and I have a 45-minute presentation that I go through that gets into a lot more granular detail about the history of Children’s Lighthouse, how the business works, how we generate revenue, what the school opening looks like and all the costs,” he said. “I’m also trying to share a bit about the culture, our values, our mission and the benefits of being a franchisee in terms of the impact the prospective owner can have on the community’s children.”
If the match still feels like a good fit, the prospective franchisee moves along to dive even deeper into the financials — both requirements and their own funding options.
“At this point, we reaffirm that this is something the prospective owner really wants to do,” Kelton said. “We let them know that this is usually a 90-day process from start to finish, and during that process, we’re going to be sharing a lot of information, but we’re also going to be asking them for a lot of information, too. Do they want to engage in that?”
“Really, the next step is for them to fill out our questionnaire application,” Kelton said. “That’s going to be a high-level look at their financials as well as a background questionnaire that asks them why they chose Children’s Lighthouse, their reasons for doing this and why they think they are a good candidate.”
The franchisor reviews the questionnaire to ensure the candidates can qualify financially. If they meet this requirement, and their responses to the background portion of the questionnaire are still consistent with the brand’s culture and expectations for its owners, prospective franchisees move forward to the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) review.
The FDD is a treasure trove of information for prospective owners. After the franchisor is confident that the candidate will be able to qualify for a franchise, the team dives into the specifics.
“We’ll have an interactive FDD review and an operations review with the team so franchisees understand what the whole process and support will look like,” Kelton said.
Prospective franchisees can review the FDD both with the team and independently so they’re able to fully comprehend the brand’s leadership team, start-up costs, training programs and financial representations. The FDD represents the franchisor and franchisee’s mutual obligations, so it is important to be very diligent during this stage.
“We like to get prospective owners on a call with one of our preferred lenders early on to review SBA funding options and what that process looks like,” Kelton said. “At this point, franchisees can do a pre-qualification step for the type of funding they’ll likely pursue.”
The team also shifts its focus toward territory and real estate discussions during this stage. The team will review the territory and potential real estate sites within it and get feedback from the prospective owners to begin narrowing down development plans.
Then, the due diligence process begins for the prospective franchisees.
“They’ll have a series of calls that we’ll coordinate with existing franchise owners,” Kelton said. “This is where they’ll have the opportunity to ask questions about the opening process, what it takes to run the business day-to-day, and even more detailed questions about the financial costs and profitability — things that the franchisor legally can’t answer.”
One of the final steps of the investment process is Discovery Day. This is when the prospective franchisee will spend some time at the Fort Worth headquarters, meeting with company leaders.
“We’ll have lunch and make sure the franchisee can really see what we’re about — what our culture’s like,” Kelton said. “The reality is that we’re going to be getting married, essentially, so we want to make sure they’re a good fit financially, philosophically, and culturally.”
Franchise success is mutually beneficial, and the Children’s Lighthouse team wants to confirm that they are confident in the prospective owner, both skill-wise and as a general addition to the system.
“It is a different kind of business,” Kelton said. “We have a family culture. We’re not private equity. We want someone who can promote our brand while doing a great job of protecting, educating and impacting the kids. Someone who will work well with the parents and do a good job of leading their teams.”
Discovery Day is the last hurdle of sorts. If the day concludes and everyone is on the same page, prospective franchisees can prepare for their offer letter.
“From there, we’ll award them the letter, and then we’ll go into the agreement signing,” Kelton said. “Once the agreement is signed, they are Children’s Lighthouse owners! We then start the real estate selection and opening processes as we prepare for launch.”
Owning a Children’s Lighthouse franchise is a significant commitment. Still, with a clear and structured process, the leadership team has successfully built an exploration model that allows both parties to capture all of the information they need to build the foundation for a healthy business relationship, and prospective franchisees are guided every step of the way.
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/childrens-lighthouse.
Children's Lighthouse
SPONSORED
Children’s Lighthouse guides prospective franchisees through a clear multi-step process to ensure proper education and alignment as entrepreneurs work toward ownership in the booming industry.
With the demand for quality child care and early education consistently growing as more parents continue to work outside of the home, the child care market is expected to surpass the $88 billion mark by 2033. As the market surges, there is a strong opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to start a preschool with Children’s Lighthouse. Here’s what it takes:
The pathway to owning a Children’s Lighthouse franchise starts with the initial phone call. During this conversation, the development team and franchise candidate are learning more about each other to ensure alignment on key details.
“On the initial call, we want to know a bit about them,” said Matt Kelton, vice president of franchise development. “We want to understand their goals, background, timing, and why they are interested in us.”
The Children’s Lighthouse team also takes the chance to ensure prospective franchisees are clear on what the process will entail early on. Starting a preschool is both an expensive and time-consuming process, and it’s important that the prospective owner understands this before proceeding.
“If it looks like we align on these key points, we’ll schedule a more detailed brand review,” Kelton said.
The brand review session is a longer virtual meeting with Kelton to dig deeper into the business model, core values and financials of the investment.
“We’ll jump on a Zoom call, and I have a 45-minute presentation that I go through that gets into a lot more granular detail about the history of Children’s Lighthouse, how the business works, how we generate revenue, what the school opening looks like and all the costs,” he said. “I’m also trying to share a bit about the culture, our values, our mission and the benefits of being a franchisee in terms of the impact the prospective owner can have on the community’s children.”
If the match still feels like a good fit, the prospective franchisee moves along to dive even deeper into the financials — both requirements and their own funding options.
“At this point, we reaffirm that this is something the prospective owner really wants to do,” Kelton said. “We let them know that this is usually a 90-day process from start to finish, and during that process, we’re going to be sharing a lot of information, but we’re also going to be asking them for a lot of information, too. Do they want to engage in that?”
“Really, the next step is for them to fill out our questionnaire application,” Kelton said. “That’s going to be a high-level look at their financials as well as a background questionnaire that asks them why they chose Children’s Lighthouse, their reasons for doing this and why they think they are a good candidate.”
The franchisor reviews the questionnaire to ensure the candidates can qualify financially. If they meet this requirement, and their responses to the background portion of the questionnaire are still consistent with the brand’s culture and expectations for its owners, prospective franchisees move forward to the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) review.
The FDD is a treasure trove of information for prospective owners. After the franchisor is confident that the candidate will be able to qualify for a franchise, the team dives into the specifics.
“We’ll have an interactive FDD review and an operations review with the team so franchisees understand what the whole process and support will look like,” Kelton said.
Prospective franchisees can review the FDD both with the team and independently so they’re able to fully comprehend the brand’s leadership team, start-up costs, training programs and financial representations. The FDD represents the franchisor and franchisee’s mutual obligations, so it is important to be very diligent during this stage.
“We like to get prospective owners on a call with one of our preferred lenders early on to review SBA funding options and what that process looks like,” Kelton said. “At this point, franchisees can do a pre-qualification step for the type of funding they’ll likely pursue.”
The team also shifts its focus toward territory and real estate discussions during this stage. The team will review the territory and potential real estate sites within it and get feedback from the prospective owners to begin narrowing down development plans.
Then, the due diligence process begins for the prospective franchisees.
“They’ll have a series of calls that we’ll coordinate with existing franchise owners,” Kelton said. “This is where they’ll have the opportunity to ask questions about the opening process, what it takes to run the business day-to-day, and even more detailed questions about the financial costs and profitability — things that the franchisor legally can’t answer.”
One of the final steps of the investment process is Discovery Day. This is when the prospective franchisee will spend some time at the Fort Worth headquarters, meeting with company leaders.
“We’ll have lunch and make sure the franchisee can really see what we’re about — what our culture’s like,” Kelton said. “The reality is that we’re going to be getting married, essentially, so we want to make sure they’re a good fit financially, philosophically, and culturally.”
Franchise success is mutually beneficial, and the Children’s Lighthouse team wants to confirm that they are confident in the prospective owner, both skill-wise and as a general addition to the system.
“It is a different kind of business,” Kelton said. “We have a family culture. We’re not private equity. We want someone who can promote our brand while doing a great job of protecting, educating and impacting the kids. Someone who will work well with the parents and do a good job of leading their teams.”
Discovery Day is the last hurdle of sorts. If the day concludes and everyone is on the same page, prospective franchisees can prepare for their offer letter.
“From there, we’ll award them the letter, and then we’ll go into the agreement signing,” Kelton said. “Once the agreement is signed, they are Children’s Lighthouse owners! We then start the real estate selection and opening processes as we prepare for launch.”
Owning a Children’s Lighthouse franchise is a significant commitment. Still, with a clear and structured process, the leadership team has successfully built an exploration model that allows both parties to capture all of the information they need to build the foundation for a healthy business relationship, and prospective franchisees are guided every step of the way.
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/childrens-lighthouse.
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