For many entrepreneurs, buying a franchise is not about creating a single job for themselves. The bigger goal is to build an organization. That distinction is especially important in early childhood education, where an owner who becomes indispensable to the daily operation of one school may find it difficult to ever grow beyond that location. Children’s Lighthouse has structured its model differently.
“Ours is really an executive model. Franchisees are in a CEO-level role,” said Matt Kelton, Vice President of Franchise Development. “Franchisees hire directors who run the day-to-day activities. You have an executive team that runs the school, and they have years of experience.”
The proof can be seen throughout the system. Existing owners are signing agreements for second and third locations, multi-unit franchisees have grown to five schools and Children’s Lighthouse’s largest ownership group has now reached 10.
“We’re selling a lot of additional second and third locations to existing owners, which to me is probably the greatest testament to a franchise,” Kelton said. “They feel good enough about it that they’re going to continue to invest.”
Children’s Lighthouse does not approach multi-unit ownership as a race to accumulate locations. Instead, the growth path starts with establishing a strong first school, mastering the model, building the right management team and creating a business that can operate without depending on the owner for every daily decision.
That approach has helped Emily and Amal Fernando grow from a single Children’s Lighthouse school to a 10-school portfolio across Texas, making them the largest franchise ownership group in the system.
Rather than expanding as quickly as possible, the Fernandos built deliberately. With each location, they focused on developing strong teams, maintaining educational standards and replicating the culture that made their earlier schools successful.
“The growth we’ve experienced is really a reflection of our people,” Emily said. “We’ve been fortunate to build incredible teams who share our commitment to excellence and truly care about the families they serve. The trust our families place in us is something we never take for granted.”
The management structure becomes increasingly important as a franchisee adds locations. A Children’s Lighthouse owner is responsible for leading the business, but experienced school directors manage day-to-day activities. That allows the franchisee to spend more time thinking like an executive: overseeing financial performance, developing leaders, engaging with the community and planning for future growth.
“Once you get to two or three schools, you can hire an executive director who manages those directors,” Kelton said. “Our largest franchisee has 10 schools.”
That creates a natural organizational progression. The owner initially builds a strong leadership structure around the first school. As additional locations open, directors oversee individual schools, while an executive director can eventually help manage those leaders across the portfolio.
For franchisee Steve Kulawik, having strong management in place is also what creates greater flexibility for the owner. “You’re not open nights or weekends,” Kulawik said. “Once you’ve got good managers in place, you can oversee things without being there every day.”
Having the right management structure can free an owner to focus on growth, but adding locations still has to make financial sense. Ramesh Sakarepalle, who operates five Children’s Lighthouse schools with Jyothi Oblum, said that starts with understanding what works financially at the first location.
“Once you have mastered the model, your investment can turn into financial benefit which you can invest in multiple units,” Sakarepalle said.
That reinvestment cycle is one of the most important components of multi-unit franchising. Rather than approaching every new school as an entirely separate venture, successful owners can apply the knowledge, infrastructure and potentially the financial benefits developed through earlier locations toward subsequent growth.
The Children’s Lighthouse model also includes a cost structure designed to keep more money at the school level. One notable example is the brand’s national advertising fund, which Kelton says is 0.5% of gross revenue monthly. That is significantly below the 3% to 4% he says some competing systems charge.
“One of our key differentiators is that we’re still owned by the Brown family — Michael is the president — whereas many of our competitors are backed by private equity,” Kelton said. “That means they typically have more fees and are more driven by P&L. We’re not. Our national ad fund covers everything and is just half of one percent monthly.”
For a single location, controlling recurring fees matters. Across a multi-school portfolio, those differences can become even more meaningful.
“Our goal isn’t to have 800 schools — it’s to have the best of the best,” Kelton said. “We want to deliver best-in-class support and ensure our franchisees are running incredibly profitable businesses. When we evaluate fees, we’re focused on making sure they deliver real value.”
The scalability equation at Children’s Lighthouse can extend beyond adding operating businesses. A traditional Children’s Lighthouse school is approximately 10,000 square feet and typically sits on nearly two acres. Depending on the franchisee’s development structure, ownership can include the opportunity to build equity in commercial real estate alongside the school itself.
“You’ve got a 10,000-square-foot building sitting on almost two acres of land,” Kelton said. “In 15 years, you can potentially sell it for a significant multiple of what you paid for it.”
For a multi-unit owner, that means growth can potentially create two complementary portfolios: a collection of operating schools and a collection of underlying real estate assets. “It’s really an intriguing model,” Kelton said. “Banks like it. Private equity loves it. And you’re still offering a critical service to your community. It’s a great business, a community service, and a long-term asset. That’s hard to beat.”
That long-term orientation also helps explain why Children’s Lighthouse is not built around quickly opening and selling individual locations.
“We’re not a brand that investors want to flip,” Kelton said. “We’re a long-term play with a unique model and a unique family culture, and we’re building a brand franchisees want to grow with over time.”
There is no guarantee that buying one franchise will lead to owning five or 10. Each new Children’s Lighthouse school requires significant capital, qualified leadership, appropriate real estate and successful execution at the local level. But the path exists, and franchisees within the system have already demonstrated what it can look like.
An owner can begin with one school and develop a strong director. As the business matures, that owner can pursue a second or third location, add another layer of management and increasingly move into a portfolio-level leadership role. Over time, successful operators can potentially reinvest in additional locations while building equity through the underlying real estate.
The result is a model designed to grow with the capabilities and ambitions of the franchisee.
For Children’s Lighthouse, the fact that existing owners continue choosing that path is one of the strongest indicators that the system is working as intended.
“We’re selling a lot of additional second and third locations to existing owners, which to me is probably the greatest testament to a franchise,” Kelton said. “They feel good enough about it that they’re going to continue to invest.”
For entrepreneurs who want to build an organization rather than simply operate a location, that creates a compelling runway for long-term growth with Children’s Lighthouse.
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit 1851franchise.com/childrens-lighthouse.
Children's Lighthouse
SPONSORED
With a director-led model and strong infrastructure, Children’s Lighthouse empowers growth-minded franchisees to scale from a single school into a multi-unit portfolio.
For many entrepreneurs, buying a franchise is not about creating a single job for themselves. The bigger goal is to build an organization. That distinction is especially important in early childhood education, where an owner who becomes indispensable to the daily operation of one school may find it difficult to ever grow beyond that location. Children’s Lighthouse has structured its model differently.
“Ours is really an executive model. Franchisees are in a CEO-level role,” said Matt Kelton, Vice President of Franchise Development. “Franchisees hire directors who run the day-to-day activities. You have an executive team that runs the school, and they have years of experience.”
The proof can be seen throughout the system. Existing owners are signing agreements for second and third locations, multi-unit franchisees have grown to five schools and Children’s Lighthouse’s largest ownership group has now reached 10.
“We’re selling a lot of additional second and third locations to existing owners, which to me is probably the greatest testament to a franchise,” Kelton said. “They feel good enough about it that they’re going to continue to invest.”
Children’s Lighthouse does not approach multi-unit ownership as a race to accumulate locations. Instead, the growth path starts with establishing a strong first school, mastering the model, building the right management team and creating a business that can operate without depending on the owner for every daily decision.
That approach has helped Emily and Amal Fernando grow from a single Children’s Lighthouse school to a 10-school portfolio across Texas, making them the largest franchise ownership group in the system.
Rather than expanding as quickly as possible, the Fernandos built deliberately. With each location, they focused on developing strong teams, maintaining educational standards and replicating the culture that made their earlier schools successful.
“The growth we’ve experienced is really a reflection of our people,” Emily said. “We’ve been fortunate to build incredible teams who share our commitment to excellence and truly care about the families they serve. The trust our families place in us is something we never take for granted.”
The management structure becomes increasingly important as a franchisee adds locations. A Children’s Lighthouse owner is responsible for leading the business, but experienced school directors manage day-to-day activities. That allows the franchisee to spend more time thinking like an executive: overseeing financial performance, developing leaders, engaging with the community and planning for future growth.
“Once you get to two or three schools, you can hire an executive director who manages those directors,” Kelton said. “Our largest franchisee has 10 schools.”
That creates a natural organizational progression. The owner initially builds a strong leadership structure around the first school. As additional locations open, directors oversee individual schools, while an executive director can eventually help manage those leaders across the portfolio.
For franchisee Steve Kulawik, having strong management in place is also what creates greater flexibility for the owner. “You’re not open nights or weekends,” Kulawik said. “Once you’ve got good managers in place, you can oversee things without being there every day.”
Having the right management structure can free an owner to focus on growth, but adding locations still has to make financial sense. Ramesh Sakarepalle, who operates five Children’s Lighthouse schools with Jyothi Oblum, said that starts with understanding what works financially at the first location.
“Once you have mastered the model, your investment can turn into financial benefit which you can invest in multiple units,” Sakarepalle said.
That reinvestment cycle is one of the most important components of multi-unit franchising. Rather than approaching every new school as an entirely separate venture, successful owners can apply the knowledge, infrastructure and potentially the financial benefits developed through earlier locations toward subsequent growth.
The Children’s Lighthouse model also includes a cost structure designed to keep more money at the school level. One notable example is the brand’s national advertising fund, which Kelton says is 0.5% of gross revenue monthly. That is significantly below the 3% to 4% he says some competing systems charge.
“One of our key differentiators is that we’re still owned by the Brown family — Michael is the president — whereas many of our competitors are backed by private equity,” Kelton said. “That means they typically have more fees and are more driven by P&L. We’re not. Our national ad fund covers everything and is just half of one percent monthly.”
For a single location, controlling recurring fees matters. Across a multi-school portfolio, those differences can become even more meaningful.
“Our goal isn’t to have 800 schools — it’s to have the best of the best,” Kelton said. “We want to deliver best-in-class support and ensure our franchisees are running incredibly profitable businesses. When we evaluate fees, we’re focused on making sure they deliver real value.”
The scalability equation at Children’s Lighthouse can extend beyond adding operating businesses. A traditional Children’s Lighthouse school is approximately 10,000 square feet and typically sits on nearly two acres. Depending on the franchisee’s development structure, ownership can include the opportunity to build equity in commercial real estate alongside the school itself.
“You’ve got a 10,000-square-foot building sitting on almost two acres of land,” Kelton said. “In 15 years, you can potentially sell it for a significant multiple of what you paid for it.”
For a multi-unit owner, that means growth can potentially create two complementary portfolios: a collection of operating schools and a collection of underlying real estate assets. “It’s really an intriguing model,” Kelton said. “Banks like it. Private equity loves it. And you’re still offering a critical service to your community. It’s a great business, a community service, and a long-term asset. That’s hard to beat.”
That long-term orientation also helps explain why Children’s Lighthouse is not built around quickly opening and selling individual locations.
“We’re not a brand that investors want to flip,” Kelton said. “We’re a long-term play with a unique model and a unique family culture, and we’re building a brand franchisees want to grow with over time.”
There is no guarantee that buying one franchise will lead to owning five or 10. Each new Children’s Lighthouse school requires significant capital, qualified leadership, appropriate real estate and successful execution at the local level. But the path exists, and franchisees within the system have already demonstrated what it can look like.
An owner can begin with one school and develop a strong director. As the business matures, that owner can pursue a second or third location, add another layer of management and increasingly move into a portfolio-level leadership role. Over time, successful operators can potentially reinvest in additional locations while building equity through the underlying real estate.
The result is a model designed to grow with the capabilities and ambitions of the franchisee.
For Children’s Lighthouse, the fact that existing owners continue choosing that path is one of the strongest indicators that the system is working as intended.
“We’re selling a lot of additional second and third locations to existing owners, which to me is probably the greatest testament to a franchise,” Kelton said. “They feel good enough about it that they’re going to continue to invest.”
For entrepreneurs who want to build an organization rather than simply operate a location, that creates a compelling runway for long-term growth with Children’s Lighthouse.
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit 1851franchise.com/childrens-lighthouse.
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