Emerging Franchisors to Watch: Lightbridge Academy

As the brand celebrates its 20^th Anniversary, Lightbridge Academy is still a relatively young franchisor, having launched in 2011. But the growing $40 Billion child care industry is just one of the reasons that the brand is on its way to having 100 locations open or in development. 1851Franchise.com looks into what sets the brand apart from the competition.

For starters, parents who enroll their children at the booming early education and child care centers are looking to educate their child while they’re at work, but Lightbridge Academy is different because they don’t just provide academic excellence. Lightbridge Academy focuses on educating the whole child, and this includes making sure that they eat well, are physically fit, collaboratively engage themselves in a team setting and know how to be both a leader and a follower. The curriculum is designed to educate children to be well rounded, typically seeing children who graduate from Lightbridge Academy one grade level ahead.

“Other childcare centers are not like Lightbridge Academy,” said Gigi Schweikert, Lightbridge Academy’s President and COO. “We are The Solution for Working Parents® because we meet the needs of both the children and the parents. Additionally, we meet the hours of the parents. For example, if one of the locations is by a hospital where many of the parents work, then that location will have longer hours. Our centers are frequently close to trains stations making it easy for commuting parents.”

And the demand for the working parent only continues to grow. Sixty-five percent of mothers in the workplace have children under the age of six, and there are currently 14.4 Million children in child care across the U.S. But not all child care centers are created equally.

“Lightbridge Academy has kept up with the times. We have a great deal of technology in our centers,” said Schweikert. “That technology brings families closer together, literally. Many centers have an open-door policy, but Lightbridge Academy has a virtual open-door policy. ParentView® Cameras are installed in the classroom and parents are able to watch their child learn from a remote location.”

Deciding to install cameras made Lightbridge Academy a visionary, further differentiating them from the crowd.

“We created ParentView® as a way to help eliminate the anxiety that parents experience when leaving their child for the first time,” said Guy Falzarano, Lightbridge Academy Founder and CEO. “People in the industry said I was crazy because they feared parents would be complaining all day, but I felt that if a parent is going to complain, then you’re not doing what you should be doing. We are in the trust business, and what better way to build trust than through transparency. If parents see something they don’t like, you can investigate it and fix it – you need to make yourself vulnerable in this situation so that you can keep getting better, better and better.”

This type of dedication to being the best has helped Falzarano and his team find the success they’ve been able to achieve. From the very beginning, Falzarano led the charge in building a reputation in the community to deliver great customer service to working parents. He also created the company’s Core Values and a Circle of Care Philosophy that also differentiate them from the competition. The signature Circle of Care philosophy places equal weight on supporting the needs of everyone in a child’s life—including parents, teachers, center owners and local communities—enabling the brand to resonate with their market and tap into previously unseen potential within the booming educational child care segment.

“When looking for franchise partners, we are always wanting to ensure that everyone is aligned with Lightbridge Academy’s core values and vision,” said Falzarano. “It is imperative that every location look and feel the same so that every family experiences our ‘WOW’ customer service and receives the best educational child care on the market.”

The brand’s strong momentum is evident across Lightbridge Academy’s entire franchise system, which has grown to nearly 100 franchise units that are either open or in development. With plans to continue expanding across its core market, including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, the brand recently included new territories to offer franchise opportunities in North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.