What are the Advantages of opening a CEFA Franchise?
Why Franchising?
Do you dream of owning your business? Do you think you have what it takes to run a business? Are you ready to make that transition in your life?
If the answer is yes, you are well on your way. The next question is: are you ready to take the risk? According to Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months.
When you own a Franchise, you benefit from being your own boss, but you invest in a proven business model. This can go a long way in ensuring your success. Plus, you meet many others who share your same passions, and own businesses exactly like yours.
Owning a CEFA Early Learning School Franchise means you are partnering with a successful, established brand, which has systems in place to support your business needs from staff training to marketing and everything in between.
As a CEFA Early Learning Private School owner, you belong to our CEFA Family, and benefit from working with a Team of professionals who draw on 25 years of franchise and education experience, and who are focused on helping guide you in your business.
Why Invest in Education?
When deciding to invest in your own business, two main things are important to consider:
- What you want
- What everyone else wants
What you want
When you choose to go into business for yourself, consider not only profitability, but also (and mainly) lifestyle: Is it important to you to have week-ends off? To spend time with your children after school? To be able to travel? To have your evenings off? Often when buying a restaurant franchise, owners work every day, including week-ends and evenings, and have less quality time for themselves and their families. Even education franchises that focus on tutoring, for instance, keep you busy after school and on week-ends, which is the only time you have for your own children and family. A CEFA Early Learning Private School Franchise meets your needs if:
- You want to invest in a business that contributes to your community
- You believe in giving children the best start
- You like to keep your afternoons and evenings free
- You like to keep your week-ends free
- You like to have the same clients for four years or more, allowing for predictable revenue
- You need to know that despite fluctuations in the economy, your business revenue will not fluctuate with it
- You have the flexibility to travel or take time off once it is established
- You can expand and have more than one school
What everyone else wants
You may be passionate about owning a private school, but is there a need for it? Can you be profitable? Here is what we know:
- Since 2017, child-care costs have risen faster than inflation in 61 per cent of Canadian cities*
- Wait lists are still common in almost all Canadian cities. Most parents put their children on a waitlist the moment they find out they are expecting*
- Child care is often the second biggest expense for parents after rent or mortgage*
- Every $1 spent on early childhood education pays back $6 later*
- 2 million families included children under age 18, about two-fifths of all families. Among married-couple families with children, 96.8 percent had at least one employed parent, and 61.1 percent had both parents employed.**
- Children’s daycare services made a total of $47.8 billion in revenue in 2016 and are projected to earn $52.5 billion by 2021***
- Although more than 21 million children under the age of six require childcare in North America, demand for childcare is still increasing
*Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2019 (also see CBC article)
** Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employment in families with children in 2016
***Source: 2016 Child Care Aware of America Diment; 2016 Childcare of North America
Investing in a CEFA Private School not only gives you great personal fulfillment and allows you to provide for your family, it also meets a great need in your community. Make a difference, open a CEFA school near you!
Are You Right For CEFA?
When Founder Natacha V. Beim opened her first CEFA school, she did not imagine that one day there would ever be more than one. All she wanted was to create an amazing place for children to learn and take full advantage of the most formative years of their lives, all while having fun and making friends. Parents came from other cities to send their children to CEFA, often traveling more than one hour each way with their little ones in tow, just to have them attend the school.
This inspired many to encourage Ms. Beim to open schools closer to their homes, which eventually led the Founder to allow those same parents to own a franchise of the original school. Today, all CEFA schools are owned by CEFA parents or CEFA Teachers, who want to bring this incredible program to their own neighbourhoods.
Thanks to our Franchise Partners, thousands of children have the benefit of attending CEFA. Our Partners are people who understand the CEFA philosophy, who share the CEFA values, who give to their communities by providing the best school for children, and who contribute as individuals by ensuring that CEFA, its curriculum and its staff, are the best that they can be.
“We do not need to open more schools”—says CEFA Founder Natacha V. Beim—“Of course, we want CEFA to reach every child, no matter where they are in the world, but we also know that the schools are successful because of their people. It is our partners who, by treating their teams like their own family, and by working with us in always innovating, make CEFA the success that it is. We are very careful in choosing our Franchise Partners, because we know how crucial their role is. We prefer to stay small if it means waiting for the right people.”
CEFA Early Learning Private Schools are known for their excellent reputation. As the owner of one of our Early Learning Schools, you represent our brand.
Our CEFA Franchise Partners come from all walks of life, but they share a common goal: the desire to enrich their local community while contributing to early education.
Many of our Franchise Partners were either CEFA parents or CEFA teachers, who experienced the program benefits firsthand. We are looking for Franchise Partners who are caring and compassionate, who are business minded and who are willing and able to lead a dedicated team of people. Here is what you need in order to succeed:
What you need:
- Share the CEFA Core Values and vision
- Have the drive and commitment to make your business successful, by implementing the tools for success that we give you.
- Treat clients and staff with kindness and respect, and ensure everyone you employ does the same.
- Be a team player – we work together in ensuring that CEFA meets and exceeds its own standards of excellence.
- Be relentless when it comes to delivering quality, and committed to CEFA standards across all areas
- Be professional and presentable at all times
What you don’t need:
- No prior teaching or childcare experience or certification (we have the tools and systems you need)
- No prior business experience (although it is an asset)
- No construction or real estate experience
- No need to work full-time on your business once you’ve made it successful
How to Open a CEFA Early Learning Private School in 10 Steps
- Apply online to receive some basic information including approximate costs. It is important that you read through the CEFA website, to know more about our schools, and through the CEFA franchise website, to make sure that owning a franchise is right for you. Also look at the areas available. If the area you are interested in is not on that list, suggest it to us and we can see if it is suitable.
- Visit a school. Find out when our schools are hosting open houses and attend one, to get a feel for our schools. Please be mindful of our Franchise Partners’ time. They or their staff have opened their school to prospective families who wish to find out more about the school, and who are wanting to enroll their children. It would not be respectful to corner them and ask them all about what it’s like to run a franchise. We are happy to answer all of those questions for you at cefa systems, or if you wish, you can ask to schedule a phone call with them, but only once you have been disclosed, where they can tell you more about what it is like to own a cefa franchise. We receive many franchise inquiries and we do not want our Franchise Partners to feel they are constantly being asked about franchising by people we have not even qualified or accepted yet. Once the Franchisor feels that you would make a good franchisee, and you are given the Franchise Disclosure Document to review (before you commit to anything) you can talk to our Partners.
- Come and visit the CEFA headquarters. Get to know our team in person, and if we are to proceed with you as a potential candidate, we need to meet you in person, too! Once we have reviewed your preliminary application and have established that you would make a good candidate for owning a CEFA school, come and meet us. We are located in Vancouver, British Columbia. If you live in a different part of the world, we can arrange for a video chat instead for the first meeting. If the meeting goes well, you will be invited to apply, and given our FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) to review.
- Meet our Team. One of the things you will love most about us as the Franchisor is our people. We are very proud of our Team, and we know you will be very happy with them as well. They are the people who will support you from the very start and through every step, in every aspect of your business operations, including, but not limited to, marketing, advertising, IT, finance, training and real estate.
- Read through the franchise disclosure document (FDD). All franchisors in Canada (and in many other countries) are required by law to supply this document to prospective franchisees. The FDD tells you everything you need to know about a franchise, and it is important that you take the time to read it.
- Review the terms of your franchise agreement. If after you have visited a school, met the Team at the Head Office, and read the Franchise Disclosure Document, you would like to proceed with opening a CEFA school, the franchisor will give you its franchise agreement, which lists your obligations and theirs.
- Obtain financing. Opening a school is quite capital intensive, and many applicants will need to apply for financing, for at least part of the funds required. If this is your case, we can definitely help you with the process, by providing you with a business plan, banking contacts and options to ensure that you have the best chances of obtaining financing. Most of our applicants apply for a Canadian Small Business Loan, with our help.
- Locate a suitable site for your business. Many franchises have specific site requirements that your business will need to meet. These may include things such as square footage, a minimum lot size and a minimum number of parking spaces. A high-quality franchise will have amongst their staff, real estate experts who will help you with the process of finding a suitable site.
- Receive training. You will need to complete a series of training courses, either at the franchise’s corporate headquarters and/or online, that will teach you everything you need to know about how to operate a franchise.
- Prepare to open your business. If you have never opened a business before, which includes many different things that need to be done, this process can seem daunting. A franchise with best-in-class support will provide assistance with this process, usually in the form of a team who will work with you to ensure your business has everything it needs prior to opening.
Franchise Management System
Providing the Building Blocks for a Successful School
Our CEFA Franchise Management System lends support every step of the way, providing resources and tools in the following areas:
Real Estate & Site Development
Demographics
Zoning
Site Selection
Lease Negotiation
Building Design
Construction Management
Advertising & Marketing
Corporate Website Template
Online Advertising
Social Media
Public Relations
Print Advertising
Marketing Materials
Operations
Licensing Assistance and Opening Assistance
Hiring of Initial Principal/Faculty
Budget Control
General Assistance with School Opening
Quality Assurance & Training
Initial Training
On-going Professional Development
Curriculum
Program
Our team of dedicated support staff start by assisting you.
Our team of dedicated support staff start by assisting you in all stages of site selection and preparation. Our exclusive commercial real estate partnerships provide access to site options across Canada. We also also help with the fine print – from applying for licenses to negotiating the terms of your lease.
As a Franchise Partner, you will also have access to our team of engineers, architects, designers, project managers and construction specialists who will assist in each stage of your school build.
Before a site is selected, demographics and psychographic analysis of the neighborhood will be performed, along with research on commuter routes and traffic patterns.
All CEFA teachers are licensed Early Childhood Educators trained in the highest standards of child development and child safety.
Before your school opens, teachers will complete our unique CEFA Certified Teacher Training where they will learn the CEFA curriculum and philosophy and how to implement them into the classroom.
As your school gets off the ground, we will work with you to build enrolment through marketing, strategic relationship building, and community involvement.
This is your franchise opportunity
We are looking for Franchise Partners to open private schools for children all across Canada. If you love being around children and families, know the value of education, and believe in developing children academically, socially and physically, talk to us about owning a CEFA Early Learning School Franchise. Take a look at our Available Opportunities.
