All about kids

Did that title spark your curiosity? It was meant to, but let’s review how we got here.

Last week’s overview of the Child Services industry touched on the variety of models available to you as an owner. Today, I want to circle back to this industry and delve a bit deeper into a few franchise models that I find particularly interesting on the topic of kid-friendly franchise opportunities.

Enriching the lives of children through education, the arts, sports and the like, is the goal of the child services industry. Turning these goals into reality is what makes this franchise industry lucrative for the owners. Add to that the bonus that these businesses can also do a lot for the community’s economics as well.

Adventure play

One such model is the Indoor Adventure Park for example. Adding this type of franchise to a community not only creates ancillary income for the other businesses in that community by increasing traffic with plenty to go around. Imagine the moment you open the doors of an adventure park model franchise anywhere, you are instantly the owner of the coolest new place in town. Talk about a feel-good place to be!

These family entertainment franchises offer excitement to the whole family for young ones and teens alike. Some types of businesses even offer attractions like ninja courses, towering rope courses, laser tag arenas, virtual reality rooms, foam pits, and wall-to-wall, inter-connected trampoline courts, dedicated to dodgeball and slam dunk basketball.

But that’s not all. Consider these models offering additional income streams for the owner. Examples would be full arcades, in-house restaurants, and ice cream parlors, and gift shops featuring branded merchandise. So, whether it’s a family outing, a single player, a party of two, or a party of fifty, these parks are generating excitement and revenues in every town that has one.

That all being said, the Adventure Park is about the most expensive model in the industry. Consider this, though. A model does not need to be expensive to be cool. In fact, most business models in child services are less than $75,000 and can be financed through the Small Business Administration (SBA) with as little as 20% – 25% down. That’s sounding a little more reasonable, isn’t it?

Brain training

Another segment of this industry that is cutting edge and very cool is the brain training sector. Intelligent play is the next big thing when we think of kid-based business. These models work with the cognitive abilities of children. The children that enroll in these classes work on improving these cognitive functions by exercising the brain, similar to the way physical fitness is improved by exercising the body.

These breakthroughs in early, mid, and continuing education techniques have become a staple in today’s education market. They are also generating lucrative incomes for those who offer them to their community. These cognitive enhancement businesses for children encompass such fields as STEM and STEAM learning as well as, proprietary methodology for one-on-one Brain Training. According to WebMD, these brain training approaches are now a billion dollar a year industry in the United States.

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEAM takes this educational approach one step further by adding Arts to the mix. Both use these access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.

Rather than teaching these disciplines as separate and disconnected subjects, STEM and STEAM mixes them into a cohesive learning model that allows the student to utilize their critical thinking abilities to solve real-world issues and prepare our children for the ever-changing technical landscape of tomorrow.

Brain Training businesses improve learning skills including memory, attention, and processing speed, with studies showing that 88% of learning problems are caused by one or more of these weak cognitive skills. Assessing and fixing these problems at the core, is what brain training is all about.

Psychology Today states that through brain training, these cognitive skills issues can not only be addressed but with work, corrected. Issues such as ADHD, learning disorders (both reading and math), language disorders, and executive function problems, can be remedied and improved through these newer applications.

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Opportunities abound

The array of child services businesses available to the entrepreneur is incredible. Moore’s Law in lay-terms shows how the overall processing power for computers will double every two years. This law also points to what our children are going to face and the need to try to keep up with technology’s advancements.

If you feel the draw towards child services, I have 36 different models we can discuss with the cost of these businesses ranging from $10,000 – $1.3 million. With all of these, you are looking at around a 35%+ return for the owner. One might say that everybody wins….wouldn’t you?