Begin Bright signs first franchisees

Sarah Stowe

Begin Bright has just signed up its first two franchisees, marking the beginning of serious expansion plans for the children’s education franchise.

One franchisee is located in Ryde, Sydney and the other in Cairns, Queensland, and founder Tina Towers hopes to have another 18 established by the end of next year.

She told Franchising the business is suited to mothers or retired teachers. “Most people have to do about three mornings a week, but then they can also hire teachers and do their admin at home, so it’s more like a part time business.

“You need at least a Certificate 3 in Child Studies to be able to teach the program. So the franchise is open to anyone, but they’ll need to employ people to do the teaching if they’re not qualified,” said Towers.

Begin Bright was formed in 2008 and licenced in 2009 to test the concept, before beginning the search for franchisees earlier this year.

Each franchisee is allocated a territory based on the number of children in the area, and Towers said the model lends itself to multi-unit ownership. She herself has three systems.

“With our three systems, they’re all about 10km apart and each one feeds off each other, so the more you have in a clustered area the more the brand gets known,” she said.

The franchisee fee for Begin Bright is $20,000 for a five year agreement, with fixed costs each year.