When it comes to providing a service to the local community, no one does it better than the community members themselves. That’s the methodology behind JUMP! Swim Schools latest franchise development.
The current franchising and economic environment has seen the rate of new franchise locations slow, however for JUMP!, who recently announced it would be launching seven new swim school sites, the timing seems perfect.
Ian Campbell, Founder and CEO of JUMP! said the franchise’s success was due to a simplistic franchise model with a highly specialised offering.
“JUMP! was started with the goal of creating a better environment to teach swimming in,” Campbell said.
“Learning to swim can be quite daunting for young children, and placing their first lessons in a large pool filled with multiple other classes, squad swimming, lap swimming and numerous other noisy activities was simply terrifying in those first lessons.”
“By having a smaller environment designed for learning, we can have more confident children and less distractions and with a specialised baby and beginners’ program, we can have them swimming as young as physically possible.”
The model is yielding enormous results for the brand, with seven sites opening within a nine week period, incuding the latest site at St Mary’s in NSW, with Campbell indicating the back half of 2018 would see further expansion spread across the country and overseas.
“Certain areas are gaining more interest than we can take on,” Campbell said.
“It’s a result of a successful model that provides a significant point of difference to customers whilst a simple and predictable model for franchisees to operate.”
Working with children certainly presents its own challenges, which Campbell said is why JUMP! has looked to the local community to find its franchisees.
“By having local families running the local swim school, it just works,” Campbell said.
“Most of our franchisees are parents and have plenty of experience with children. Some have strengths in different areas such as finance, marketing, learn to swim or training. We work with each franchise owner to ensure they are able to maximise profitability whilst still providing a memorable experience for every parent and child.”
JUMP! Swim School currently boasts a waitlist of potential franchisees, bucking the 2018 trend of franchisee retainment rather than recruitment.
Evan and Carolyn Russell secured their JUMP! Swim School franchise in Somerville, Victoria in 2016, after being involved with the industry for over 15 years.
“Owning our own swim school had always been a bit of a pie in the sky dream,” Russel said.
“With the JUMP! Swim Schools Franchise model, we were able to see that that dream could become a reality with the business model that JUMP! presented. The JUMP! philosophy of “prepare instruct praise” really resonated with our beliefs about swim teaching, as did the set up itself in terms of small class sizes and a private facility with less distractions than bigger centres.”
The franchisees echoed Campbell’s sentiment, stating the integration of local community members as owner/operators helped to instil a welcoming presence with a family focus.
With new stores slated for the back half of 2018 and a further push into WA, JUMP! will also be working to implement a level of benchmarking for swim ability, which Campbell suggests will aid in water safety.
“By parents being more aware of their child’s ability we hope this will result in safer children around the water as a result of a more educated parent.”
While the waitlist of potential franchisees may be seen as a deterrent for interested parties, Campbell says the brand will be looking to continue its expansion steadily throughout next year, encouraging those considering a JUMP! Swim School to get involved.