A Quick Look Book: How To Start Your Own Play School?

There are a certain checks that have to be carefully scrutinized before and during the process of opening a play school. Read On… We tend to miss on some points as it’s a huge venture and little children are the immediate customer just not knowing that they really are!

✓  Brand Check: Have a close look and check whether you might be able to penetrate the brand name in your proposed area for a preschool. 

•  Franchisee school: You have a clear merit to enjoy the already existing brand positioned in the area of preschool education.

•  Own school: You will have to work a lot towards positioning your brand and that would be preceded by a detailed survey on kindergarten.

✓ Area Check: The decision upon the area required is very crucial. If you fall short of a covered area which will not be able to accommodate a reasonable number of classes and activity areas of the school, then you should reconsider the proposed space.

•  Franchisee school: The minimum required area will be decided on the franchisee provider and will remain uniform for all the franchisees.

•  Own school: You have autonomy to start the school with any space. But, ensure that the space is not too less to hinder operations at a later stage and lead to wastage of invested resource.

 

✓  Locale Check: The vicinity or the locality or, in simpler words, the place

proposed to open a play school in hold a very significant role in the long term success of the school in terms of providing early education.

•  Franchisee School: The franchisee provider team at the backend and frontend shall make untiring efforts to check that there is no school in our immediate vicinity.

•  Own School: You might yourself need to be on a lookout of any nearby school which shall not demean your efforts of advertising and promotion of the school.

✓   Support Check: You must carefully scrutinize the support team or the people with a helping hand to guide you into this venture as a single man does not constitute an army.

•  Franchisee School: The support team and the dedicated relationship officer will help you glide the way starting from the ‘Not yet started’ school to the set up schools and even thereafter.

•  Own School: You will have to look for consultants which can even be your family members who can advice on general matters related to finance, marketing, PR etc.

 

✓  Investment/ Royalty Check: Check the amount of investment and also keep the buffer amount if at all the amount increases in the midst of the functioning.

•  Franchisee School: The minimum required investment will be decided upon from the very beginning of the venture. It is uniform for the entire chain of schools under the umbrella of a particular play school franchisee provide. A franchisee school has to pay royalty in a fixed or flexible charge. 

•  Own School: The investment amount can neither be fixed nor ascertained precisely. It requires a great deal of research work to carve out the exact initial investment amount for any venture which in itself will require research expenditure to be done. No royalty due on the part of the school owner as they generate their own services for the school.

✓  Ownership Check: It implies only the ownership on papers and not the management and functioning of the school.

• Franchisee School: Ownership resides with the franchisee provider and is non-transferable.

• Own School: The ownership resides with the one who conceived the idea of starting a Montessori.

✓ Agreement/Transparency Check: It is very important to check on the agreement which will form the basic layout of the association in future:

•  Franchisee School: Detailed Agreement and its subsequent signing involved between the franchisor and the franchisee. The school should ensure transparency in operation and open communication with the franchisor.

• Own School: Might require signing a few documents but with external parties. Internal functioning is judges by the school’s articles. Transparency is maintained by default as the owners run their own school.

✓ Make or Buy Check: An important decision is to set up a unit to manufacture goods for the school set up and functioning.

• Franchisee School: The list of materials will be provided by the franchisee according to the standardized quality.

• Own School: It is tedious to keep a track of different material vendors in an own school. Still, it’s better to buy rather than make.