KID’Z GURUKUL is a venture of PRAGATI INTELLECTUAL LEARNING (P) LTD., a company providing Premium Kids Education and letting out little ones take their FIRST STEP IN EDUCATION TO KIDS with a difference. In an interaction with Ashwin Jalan, Franchise Head, Kid’z Gurukul, shares his plans about developing their business by joining hands with franchisees.
Share the origin and growth of your company and how did the company opt for franchise route.
The company is being in education industry for last 2.5 years with a brand called “Handwriting Gurukul” with product like handwriting improvement and speed writing. Seeing the need of the hour and looking at expansion mode and since our target audience is children, we thought of getting into preschool business with a difference.
We started the working of preschool 6 months back. We thought how can we make a difference in the preschool business. After a lot of thought process we launched KID’Z GURUKUL, a premium preschool offering Preschool, Daycare and Activity Centre with courses like Handwriting Improvement, Spoken English for Kids, ABACUS and Smart Tuition for Class 1-V (all subject). We also wanted to expand pan India and the best route for it was Franchising and that how we launched franchising in OCT,2013. We launched our centre in Feb,2014 in Jhajjar and another centre in Faridabad. We also finalized the Master Franchise for Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh also in the month of March,2014.
How many franchise locations do you have at present? What are your future expansion plans?
We are currently having 2 franchise, 2 Master Franchise to start with and are looking at about 50 centres, 10-12 Area Franchise & at least 6-8 Master Franchise by the end of March,2015.
How is KID’Z GURUKUL different from other branded preschool running?
As said earlier, we are a preschool with a difference. First of all we are offering 3 in 1 Business Module which no other preschool is offering which means we are giving a full day revenue module for franchises to earn and not just 8am-12noon business. Secondly, we are giving theme based classrooms, CCTV Surveillance, Talking Book Technology and Integrated Curriculum. Thirdly we are giving Activity Centre which comprises of 4 courses currently which will give additional revenue to the franchises since these are all running courses and will do very well during summer and winter vacations.
What kind of training and support do you lend to your franchisees?
Training plays a very important role if you want to be successful in franchise business. We are giving quarterly training to all our franchise to keep our quality and support.
Where do you see the brand in five years’ time? What are your plans till the end of 2015?
Five years is a long time to comment. Still we are planning to get into senior school at the beginning of Five years from now. As said earlier we would be having roughly about 50+ centres along with 10-12 Area Franchise & 6-8 Master Franchise.
What are the qualities and qualifications that you seek for in your franchisees? How much investment is required by aspiring franchisees?
We are looking for smart, intelligent, financially strong and willing to take this as his second business as on date and built it up as his main business in years to come. One who has patience and willing to give time to this business.
We are looking for 1500-2500 sq ft area and investment of 8-12 lacs for unit franchise, 14-15 lacs for Area Franchise & 18-20 lacs for Master Franchise.
Share with us the challenges that can be faced by your franchisees? How can these be overcome?
The main challenges which franchise faces are as follow:-
a) Compromise with Business in terms of infrastructure, staff quality, marketing activity.etc
b) Not following the guidelines laid by the Franchisor
c) Applying his mind before knowing the business.
d) Compromising with team of people
e) Not paying staff on time.
f) Not doing marketing in the initial stage
All these can be overcome if you follow the guidelines of the Franchisor and let the Franchisor built the business for you.