CEO, Safari Kid, India
1. What is Safari Kid all about? Tell us how and when the Safari Kid started in India
a. – Safari Kid was founded in 2005 in the Silicon Valley, California. With more than 9 years of experience, we now have 30 centers across the world. We opened our doors in India, Mumbai on 1st July 2013. At Safari Kid, our philosophy is “ Every child is different and has a different learning curve” we customized our curriculum as per each child’s individual needs. Our mission is “ Educating one child at a time” and our vision is “Striving to create better human beings”.
2. What is the USP of Safari Kid? Why did you opt for Franchise model to expand in India?
a. Every child is taught at Safari kid by using our unique proprietary methods
• Brain Train Method
• High Five system of exploration
GK, Science and social studies explored through this method
Experiential learning
Principles of teaching
• Standardisation – Concepts discussed in a group
• Personalisation – Each child is accessed to understand their learning based on our proprietary worksheets
• Customisation – Each child is put on an accelerated learning path based on his/her strengths based on our proprietary worksheets
Other Points
• Only Global preschool available with presence in 6 countries
• Global curriculum followed through all the centres
• Children start reading before 4 years of age
Children can do mental math and start writing before 5 of Age
We are offering both FOFO Model (Franchisee owned Franchisee operated) as well as FOCO Model (Franchisee owned company operated model), we have a very detailed method of shortlisting our partners, however people with previous education background and passion for making a difference to each and every child are more likely to partner with us. Franchising helps us to expand faster as well as it helps young entrepreneurs to align with a known brand to start their own preschool. A brand like Safari Kid with its own process and standards helps young entrepreneurs to succeed faster.
3. How different is Safari Kid from other play-schools?
a. We don’t consider ourselves as play school, we are an Early childhood education center. All neuroscience research points that kids are born ready to learn and learn from the environment that they are exposed to. Hence we create a learning environment where we develop love for learning rather then just teaching.
4. What are the opportunities in the Indian market for a Brand like Safari Kid?
a. Well the opportunities are plenty, we don’t have a truly International Early Childhood learning center in India. With our approach to education and child development we would be one of the top preschools by 2017. However we don’t wish to be a mass School and our presence will be limited to major metros. The options of preschool are plenty in India, we would be one of the few or probably only preschool to offer global curriculum consistently taught across all our 30 centers in 6 different countries.
5. How many Franchisees do you currently have in India? What are your expansion plans?
a. We started Franchising in October 2014 and we have already signed up some cities in India, we cannot reveal much at this stage but we expect to have more 20-22 centers by the end 2016, We are planning to add another 70 to 75 centers in another 5 years most of these centres will be through franchise route, our focus is more on the quality then quantity as most of the franchisees are selected only after a thorough background check.
6. What are the parameters that you take into consideration when opening a new franchise at a particular outlet?
a. We are targeting the upper middle class and are an affordable premium Preschool, hence demographics plays a very important role in deciding a location.
7. Education is a very niche and sensitive sector. What is it that one should have when considering to take Safari Kid franchisee?
a. There are three qualities we look for in our prospective partners
1) Passion for Education, they must believe and also strive towards making a positive difference to each and every child that enrolls at our center.
2) Patience, The return on investment is slower than most sectors but the lifecycle of the business is very high. When a new center opens it might not enroll to maximum capacity in first year or in some cases second year too. Patience and persistence plays a very important role, we select partners who can storm too such periods.
3) Financial Bandwidth is very important most business fail because of bad financial planning. We expect our partner to plan their cash flows based on the models we provide to ensure smoother operations.
8. What is the kind of investment required by a new franchise?
a. Total Investment – Rs 15,00,000/-
b. Area Required – 2500+ sq ft (Excluding outdoor play area)
c. Preferred Location – Metros, Mini Metros, Satellite towns
d. Return on Investment (in percentage)- 45% to 50%
e. Expected break even time (in months/ years)- 18 months
9. What kind of training and support is provided to the new franchisees?
a. We have an initial on site training for a week, which is followed by training through videos and manuals. The training and support continues through skype sessions even after we certify the pilot batch to operate the center.
10. What are the challenges likely to be encountered by a franchisee? How can these be encountered?
a. Apart from franchising industry being unorganized, changing mindset of the partners / prospective partners is the biggest challenge. Most budding entrepreneurs and investors look at education solely as lucrative business but forget the essence of education sector, that is, to make a difference to each and every child.
Quality control is the biggest challenge in any franchise based business, all successful organizations have managed to sort this issue at a very early stage in their growth cycle and find new methods to continuously to maintain quality.
Safari Kid has a defined mechanism to control quality at each and every center and most of the prospective partners find it astonishing that we are able to replicate the same learning environment across all our centers crossing all barriers of host location culture. Some partners dislike the fact that Safari Kid corporate office controls quality and has surprise quality check visits not only to supervise the premises that quality of teaching and student or parent interaction.
11. What are your views on this sector?
a. Biggest problem education system faces is that, the government regulates this sector and they don’t change education programs for years together. The same is true even for most preschools though privately run. In today’s day and age where the world is changing so quickly around us why cant education programs keep pace with it. Preschools still emphasize either on book-based curriculum or on social and emotional development, most schools try to put them in a mold rather then help them realize their own talent, potential and individuality. Our curriculum is upgraded every year in tune with the latest research available in child development. The curriculum of Safari Kid is not just limited to exchange of knowledge but teaching children how to apply their knowledge.