Starting an abacus franchise - a must do checklist
Abacus training is one of the fastest growing Education industry that comes with various new opportunities. And for that reason, many brands are emerging everyday that all looks pretty much same if we see it from outside.
Mostly, you are likely to start the training at your neighbourhood. And the biggest investment is your goodwill. Then, you must make sure that the training which you provide should be the best among others to protect your goodwill. And its not merely a business, but a service that’s highly valued in the society.
If you are a passionate person willing to start your career in Abacus training, make sure you have the evaluated the key factors involved in it.
KEY FACTORS:
If you are a passionate person willing to start your career in Abacus training, make sure you have the evaluated the key factors involved in it.
1. ESTABLISHED BRAND
Identifying the Abacus franchise is the biggest challenge prior starting the training centre. Since, Abacus training is not a short term model, you must ensure that the franchisor or Abacus Education provider is into business for a considerable period of time. This is very much important since the duration of the Abacus course is normally more than two years, and if the provider has stopped their operations in the middle, your effort and goodwill is at stake.
So, it is very much important that you select a vendor who has excellent brand value that is not restricted to your locality, but on an International scale.
2. PROMPT SUPPORT
Most important factor in all training business. It is very much important to have a supportive team to ensure that all your queries are proactively listened and replied. This support should not be restricted in terms of initial training, but for constant upgrade, marketing, software support, continuous improvement of the syllabus, innovative measures etc.
Lac of support makes you fragile in all terms as you have to work for the business goals all alone, not as a team. There are few franchisors who provide 24 x 7 support, and have a dedicated system to listen and resolve the franchise enquiries.
If you want to make a software for the student practice, or if you need stylish brochures or flyers, or if you need an computer application to print more practice worksheets, or if you want to customise the online media advertisements, it requires lot of money and talent in your locality to do all these…but if you have a good franchisor who provide all these support without any extra cost, that is something awesome. More importantly, you feel yourself being a part of an innovative and supportive team.
The obvious question that might be in your mind is that how would you evaluate the support even before starting the franchise. The obvious answer to this one is that all International brands have provided the details of existing franchises in their website, and you can try calling few of them to seek the feedback of the franchisor’s feedback.
3. EFFECTIVE TEACHERS TRAINING
When you start abacus training, teachers training has a huge role. Especially, when you have no idea about how abacus works, how to perform abacus calculations and all. To be trained as an Abacus trainer, you don’t require years of training as the rules involved in Abacus is not that complicated. However, it requires at least a month time to get acquainted with the bead movements and the basic rules.
So, make sure when you choose the Abacus brand, they provide adequate teachers training to make things smoother for you.It is noted that most of the franchisors usually charge high fees for the teachers training, but this can be avoided if you select the reputed brands.
One last thing…. It is always good that if you can be one of the trainer yourself. This will gives you more confidence and control over the classes that you have started.
4. QUALITY STUDENT MATERIALS
The first impression does matters. Think about a scenario when students are given low quality student kit on Day 1. What is the impression that creates either to them and for the parents. Most of the Abacus vendors provides only an Abacus rod and few pinned worksheets as student kit. And guess what, they charge the same fees like other reputed organisations who provide quality student kits.
Most of the Internationally reputed Abacus vendors provide student kits that generally have an Abacus rod, quality printed text books, Abacus bag, Softwares, practice materials, Pencils and Erasers, Branded T-shirts etc. Few Abacus vendors go an extra mile and provide additional materials like registration to online learning portal, activity apps, non abacus educational games etc.
So, if you plan to start Abacus training, the least thing you can do is to check the student kit that the vendor provides.
5. LESS ROYALTY
There are many Abacus vendors who gives Abacus franchises without any royalty fee, instead they take a huge amount as ‘initial investment’. However, this is not a good practice, since the support you receive from the vendor may not be continued after you are awarded with the franchise. Whether you get more students or not, franchisor has taken the money initially and their support will be limited for that reason. The marketing is no longer a joined effort, instead you need to do this all yourself. Royalty is very much important in any franchising business, but make sure that it is considerable percentage only. Most of the leading Abacus vendors royalty fee is in the range of 10- 20%, and anything beyond that is not justified. At the end of the day, the franchise should gain from this.
6. TRANSPERENT FEE STRUCTURE
There are many ways franchisor can charge you fees. It is very important that all these things should be known before signing a franchise contract. Most of these fees are introduced in many names like- marketing kit fee, quarterly or annual maintenance fee, franchise renewal fee, teachers training fee etc etc. Though some cases it is justified, but the branded companies usually doesn’t charge anything extra. Why would you pay for the marketing material which is designed commonly for all franchise, not specifically for you. It is important to know all the fees types prior signing the contract. And if you have not understand anything particular in the manual, do not hesitate to ask the franchisor.
7. TECHNOLOGY IN OPERATIONS
Not directly related to training, but equally important to have easy franchise operations. It is important to have a student administration software or website where you can get all the soft materials, student registration, track student fee status, check royalty status, support articles etc.…..all in one place. Thing will help you to monitor the operations easily. So, make sure the brand you select have these features that counts. In simple terms, technology can ease your job to a greater extent, not different in Abacus education.
