Running your own successful business is always going to require some hard work and it may not be the first thing you think of if you’re looking for flexible working. And when you have other responsibilities such as caring for someone (be they children, an elderly relative or a loved one with poor health), it can seem like an impossible dream.
After all, don’t you have to be master of everything, from marketing and sales, to admin and management, as well as putting in long hours?
Although the above may be true for some businesses and start ups, if you really do want to run and grow your own successful business, there is one business model that gives you the opportunity of flexible working - and that’s an educational franchise.
If you haven’t come across one before, a franchise exists when someone establishes a successful business (the franchisor) and then licenses its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its business model, brand, and rights to sell its services to a franchisee.
In return the franchisee pays certain fees and agrees to comply with certain obligations. In short, franchising offers business ownership, but with the security of a proven system and a strong support network.
In our case, we’ve been providing private tuition in one form or another since the 1970s. During that time, we’ve perfected all aspects of our business. And that includes not just the services we provide, but our marketing, branding and sales, and our internal procedures.
In 2004, we realised if we shared our experience and knowledge, others could replicate our success. So, we started to refine and improve what we did and put it in a format which is easily accessible to others.
Our first franchised Tuition Centre opened in September 2007 (and is still running today) and there are now MagiKats Principals in the UK, Middle East and Australia.
We understand our market, what works well and what needs to be done in order to succeed and we’ve packaged that knowledge in an easy to access, off the shelf format. Everything is documented and ready to go.
As the name suggests, an educational franchise is a franchise that provides services or goods in the education sector. Our franchise provides private tuition in maths, English and reasoning to children aged 5 to 16.
With increased pressure on schools, increasing class numbers and greater pressure on children, the demand for private tuition has never been greater. But with so many private tutors charging prohibitive fees, there’s also an ever-increasing demand for affordable tuition. We meet that demand.
What’s more, because we provide small group tuition in a workshop setting, it allows you, the franchisee, huge flexibility. You can set the times for the workshops (provided they are reasonably sensible) and can decide how many you want to hold a week. You can also decide how hands-on you want to be in the workshops or whether you want to leave the actual tutoring to the mentor in charge.
That means, you have almost complete flexibility of where, when and how much you work! You can choose to run just one Tuition Centre or you can choose to expand and manage a whole network of centres. And you can adapt your business to fit both your lifestyle and your own unique business goals.
But it’s not all about time. As a carer, you may have limited financial resources and an even more limited capacity for risk. Starting your own business normally means a significant financial outlay as well as considerable financial uncertainty and risk. But not so with a franchise.
You do have fees to pay of course, but you know what they are upfront, so there are no hidden nasties or unexpected costs. What’s more, with a tried and tested business concept, you can be much more confident about making a decent income within a reasonable period of time. We can even recommend ways to finance your business to help get you started.
Another significant disadvantage of running your own business is the time you need to spend on the business. You normally need to research and understand your market and what they like and don’t like. You need to develop a recognisable brand.
You then need to develop and implement a successful marketing and sales strategy and ensure you have the processes in place in your business to ensure success and growth.
Conducted from scratch and on a trial and error basis, all of these things can take a huge amount of time and money, with no guarantee of success. With a good franchise however, all that hard work is done for you, allowing you more time to spend on what matters to you.
Better still, you have the support of our experienced team, who you can turn to for advice and “know how” when you need it. Our team will help you develop your business, a bit like having your own mentor or consultant. We also provided comprehensive and valuable training.
An educational franchise allows you to build a successful and profitable business whilst helping mould the future of children and teenagers. And MagiKats is in the top 100 of all franchises in the UK, making it a great choice.
Running your own tutoring business offers a chance to take that spark started by getting involved in home-schooling and making a difference to children in your local community.
Had we delayed the decision to develop our new system and/or had our franchisees not embraced the change, then we could not have continued during lockdown. So, we have to thank the technology, the people, the timing – because we are still here!
If you are thinking about a change of career, there’s every chance that you probably also want to find a new job where you still use some of your skills.
MagiKats Tuition Centres – making the business work remotely for kids, parents and would-be franchisees.
This is a question we get asked a lot. So, we asked three of our Principals about why they chose MagiKats and about their experience of running a MagiKats educational franchise.
Sarah Marsh from Magikats talks about what makes a good Tuition Centre Principal.
Hear from Sarah Marsh, Founder of MagiKats as she talks about running an Educational Franchise.
To help potential franchisees make that final leap towards working with Magikats, they have put together their top five questions to ask before buying a franchise.
The MagiKats programme has been designed to support work being done in school.
If you want a career that helps kids in your local community get succeed in education, then MagiKats is a good place to start.
MagiKats provides you with all the know how and materials you need to set up your own MagiKats Tuition Centre.
In any group of children, there are so many different interests and abilities. MagiKats helps all my students work with materials that are relevant, interesting, and at an appropriate level.Tim Capner, MagiKats Franchisee
I love MagiKats as it gives me lot of flexibility to design specific programmes for varying types of students, their capabilities and requirements.Shruti Pednekar, MagiKats Franchisee
As an ex-teacher, I find the MagiKats work comprehensive, written to a good standard and accessible to the students.Julie Sleightholme, MagiKats Franchisee
Enjoy the fun and challenge of running your own profitable business with all the hard work involved in setting it up done for you.
Enjoy a great work life balance.
Enjoy the safety and reassurance of having well organised business materials, advice and training behind you, as well as the support of people who care about your success.