To join Building Kidz as a franchisee, you will progress through a mutual evaluation process. Basically, you want to determine if we’re a good fit for you considering the business, the people, the expectations, and the investment, and we want to make sure that we believe you’ll be able to operate successfully in our system. We break this down into several steps so that both you and we can receive the information needed to make informed decisions at the right time in the process. Of course, we can deviate from this as needed to accommodate schedules or if there are threshold matters we need to address sooner in the process for your comfort. Schedules, document review, validation calls, and candidate readiness all affect the pace. The order below is the normal path from first inquiry to a franchise award decision.
Once you fill out the form below, you’ll receive an email, and someone from our team will also reach out in the next day or two; this means you can go through the initial prequalification process yourself or with one of our staff. If you review the email and believe you meet the initial threshold qualifications, you can schedule the Step 2 call. If we do not hear from you, someone from our team will follow up, have a brief introductory call, and then help calendar the Step 2 conversation.
Prequalification is intentionally brief. The team will want to understand your interest in the brand, your general financial readiness, your expected time commitment, and whether you are prepared for the active ownership role Building Kidz requires.
The Program Review is a deep dive into the Building Kidz opportunity. During this conversation, a team member will explain the business model, the history of the brand, the kind of candidate Building Kidz is looking for, and the overall mutual evaluation process. We will also go through our points of differentiation, both on the education side and the business side of our franchise offering. After the Program Review, we will send you video and PDF resources that revisit these differentiators for your review.
Once you have reviewed and considered the information we sent after the Program Review, you should schedule your Q&A call. This call may be short or detailed depending on the questions you have after reviewing the introductory materials. The purpose is to clear up initial questions before moving deeper into the franchise relationship and legal review process.
The agenda for this call is limited: we will brief you on the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) before we send it out. The FDD is an extensive legal disclosure document that all franchise candidates should read carefully. It includes information about the franchisor, fees, obligations, financial performance representations, the franchise agreement, and current franchisees. At the end of this call, you will receive the FDD.
The Executive Introduction is triggered when we send you the FDD, but it is not dependent on your having reviewed the document. Rather, this step is your first opportunity to interact directly with brand leadership, giving both you and Building Kidz meaningful insight into business culture alignment.
The FDD Review is a discussion of the disclosure document, the franchise agreement, key fees, opening requirements, obligations, and other important terms. You should complete an initial review of the FDD before this call so your questions can be addressed directly. Having said that, it is not possible to discuss the document without discussing the overall business, and the FDD Review call is often wide-ranging. This is not your only opportunity to have your FDD questions answered, just the first call focused primarily on the FDD. We can revisit the document as many times as needed as you continue to progress.
FDDs are transparent documents, so many franchise candidates do not engage counsel. They are also legal documents, so many candidates do have an attorney help them review the document. We are 100% fine with either decision. However, if you do decide to hire counsel, we strongly encourage you to select a franchise attorney. Franchise documents are specialized, and experienced franchise counsel can help you understand the agreement without treating normal franchise-system requirements as unusual.
Candidates who continue through the process participate in a Founders’ Call before franchisee validation begins. This conversation is generally conducted with one or two of the franchisor’s owners. The call helps the people responsible for the brand evaluate whether there is a strong cultural, financial, and vision fit.
This is also an important opportunity for you to ask questions. Those questions can be high-level, such as questions about the company’s history, ownership philosophy, and long-term goals, or they can get into ground-level details about the business and the franchise relationship. Building Kidz wants franchisees who can represent the brand well and contribute positively to the system over time.
After the Founders’ Call, validation gives you the opportunity to speak with existing Building Kidz franchisees. These conversations can help you understand the realities of ownership, what franchisees have learned, what they value about the system, and what questions you should still be asking before making a final decision.
The validation process begins only after a candidate has been vetted and is seriously engaged. Building Kidz is protective of existing franchisees’ time, so validation is managed in stages and followed by a discussion about what you learned.
As a final step, we may ask you to visit corporate headquarters, or you may request to do so, or we may have a final Confirmation Day virtually. Irrespective of the path, this is really our final check from both sides that we are aligned on a path forward.
At the conclusion of this process, our review committee will meet a final time, determine an award path, and we’ll communicate that to you. Assuming we have determined that awarding a franchise makes sense to us, we’ll want to make sure any of your final questions or concerns are answered. At that point we’ll prepare the franchise agreement for execution and prepare to start down this new path together!
Before beginning the process, it helps to gather a few items and ask yourself a few key questions so the early conversations are productive:
Fill out the inquiry form on this page or contact the franchise development team directly. The first conversation is the beginning of a mutual evaluation process, with each step designed to help you make a thoughtful and informed decision about Building Kidz ownership.