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EXPERT ADVICE: Doug Downer | Franchise Ready
Products and Services to benefit our Children Imagine having 380,000 more customers coming into your marketplace every year, with an existing marketplace made up of over 5 million existing customers. In Australia over 300,000 babies are born each year whilst New Zealand welcomes over 60,000 new babies each year, add to this the migration of children into these two countries of over 20,000 and this is an ever-growing market, Australia and New Zealand are enormous markets in terms of the children’s sector. It’s often said that any business that services the children’s products and services sector is a good one to be associated with. Some corporates come under criticism for marketing their products and services to this sector and some will blame parents for the choices they make when it comes to their children. Thankfully the franchise sector has taken a responsible approach to creating business opportunities within this sector and in so doing has supported parents and their decision making and provided invaluable products and services to benefit children. Within our business at Franchise Ready we are fortunate to work across all industry sectors and are proud to have launched and supported over 85 brands to grow through franchising but those that give us the greatest sense of pride and satisfaction are those that make a difference in the lives of children. “The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to.” Marian Wright Edelman Providing excellent quality products and services to children just makes sense, after all what parent doesn’t want the best for their children? When we look at this sector and specifically the clients that we work with that have an offering in this sector, we are fortunate to have clients and brands that service children and their families from birth through to adolescence.
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Doug Downer an experienced Business Developer and Coach with an impressive 30+ year senior management history in developing and leading businesses within the Franchising sector. He has been recognised in the Top 30 Franchise Executives in Australia in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and in the Top 100 Global Influencers in Franchising in 2022. Doug owns five franchises as a franchisee and has been responsible for the establishment of three start-up franchise systems including all aspects from strategy through to market entry. Doug has operated at CEO and Director level in eight franchise systems. He also started, owns, and operates five successful SME Businesses of his own, so he is well versed in all aspects of franchising.
The clients that we work with follow the adage of Benjamin Franklin’s quote “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, Involve me and I learn”. That is the key to engaging children and helping them to love the activities that they undertake, do this and you should have a sound business.
It starts at the beginning The most important years in a child’s development are from birth to age five. Children’s experiences and relationships that are formed during these years determine how their brain develops. In fact, by the time children reach age five, 90% of a child’s brain is already developed. Preschool is the perfect place for your child to build the connections needed for healthy development and a successful future. For many families having your children attend childcare or early learning centres provides the perfect environment for developmental growth but many of these centres have very little substance to their curriculum or pedagogy as it is known within the early childhood sector. As parents we have an expectation that these carers will do just that, provide high quality care to our children, this should be a given. There is one organisation in the market that does so much more than this, MindChamps Early Learning and Preschool. MindChamps started as a research centre right here in Sydney in 1998 before taking their findings to Singapore – one of the
The formative years or the “ early stages of childhood are between 0-8 Years of a child’s life where they learn more quickly than at any other time in life.
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most demanding educational systems in the world – to measure their unique teaching and learning approach against the traditional models. MindChamps holds the number one position in the Premium pre-school market in Singapore and in 2017 they returned to Australia to benefit Australian children with their break-through philosophy and pedagogy by incorporating the ‘3-Mind Movement’ and use of the four domains of education, neuroscience, psychology and theatre into its curriculum. The MindChamps point of difference is their dedication to helping each and every child realise and unlock their true potential by teaching them learning foundations and the love of learning. An early education business is financially rewarding with significant government subsidies that makes childcare more affordable for all families which assists with optimising occupancy and ultimately profitability. All business owners want the opportunity to build equity in an asset that can be sold at some point in the future, the beauty of the Childcare sector is that the business value multiples of earnings is higher than every other franchise opportunity in the market, so
