What You Need to Know About Children’s Products and Services Franchising in Canada

Ensuring their children lead happy, healthy and safe lives is the most important thing for parents. This parenting priority means a lot of lucrative business opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs. Purchasing a franchise dedicated to children’s products and services can lead to a lifetime of work making a real difference in the lives of children.

Daycare

Daycare is probably the most well-known of children’s services and it always has high demand. In Canada, according to an IBISWorld Report, the daycare industry is worth $8 billion and it grew by 4% annually between 2011 and 2016. Nearly 13,750 individual businesses employ over 133,379 people in the industry.

With more women continuing to enter the workforce and government subsidies at both the federal and provincial level being given to families for childcare, this is an industry that will continue to see rapid growth, IBISWorld says.

Education

Supplemental education is a booming service in Canada, as parents try to give their kids a leg up in a competitive world. Anything related to science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) is popular nowadays, along with reading, music and physical fitness.

While some supplemental education franchises are meant to complement ongoing education, others are meant to start before a child’s regular schooling begins to give them a head start in school. A report by the now-defunct Canadian Council on Learning said that as many as two-thirds of Canadian children had received some kind of tutoring or supplemental income back in 2007. A search for supplemental education franchises in Canada brings up a number of business opportunities available now.

Fitness

It’s an unfortunate truth that children just aren’t as active as they used to be. Obesity rates in Canadian children have nearly tripled in the past 30 years and although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which studies childhood obesity across North America, has stated that rates have leveled off in recent years, that still includes 13% of Canadian children.

But chubby children can be a business boon to the right entrepreneur. Children’s fitness franchises offer a place for kids to be active and have fun in a safe environment. If you love kids and like seeing them healthy and happy, a children’s fitness franchise might be a good fit.

Other Types of Franchises

Although general care, education, and fitness are the main types of children’s franchises, you can also cater to kids in a number of other ways, such as:

• Children’s party stores
• Party planning and execution
• Inflatable party equipment
• Children’s photography
• Child ID and safety
• Baby equipment
• Toys

And, of course, for every service that caters to adults, there is a child-size version. There are hair dressing shops and clothing retail chains that cater specifically to children. You can even find lice removal franchise opportunities in Canada that target kids.

What You’ll Need

To run a successful children’s franchise, you’ll need to love working with and helping children. Even if you aren’t directly involved with the day-to-day running of the business, you should still really want to help children with their development.

Patience is another virtue that is required when working with kids. Along with that, you’ll need the ability to go with the flow when unexpected things happen, as they will with kids, and the ability to laugh at yourself when things get a little silly.

As you’d expect, working with kids will bring a lot of scrutinizing, so be prepared to go under the microscope, so to speak, for background checks. Obviously, this goes for any staff you hire, as well. There are also a lot of certifications that you and your employees will need to get when working with kids. Check with your provincial government for a list of certificates you’ll require.

Funding and Location

Children’s franchises can go from relatively inexpensive for a simple photography franchise to the substantial if you want to open a supplemental learning centre or children’s fitness franchise. You’ll want to be located in a place that has a lot of children, obviously, but when deciding on a location, also consider how the neighbourhood is changing. It might have a lot of children in it now but is it attracting retirees or couples with older children who are ready to move out? You should be looking for neighbourhoods that have a lot of young families with young children moving into them. Most franchises will lend a helping hand with market research like this.

Much like how children have school homework you will also have homework to do when deciding what franchise to buy. If you love working with children, though, and want to feel the satisfaction of having played an important role in their lives, a children’s franchise might be the right fit for you. To find the perfect children’s franchise, sign up for a free FranNet franchise search and consultation.