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Is a franchise for me?

Is a franchise for me?

The typical week of a Kumon franchisee

Our franchisees develop each and every child to study advanced material using our Kumon worksheets. One could say they are similar to a coach or a mentor for children's education.

Our recommendation is to put as much time as possible into growing your business, both during and outside of centre hours. As a general rule, Kumon franchisees can keep their own hours and are able to work around family commitments. For candidates with young families, we suggest keeping in mind that Kumon centres operate from about 3.30 - 7.00pm in the evening.

Each new Kumon centre is required to open four days per week in a commercial venue. Candidates should be available during these hours in order to be considered. Some existing centres are currently open two days per week. These centres will change to four days upon take over by a new franchisee.

In addition to centre opening hours, Kumon franchisees allocate time to preparing students' work for class. This may take longer in the first year, as experience is gained. There are also many opportunities for professional development including monthly seminars, ongoing training, and working with consultants to develop the business. It will also be necessary to study various levels of worksheets in the first year. This could take up to a month of full working days.

Below are some videos of our franchisees describing what a typical week is like for them:

Tim - joined Kumon October 2011

Andrea - joined Kumon October 1997

Rovi - joined Kumon September 2010

Rovi Ravida

My Centre is open on four days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Tuesdays and Fridays are my busy days so we stay open until 7pm. On Mondays and Thursdays I close at 5pm. I tend to arrive at my Centre at midday and spend the first hour calling, texting and emailing parents who have had queries about their children, as well as making appointments to see parents and discuss their children's progress. In the next hour, I do my paperwork and meet with my senior assistants. Usually we will discuss students that I need to see that day, as well as staffing matters. My Centre opens at 2:30pm for our preschool students.

During Centre time, I observe my students and spend time with students that I have decided I need to monitor that day. On Mondays and Thursdays after my Centre closes, I hold information sessions for new and prospective parents, conduct diagnostic assessments of my new students, and meet existing parents who have scheduled appointments.

I leave Wednesdays free to run errands and work on my business. Once a month on a Wednesday I attend our monthly professional development meeting, where I learn the latest information and equip myself with new techniques to instruct children. This is also a time to network with my franchise colleagues and learn from them.

It is important that I analyse my Centre and student cases to keep improving. I regularly do this together with my Franchise Development Consultant and I am also participating in voluntary professional development programs such as study groups and mentoring programs. These activities let me focus on the important parts of running a Centre and make my life easier on a day-to-day basis.

Occasionally, I will spend time out of hours promoting my business in the local community. Sometimes I hold a stall at local community events and share information about Kumon. I also go to the local library to continue to build the strong relationship I have with library staff.

I'm a father of four kids and my wife works full time, so we really need that flexibility in our daily lives. With this flexibility I can take my kids to school every day and participate in school activities such as sport and music. We leave weekends free for family time. We're very active in our church so we give our weekend time to our church choir.

Being a Kumon franchisee is a full time job, as developing my students and my business takes time and effort. However, it is a job that gives me the flexibility I need for my family and the satisfaction of giving something to my local community as well.

Lucy - joined Kumon August 2012

Lucy Leng

What's great about Kumon is that my working hours are flexible. I can choose to work at night, which fits around my family commitments. I often work between 9pm and midnight, but I know that because I am not bound to be in the office from 9 to 5, I can choose to attend my kids' school events during the day without having to take time off or sneak out from the office. When my kids are sick, it is not a problem to me, as I can be at home with them and still get some work done too.