Franchising details
Art-K teaches children artistic skills including drawing, painting, and 3D modeling.
Art-K believes that children need foundational artistic skills and techniques, from which they will grow in confidence and abilities.
Our manual contains the projects for all children aged 6 to 18 which reflects the different dexterity and cognitive ability in the different age groups. Each class has mixed age ranges, which means any age can join any session.
This means no student is working on the same project at the same time, creating a non-competitive environment.
The student has no deadline to complete a project within a certain time; the art teacher can encourage them to take some time experimenting with a technique without any time pressure.
Throughout the programme, art-K includes a wide variety of different artists, from masters to modernists, to inspire new ideas. Over time, students end up bringing more and more creativity and style to their projects as their confidence increases in their skills.
Customers
As classes grow, you will have art assistants helping to keep the teacher/child ratio at a maximum of 1 to 7 students. Art-K Franchisees actively communicate to the parents the detailed care and attention they give to their students, which is one of the primary reasons why students stay at a club for around 4 years. This is both rewarding the Franchisees – building long-term connections – as well as providing a growing income from the students’ fees.
Being in an educational space, like other children’s activities, the students’ fees are paid termly in advance; this creates a recurring revenue business model. It guarantees a place on a weekly basis for the students, and provides certainty for the Franchisee to plan for resources to deliver the classes. Each student is prepared for individually for each session, because every student is on their own individualised programme.
Maintaining High Quality
Franchisees buy high quality art materials from our ‘where to buy’ procurement lists. The majority of our supplies come from Jackson’s Art, who have created art-K branded products such as acrylic paints and canvases. Every art-K product bought through Jackson’s are discounted for franchisees, up to 65%.
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Location & Studio
art-K clubs are typically established in retail units or highly accessible offices or studios. As art-K uses a wide range of art materials and every student has a sketchbook, it means it isn’t feasible to go into temporary spaces.
The studios are therefore set up to use the space efficiently and conveniently for delivering art lessons; art-K will provide you with the information you need to make the best use of your studio space.
In the space, we use lighting that refracts the light to ensure the colour of the artwork is realistic. Art-K also has recently installed heating/cooling systems which are highly energy efficient, as well as improving the comfort of the environment in which you – and your students – work.
Franchisee’s Obligations
As a minimum, the Franchisee will run classes for 1.25 hours for 4 days a week after school and 2, 1.5 hour sessions on Saturday. Although the contact time with students is mainly afterschool, a lot of time is put into preparing for the sessions.
Most Franchisees also add a GCSE early evening class as well as Adult classes (separate Adult manual), variously through the week in the morning, afternoon and evening.
Child sessions are then expanding to two sessions after school on days which fill up. For example, some branches have 2 classes everyday afterschool and classes all day Saturday.
Eventually, you also can continue to grow clubs by bringing in part time teachers, to open classes up on days you cannot teach.
Fees
Working as an art-K Franchise means there is no fixed minimum monthly payment; instead there is a percentage fee on sales. This means that your success is our success- which aligns our interests in supporting the growth of your branch.
Summary
art-K is an activity that gives our Franchisees an exciting purpose in life and a motivation like never before. From our side, when a new Franchisee starts growing, we get excited seeing the output of more and more children enjoying the art-K projects, all in their own unique way.
Our programme is a way for our Franchisees to share their passion for the development of art in children.
Franchise costs and details
Training and support
Pre-Launch Support
Throughout the start-up process, art-K can provide contacts which we use ourselves for every direct club we have launched. These include solicitors, accountants and start-up loan providers.
There is no obligation to use these referrals, however these services have been sought out and tested by art-K HQ and therefore they have experience of art-K and its requirements.
Sourcing and finalising a studio lease is the main focus prior to the studio launch. art-K will support all Franchisees in finding the right area (through economic, population density, local services information and prior experience).
Once suitable options have been found, art-K has the right to approve or veto your studio location.
Once agreed, art-K can support and advise Franchisees on negotiating heads of terms (HoTs) and we are on-hand to advise help smooth the negotiation through solicitors and avoid onerous terms. Through negotiating over 20 leases ourselves, we can offer the required experience and advice.
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Initial Training Period
art-K kicks-off the initial training period with a 1 week course at our dedicated training space in Ashtead. This training is split between training on the creative side and training on the operational side.
On the creative side, the training focuses on learning – and creating - the projects in Manual 1 (of 3 manuals). Subsequent manuals 2 and 3 provide more projects for the same age ranges, the training for which is delivered at a later date. Also covered are:
- Techniques for behaviour management
- Child development progression
Within this week we also cover essential operational issues such as:
- Role play talking through typical customer queries
- Introduction to the booking system
- Child safeguarding
- Data protection
- Access to training modules on the Health and Safety & HR provider
- Introduction to marketing; subsequent training and development followed up on later
Ongoing Support
After the first week, you are invited to attend weekly live zoom ‘art mentor’ sessions to review the children’s art projects with the Creative Director. These sessions are normally in groups, where other art leaders in the early stage of their time with art-K are also participating.
It’s an encouraging and mutually supportive group with the Creative Director on hand to guide and assist. Interactions with parents and students are often topics of conversation.
Franchisees are also supported on an ad hoc basis on administration or business issues, via email or on the phone.
As the lease is agreed, the training is completed, finally the launch day approaches! This can be an exciting time, but also hard to remember everything that has been taught and referred to. art-K have a ‘launch day check list’ to spare you the worry that you’ve remembered everything, and provides step by step instruction to ensure everything in those early days runs smoothly and positive routines are established.
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