Business View - November 2014 69
two sides. That’s an important component of franchis-
ing in my personal operation philosophy.”
In some cases, Dahler said, the company does go
ahead and secure a location for a school in what it
considers an important market before coming to an
agreement with a franchisee. That has been the case
recently in Sacramento, Calif., where a franchisee will
be brought on during the construction process, or, if
an agreement isn’t reach, it will instead open up as a
corporate location.
Each franchisee agrees to sign on for 10 locations
apiece, she said, and the plan is to have agreements
in 40 markets across the U.S. – which would mean
400 individual schools. Master developments are also
being sold in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the
latter two because the education philosophies there
are similar to what’s found in the U.S. and other edu-
cation franchises have been successful.
Other potential international markets, however, are
not on the Little Sunshine’s radar, as of now.
“We get a ton of interest, for whatever reason, in mar-
kets like India,” Dahler said. “But those are markets
we’re really not interested in developing, mostly be-
cause of dollar-factor difference.
“It would be very difficult to be able to support those
developments with a corporate staff in America, on
American wages, making royalties in Indian wages.
We’re looking for a variety of different things. Coun-
tries that have a similar dollar value and countries that
have a similar education component are good match-
es for us.”
FRANCHISE
