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and fulfilling service as well as a sustainable revenue stream. Overall, competitive sports are the most popular among children, with football at the top of the list for children aged between 11-15. Here, brands include Premier Education which requires a £24,950 minimum investment and regularly partners with schools. The Little Foxes Club similarly offers sports coaching, with a minimum investment of £14,950. While BabyBallers instils a love of football in children as young as 16 months, with a total investment of £9,995 + VAT. Swimming is also highly popular, especially among younger children who are learning to take to the water for the first time. As a result, there are numerous franchised swimming schools operating across the UK who are actively recruiting franchisees. This includes Angela’s Swim School (£22,000 minimum investment), Aquababies, (£5,000 minimum investment), Turtle Tots (£13,000 minimum investment), and Water Babies (£5,000 minimum investment). Aside from these sports, alternative physical activities like skateboarding, dancing, and fishing have piqued the interest of children up and down the country. Brands like Diddi Dance (£4,995 minimum investment) and Children Inspired by Yoga (£10,000 total investment) are leaning into this interest. Artistic ventures There’s substantial scientific evidence to show that creativity is an important factor in nurturing imagination, problem solving, self-expression, confidence, and good mental wellbeing in children. As a result, parents are generally keen to pay for extra-curricular enrichment activities. However, considering the cost of living crisis, luxuries such as extra-curricular activities may be the first thing to go from people’s budgets. Yet, this won’t necessarily be the case considering that fees for these services are often lower than other businesses operating in the industry. Franchise brands in the creative space often offer one-hour classes and clubs, which means franchisees are usually able to take on flexible working patterns that enable them to adapt their schedules around other life commitments. This has made artistic franchises a particularly popular investment with working parents and others with caring responsibilities. Artistic franchise investment opportunities currently include ARTventurers (£5,000 minimum investment), Bricks 4 Kids (£25,000-£50,000 minimum investment), Crayola Imagine Arts Academy (£76,000-£205,000 total investment), Cook Stars (£6,995 minimum investment) and Engino (£20,000 minimum investment). Meanwhile, performing arts franchises are also keen to expand across the UK, and this includes Footlight Theatre School Academy (£3,995-£13,250 minimum investment), Monkey Music (£12,975 minimum investment), and Stagecoach (£9,000 minimum investment). Academic Big emphasis has been placed on tutoring businesses over the past few years. In 2022, the UK government announced the education recovery plan which aimed to bring children back up to speed following the pandemic. This included an almost £5 billion investment, which comprised £1.5 billion specifically for tutoring. If anything, focus here emphasised the importance franchise brands could have in this space, particularly as children’s services businesses often thrive off securing public contracts. For franchisees, tutoring is an ideal option for those who perhaps enjoy elements of teaching but need the flexibility that working in a school, or even as a supply teacher, just can’t offer. Some franchise options enable franchisees to work with individual children on a home- based basis, such as Choice Home Tutoring (£21,000 + VAT). Meanwhile others like Kumon UK (£3,000 minimum investment), Mathnasium (£40,000 minimum investment), and Eye Level (£8,000 minimum investment) have a big high street presence whereby groups of children attend educational centres with a uniformed team of tutors on hand. “Considering the cost of living crisis, luxuries such as extra-curricular activities may be the first thing to go” 14 WHAT FRANCHISE | ISSUE 19.3