April 2014
| Business World Magazine | 71
cash, and the ability to finance the rest of
what’s typically an upfront cost of $500,000
to get a business started.
“We look at owner-operators,” he said.
“The perfect franchisee, if there’s such a
thing as perfection, is a husband and wife
where the wife is going to go ahead and work
at the center and run the center and the hus-
band is going to maintain his job somewhere
else, or vice versa, and they don’t necessarily
need the income from the child-care center
because the husband, or the spouse, is going
to provide income to put food on the table
while they’re doing what’s right for the child-
care center to develop.”
As for the future, Weissman is expecting
big things both through the advancement of
proprietary curriculum that’s taught at each
of the locations – as well as through expan-
sion overseas.
And within five years, he said, the com-
pany will have secured franchise agreements
in England, China, Mexico and the Domini-
can Republic, among other places.
“Five years from today, we will be a world
player,” he said. “We may not be the largest,
but we will be dominant in industry chang-
ing events. And that’s what we’re really fo-
cused on.”
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The Learning Experience
WHAT:
Chain of franchised child
development centers offering child
care, day care, kindergarten and pre-
school services
WHERE:
130 locations currently op-
erating; 70 more in various stages of
development process – 25 expected
to open by the end of 2014
WEBSITE:
Richard Weissman
