Picture Perfect
Starting a business becomes an art form for one franchisee.
For the artistically impaired, the idea of standing before a
room full of students and teaching the finer points of art can be
intimidating—especially if your last formal attempt at a
masterpiece was the time you took your favorite crayon to the
living room wall. Christy George, a stay-at-home mom from Marietta,
Georgia, had never considered herself an artist. Now, armed with a
KidzArt training certificate and a desire to work with
children, George, 33, is finally fulfilling her entrepreneurial
dream.
Searching the Web for part-time franchise opportunities, George
stumbled across KidzArt, which promotes creativity and
self-confidence by teaching drawing and other forms of art to kids
of all ages. Even though she was immediately intrigued by the idea
of working with children and liked the low $12,000 start-up fee,
she still took three months to make a decision. After some due
diligence uncovered not only a lack of enrichment programs for the
kids in her area, but also overwhelmingly positive feedback from
everyone she talked to, George purchased the franchise in June
2003.
Although her business is fairly new, George is already reaping
the financial and emotional rewards. "Before I started, I
heard what the possibilities were and what the kids could get out
of it," she says. "But now that I'm doing it, I
witness it myself, and it's just amazing." The KidzArt
classes were so popular that George began expanding her business
only two months after teaching her first class. In addition to
offering classes at local schools and recreation centers, George
now offers KidzArt for Seniors classes at senior-care centers. She
is also targeting home-schooled children by advertising through
several home-school networks' newsletters and Web sites. George
employs four people, including her husband, Houston, 31, to help
her teach the art classes and run the franchise.
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George projects 2004 sales to be close to $60,000, but she's
just as excited about the other benefits of her business.
"It's worthwhile," she says. "It's an
enrichment program for myself, not just for the kids. I'm
getting a lot out of it, too, because I see what I'm doing in
helping these kids."