Scott Bradley is a native Texan who spent 35 years in sales and sales management with Fortune 50, medium sized corporation and privately held corporations throughout the United States. He was with Xerox Corporation for twenty-five years with broad responsibilities including sales, sales management, region as well as general manager for one of the largest business units in the US. Scott received his BBA from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas and MBA from The Booth Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago. He has been a franchise owner of three franchises including the geographic areas of Dallas, Richardson, Plano and Frisco since 2008 building an impressive customer base with positive revenue and profit growth annually. Scott and his wife share in the ownership of the business and participate in all management and operations responsibilities.
Kidokinetics represents a unique concept centered on health, physical fitness and sports for young children. The focus market includes children from age 18 months through elementary with age appropriate curriculum designed to build a life-long love of physical activity for both girls and boys. The program tailors its curriculum to meet all established guidelines for sports and fitness established by the major physical education authorities and associations in the US. The concept is simple as it is based on the premise children should have the opportunity to explore all avenues of fitness and sports with a foundation on fun, achievement of personal best in an environment which is non-competitive, inclusive and based on development of critical skills. The program is mobile which enables easy integration into all public and private schools as well as public associations and organizations specializing in care for young children.
My relationship began with Kidokinetics when reading an article about the company in 2007. After learning more about the organization, I conducted a site visit to the corporate location to see the program in action as well as meet the developer and owner of the newly launched franchise organization. Contracts were signed with official ownership of the initial franchise location in Dallas in early 2008.
This is covered in the bio but my primary experience is sales, marketing and general management. While interested in the mission associated with this enterprise my experience in the field of children’s physical education and sports was limited.
The primary advantage for me was the fact the opportunity was ground floor. In my opinion I saw the franchise as a whole one which could be flexible, expandable and adaptable with a great deal of room to integrate my business experience into developing a robust business enterprise in an unlimited market. When I viewed the overall mission of the organization I felt there was significant room for expansion of programs, product and expertise in a field which is highly visible due to the state of children’s health and fitness in the US. I also recognized a business model, if managed correctly, could be relatively exempt from economic downturn primarily due to parents sacrificing many discretionary expenses prior to reducing money spent on their children.
There are many successful franchise opportunities. I am not sure I have an ideal one to benchmark. In our industry I believe we are the benchmark. I don’t spend much time thinking about other franchise opportunities but believe the ones that have sustainability are the ones which have well established missions plus offer the franchisees relatively unlimited freedom in developing their markets based on local intelligence, economic factors and personal creativity combined with solid business experience.
My belief is that our product has unlimited growth potential as long as we focus on the base mission and do not lose sight of what is happening in the markets we participate. The state of children’s health in this country is embarrassing and mostly due to lack of information, lack of opportunity to create change, the emerging trends regarding access by children to electronic stimulation, the reduction of budget for physical education in schools, the emphasis on competition versus respect for exercise/fitness and the increased trends in both bullying and childhood obesity. Focus on fitness and exercise begins well before children enter elementary school. The increased numbers of dual income parents results in children being in the care of a broad range of early childhood learning facilities. Organizations, both preK as well as elementary are open to programs which enable knowledgeable resources to assist them with physical education development and also with integration of sports activities which are non-competitive in nature but focus on critical skills development to assist in the educational learning process.
I have learned that networking, resource utilization, partnerships with industry experts are all critical. Leadership and consistency combined with patience is essential. Creativity and understanding the market is key to growth. Industry partnerships to enhance the value of the brand and also provide credibility to the product go a long way to establishing a value add proposition to customers. In a well established franchise I believe there must be great opportunities for idea sharing and networking and I look forward to the day we have greater numbers of franchisees in which to share experiences and knowledge.
My mentors are business associates from all walks of experience. Networking with successful business owners is important to me and my vast experience in the business world has enabled me to develop many great relationships for that purpose.
Anyone interested in business ownership, particularly franchise ownership, must have excellent business knowledge. While a candidate does not have to come from a sales background it is essential they understand the success of the business will be directly related to the ability to grow, adding new accounts and revenue. My revenue when starting this business was zero. It will not come from the name of from the franchisor….it will come from the franchisee that recognizes every market has many options. Being able to present our business model in a professional manner consistently will assist in growing revenue quickly. Depending on customers to knock without being highly proactive in the sales initiative will only delay revenue growth for any owner. Due diligence is important to understand the competitive landscape in any market and evaluating all aspects of the product we offer to determine potential by market segment is time consuming, but very important. Having liquidity will eliminate the financial pressures. Our product will deliver excellent profit ratios but understanding that customer prospects developed this year may not result in revenue producing opportunities for one or more years is very important. My personal experience would say a three year operating capital cushion is a reasonable goal prior to initiating a start-up business.
Kidokinetics is an excellent opportunity for an individual with a passion for owning their own business combined with a great understanding of the state of children’s fitness and health in the US. The opportunity is even greater for an enthusiastic, informed individual who is great at networking as well as creating excitement regarding the many products we have to sell versus our competition. It can be an exciting enterprise even with the small numbers of franchisees but will even be a better opportunity with consistent franchise growth.
