Unlocking Success: The Benefits of Franchising with Le Village Co.

What is a franchise and what does it mean to franchise with Le Village Cowork?

Franchising by definition is a joint venture between a franchisor and a franchisee. The franchisor is the original business. It sells the right to use its name and ideas, processes and protocols. The franchisee buys the right to sell the franchisor's goods or services under an existing business model, their business formulas and their trademark. Franchisees voluntarily agree to operate the business according to the rules and boundaries that the franchisor has set.

Franchising with Le Village means that you are buying into our brand and our company. We, in turn, agree to share our trade secrets with you and coach you on the industry best practices and the hard lessons that we have learned over the years.

Often, I hear, “Wow! What an amazing concept! I can’t believe that no one has thought of this before!” I usually just smile and say thank you, but the reality is that many people have thought of this concept before but have not been able to figure out the formula to make it actually work and make it profitable. They close up and disappear. But that’s not Le Village. We have done it. We survived a pandemic as a startup and fought to create the industry from the ashes of a workforce in distress. We listened. We learned. We made hard choices. We pivoted and tried again. And we came out on top. What you are buying is the secret to how we did it. Think of it like our Big Mac Sauce.

There are a lot of ingredients that make up this sauce. Some of the measurements are small—but without them, the business doesn’t work. Without every ingredient of the secret sauce, the margins start to go sideways or the membership goes south and your work/life balance goes down the toilet. We will teach you what this is.

Franchising with Le Village means we are also committing to teach you and to be with you as you take on the mammoth task of opening and nurturing this small business. One of the first challenges is identifying the right location. Whether you choose to purchase a building or if you choose to lease—we are going to make sure that you find a property that fits within the margins—within the margins of your business/life, and within the margins of your financial situation. We will coach you on how to hire the best teachers and build out a space that is cost effective but still appealing. We will teach you how to foster a love of learning through our creative curriculum and how to create a culture of supportive families. If you’ve ever said—“well I think I’d be great at this part of owning a business but I’m not sure how to do this part”, we will fill in those gaps and help you overcome them. We are here to be the navigational beacons.

We will also provide you with documentation to easily* support your Le Village space. The documentation that Le Village franchisees receive is to make their businesses as turn-key as possible. Consider this document and then calculate the amount of hours and expertise that would go into creating each one of these documents—some hundreds of pages long. Do you want to create that from scratch? (Of course not or you wouldn’t be considering opening a franchise!) How much would you pay someone else to draft these documents? Everything will be given to you—you don’t have to recreate administrative docs, legal contracts, marketing plans, branding or graphic designs. You will have it all at your fingertips. Hundreds of documents and pages organized for ease of use to coincide with training to make sure our leaders are ready when their doors open.

Franchising with Le Village Cowork also means that you get access to our growing network. In 2024 Le Village will be the brand name in the Midwest that coincides with the phrase — “coworking and childcare” and our first franchisees will be a part of the wave of powerful women to take this concept to market.

We will be synonymous with parent-centered coworking spaces and working actively to define excellence within this industry—-and of course be taking market share while we are at it. The leaders you go to market with will not be your competitors but rather your colleagues and your friends. There is enough need for all of us to thrive.

In turn—you agree to this partnership. To me, a franchise is the replication of an idea mastered through articulated processes to create excellence. The benefit of me having franchisees vs corporate ownership is that we have passionate leaders that have literally “bought in” to the success of each location. They are a part of their community and understand the nuances that come with it in a way that corporate management could only ever get a piece of. The risk of franchising is losing the pieces of our brand that make us…us. Losing the things that set us apart. To me that’s a loss of process. And that would come from a lack of trust and a lack of buy-in. Folks that don’t believe there is in fact a secret sauce and don’t want to adhere to the methodology that we have set forth.

When you buy a franchise, you buy a built-in group of mentors and leaders that have lived it. You inherit a team of people that you can trust—because even though your company is your own—your success is our success. And in turn—your failure is our failure. No one wants that. So you agree to listen and learn. You agree to trust our processes and procedures and to buy into them. You understand that there are methods to our madness and there is a reason for our jam packed membership, reasons we have multiple locations, and reasons we have multiple franchisees. Ultimately it all comes back to our secret sauce and maintaining the processes and points important to making sure it’s always amazing.

Franchising is ultimately a kind of partnership where you own the majority of your business and your profits, but I own the company. It’s your location, but my company and my brand. You play in my league and I’m the commissioner—but you are the owner of your team. I’m Roger Goodell and you’re Jerry Jones. Jerry is a multimillionaire but he still plays by Roger’s rules. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea—I get it. If you are sitting here going—“I could probably figure this out.” Or—“I don’t mind the crushing amount of time, energy and soul it takes to create a brand from scratch. I’d love that!” By all means! Have at it! I’ll see you out there! But if you are thinking—“I’d love to build upon a solid foundation of knowledge. I’d love leadership that’s in the know while still collecting a majority of my business’ profits. I’d love to be a part of a team working to build something together!”

Then let’s chat more. I think you could be an amazing Le Village owner.

--Daniella