Expanding Into India and Mexico

The journey may be discouraging and frustrating at times, but persevere and your brand will soon surround the globe.

By Dori Roberts

Engineering For Kids has been and continues to be a journey filled with many lessons. Some lessons I learned the hard way, and some lessons were learned through research and the counsel of experienced franchisors. When we made the decision to step forward and expand globally, multiple international barriers arose to hinder our success. Honestly, having franchises around the globe felt like an unattainable dream at times. You may have fostered the same thought:  Could my brand go international? While embarking on the journey of building my brand, expanding into international franchising has proved to be one of the most important lessons learned in my career. In my adventure, which involved starting a small hometown business and in three short years expanding internationally, franchising has been daunting and time consuming. However, my experience tells me that if you’re considering expanding your franchise, it will prove to be your largest payoff. At the beginning of my exciting journey with Engineering For Kids, business expertise was not my stronghold. After graduating from college, my master’s degree in technology education led me to teach engineering at a local high school. I decided a successful business did not depend solely on business knowledge. I was motivated to learn everything I needed to know. I had passion for my product, perseverance to work through any difficulty and an idea that would change the world. India was selected as the location for our first international franchise. In hindsight, the country was an ideal location to begin learning our lesson. Going into this, franchisees understood our quirks and twists as our company developed and grew. By expanding to India in September 2012 and Mexico in May 2013, we soon realized the benefits and difficulties of growing our brand internationally. From the start, we saw a larger opportunity in what our company had to offer the world, but we also quickly realized there were changes the company would have to undergo. We were no longer a mere hometown business, but a movement that had the potential to grow and expand on an international level. Two of the largest barriers while working with India and Mexico included language and regional supply differences. We found two solutions which were implemented to reduce the barriers we experienced during our international expansion.  Barrier 1 — Language Differences Although India is a country of many languages, English is taught as a common language in its schools. As a franchising company offering educational programs, all of our curriculum manuals, teacher training videos, and teaching materials were written and published in English, so the language familiarity worked to our advantage. The language barrier in Mexico, however, was a stumbling block and brought a set of new problems. All manuals and materials would need to be translated. What solution would be most efficient, but also cost effective? Using a master franchise model allowed us to provide support and translated materials, including curriculum, manuals and marketing materials to future franchises in the region. Barrier 2 — Regional Supply Differences Engineering For Kids offers educational science, technology, engineering and math programs with specific and sometimes unique materials to present the programs correctly. In our case, some of the required materials were not readily available in India.  For example, one of our marine engineering lessons uses a vinyl rain gutter. The New Delhi master franchisee was unable to locate this item and requested a shipment of gutters.  We experienced high costs when shipping materials internationally and quickly realized that we would need to implement a change. After consulting with an international sales professional and the master franchisees, the curriculum was redesigned to use locally found materials to avoid the large shipping expenses. In another example, the standard quality for the marketing materials was considerably more difficult to obtain in Mexico. Franchisees were unable to access print shops domestic to the United States and were forced to print locally, receiving inadequate quality. Again we examined the problems with both the master franchisee and the international sales consultant to adapt our materials to better suit the culture and resources available in Mexico. Solution 1 — Work with an International Sales Consultant International sales consultants will understand the minute details when working in foreign business. They are knowledgeable in dealing with the language barriers, exchanges rates, tariffs and laws regulating international trade. Consultants will be skilled in math, economics (national and global) and finance. By working with them you are not only bringing in a wealth of global knowledge, but your company has invested in expertise and a resource for an international network.  Solution 2 — Adopt the Master Franchise Model Adopting the master franchise model can provide many benefits and some disadvantages. In my company, the advantages make the model worth the investment. Primarily, the model is used to expand exponentially with less initial capital risk. There are many forms of this model, but it will use the franchisee’s local knowledge and expertise of business to assist in developing your brand internationally. The master franchise would be responsible for marketing the brand according to standards and social norms in the region, as well as be required to recruit new sub-franchisees, and provide training and support to their territory. As we continue to expand internationally, these initial experiences will remain unforgettable adventures in the history of Engineering For Kids. When the idea of launching international franchises was first developed, feelings of reservation and excitement arose at the thought of my business beginning to expand globally. The greatest lessons are learned when you least expect them and although the journey may be discouraging and frustrating at times, continue to persevere and your brand will soon surround the globe.  

Dori Roberts is the founder and CEO of Engineering For Kids, which has 104 locations.  Find her at fransocial.franchise.org.