Picture: Lizette Uys from Buzz Highveld
Buzz Kidz in a nutshell
What does Buzz Kidz do? I could go into depth and detail but in one sentence: Child development through the arts! In 2022, we were 10 years old and we have worked with close to half a million children across South Africa, helping grow their social skills like confidence, communication, collaboration and critical thinking through our unique, 3-in-1, drama, dance and singing offerings.
Buzzing Products and Services… from then to now:
In 2012, our unique, 3-in-1 drama, dance and singing workshops were all independent. We used church halls and dance studios to deliver the service. We marketed via social media and online mom guide directories. Soon, schools took notice of us and we began offering exclusive extramurals in many of them!
Our unique use of the arts to enhance learning led to the development of teacher training courses (called Bring Learning Alive.) Schools, teachers and principals saw the value of a professional service like Buzz and we soon started buzzing as a part of the academic day in many schools across the country.
Since our inception, we have created and developed our own curricula and learning material – original music, stories, characters. A great value-add and our Unique Selling Point (USP). The music naturally led to the creation of our podcast and edutainment television programme for children.
As our team has the perfect skills set, we have always offered themed, interactive birthday parties for children as a secondary business, over the weekends.
At the heart of all our services is the Buzz Kidz promise to:
- Build confidence
- Boost social skills
- Be Creative and
- Get Buzzing!
A decade’s worth of success!
By 2018, we were Buzzing in more than 100 schools across South Africa. Although we were doing very well and doubling our revenue almost year on year, operating costs grew with the income and maintaining high quality on such a huge team was a challenge. Now that we had an established, successful brand, we looked around in “the market” that we were a part of and found that…
Every other brand, similar to Buzz, in the extramural market, were operating as Franchises.
From my years spent in the UK, I picked up a bad impression of Franchising. But when I interrogated my own biases about it, nearly a decade older and wiser, mine was not a well supported (or researched) opinion. It was simply one I had held for very long. My biggest worry was around quality control and the belief that franchising, quality is guaranteed to slip.
But we had a closer look and realised that as a centrally controlled one business, we were not exempt from these quality worries and woes. In fact, the notion that an OWNER is far more likely to outperform an EMPLOYEE hit home with us. We came to the conclusion, as proved by so many franchises in South Africa, that Franchising itself – if, of course well managed and controlled, can increase quality!
So we vowed that…
….If we are going to do it, we’re going to do it right!
We have put in more than two year’s work to be sure that we can offer something truly unique in our Franchise opportunities. As a Franchisor, we offer a great support and service to our Franchisees. We can ensure quality through strict controls and a strong Franchise Agreement, Operations- and Procedures Manual and Disclosure Document which have been custom developed for our unique brand and services.
All the legislative and administrative boxes are ticked and we have taken great care with these. But more than these (important) technical bits, we have done 10 years’ worth of ground work, hustle, brand development, mistakes and lessons learned to know what we offer children, parents and schools is something that makes a true difference to lives.
At a fraction of what it cost us to get here, with a small capital investment, franchisees are able to take the following Buzz products and services to market in their own geographic areas:
BUZZ – drama, dance and singing:
- At schools
- In the school day
- After school extramurals
- Independently
- At children’s birthday parties
We are looking for special franchisees that will fit into the Buzz family. We would love to hear from you that might lead to offering you a franchise opportunity if you are…
- Honest
- Confident
- Optimistic
- Focused
- Driven
- Energetic
…If you love:
- Children
- The Arts
- People
…If you can:
- Problem Solve
- Think out the box
- Adapt
- Hustle
- Prioritise
- Perservere
…If you are professionally trained in:
- A creative art form like drama, dance or music
…If you have proven EXPERIENCE with:
- Sales
- Teaching
- Management
…If you are GOOD at:
- SALES
- ADMINISTRATION
…If you believe that:
- Every child is unique and it is our job to tailor education to the needs of the child
- The Arts are a powerful intervention for child development
- The Arts are a powerful intervention for learning
- The Arts are a powerful intervention for teaching
…. then this franchise opportunity may be for you.
