Support

Children's Orchard comes with a proven
successful business model

Support

Business planning

The #1 goal of a business plan is to get the right people excited about your business. A solid and professional, well-designed business plan can help you to raise the funds necessary for you to finance the business, attract more customers and boost sales.

We’ll work with you to develop a plan that can be used as the financial and operational guide for your store during the critical start-up phase of your business. You need to be at your best when you present your new business to a lender and we’ll give you the tools to impress any audience.

Step One

Review the market

We’ll help you to develop an introductory section: a description of where your business stands today, how you intend to put your sales and marketing plans in place, and what this will mean to your business during the next 12 months.

Step Two

Your target customer overview

This overview will examine who your prospective customers are, what they want and what motivates them to buy.

Step Three

Your business goals

In detail, we’ll assist you in establishing your store’s goals for the first three years of operation. It’s important to put your goals down on paper, and we’ll discuss the elements of your business that are possible to track so you can gauge your progress. Together, we’ll develop goals that are achievable, time-bound and measurable.

Step Four

Marketing strategies &tactics

This section is the heart of your plan. It details what your marketing message is, what you plan to do to market your business, how you plan to achieve your marketing goals and the tactics you’ll use to meet them.

Step Five

Your budget

The last section of your plan will break down the projected expenses of your store. Your budgeted plan will include estimated gross margins and key expenses such as marketing, rent, payroll, utilities and other categories.

Step Six

Your resources

Determine who on your team will handle different areas of your store including running the store, marketing the business and handling the accounting. Keep in mind that your plan is flexible, so if your business changes we can help you to make adjustments based on your needs.

Store location

Securing the right site and negotiating a competitive lease may significantly impact the sales and profitability of your store. NTY Franchise Company provides extensive knowledge and assistance with finding a great location for your store as well as help negotiating your lease.

After you have secured financing for your business, your first major step is to go through the real estate process. NTY Franchise Company has adopted a standardized real estate process that features a clearly defined, all-in-one strategy for site selection, lease negotiation and legal review. In order to accomplish this, we have teamed up with real estate experts, Colliers International. By outsourcing the real estate services, our franchisees receive many benefits such as money and time savings and a faster store-opening process.

Phase One

Franchise Location Evaluation and Broker Assistance

Understanding various aspects of site selection and identifying the perfect location for your store.

Phase Two

Site Selection and Letter of Intent (LOI)

Negotiating and submitting proposals and assistance with preparing an LOI.

  • Within a suburban power strip center
  • 3,000 to 4,000 square feet

Phase Three

Lease Agreement and Space Preparation

Reviewing your lease agreement to make sure it matches your LOI and understanding when the landlord will turn the space over to you.

Colliers International

Colliers International is a leading global commercial real estate services organization defined by their spirit of enterprise. With more than 16,300 professionals in 502 offices worldwide, they are dedicated to creating strategic partnerships with NTY Franchise Company and our franchisees, providing customized services that transform real estate into a competitive advantage.

Store buildout

NTY Franchise Company has teamed up with proven vendors that offer the best pricing and service available for your Children’s Orchard store buildout. F.C. Dadson and Specialty Store Services help to streamline the process of getting your store ready to open. To ensure a uniform image throughout the brand, we will assist you in following our quality standards for fixtures and key supplies for your store. You will be provided with easy-to-follow prototypical drawings and a list of specifications such as interior and exterior materials, décor, fixtures, supplies, equipment and signs.

As you develop your store, we make it easy for you to meet our specifications as well as the Americans With Disabilities Act and other applicable federal, state and local laws, ordinances, building code and permit requirements and lease requirements and restrictions. We’ll discuss your plans before you begin construction, and we’ll also help you to review any revisions if needed during the buildout. All of the construction materials, fixtures, equipment, furniture, décor and signs for your store are high in quality and easily accessible.

What Makes F.C. Dadson and Specialty Store Services Different?

One-stop store supply shopping

We’ll work with you to develop a plan that can be used as the financial and operational guide for your store during the critical start-up phase of your business.

Store in-a-box-coordinated delivery

We have a Small Business Administration (SBA) preferred status lender who can help you with prequalification before you commit to opening your store. This lender knows our brand, our business plan and how to process loans quickly and efficiently.

Dedicated project managers

We have proven vendors already in place to get the best pricing and service on everything needed for store buildout: fixtures, equipment, interior/exterior signage, point-of-sale system and more.

Retail expertise

We conduct three separate, comprehensive training programs that provide our new owners with both pre-opening and post-opening classes and hands-on experience.

Franchisor/Franchisee relationship

Clothes Mentor Franchise has adopted a standardized real estate process that has a clearly defined all-in-one strategy for site selection, lease negotiation, and legal review.

Training

With Children’s Orchard training support, we conduct two separate, comprehensive programs that provide our new owners with both pre-opening and post-opening classes ranging from business planning, financial management and real-estate selection to store operations, merchandising, inventory management and POS system training as well as a full week of in-store training. Check out the break down of each of our training programs below.

Business Training

In this five-day training program, we’ll cover all of the tools available to you and the assistance that we provide for opening your store. Business Training includes:

Real estate/ site selection

What should go into a lease and what criteria to use to get the best possible site.

Business planning

Comprehensive business planning preparation and a review of financing options.

New store development

All-encompassing how-to on your store buildout, fixture detailing, signage, flooring options, etc.

Marketing

An introduction to all of the marketing options for your store, from print to digital to social media and more.

Personnel management

How to recruit, hire, train and develop the best employees for your business.

Quickbooks

Implementation of QuickBooks accounting software into your personal computer to help manage your daily business expenses.

Operations Training

This five-day program delves into everything you need to know about the day-to-day operation of your store. Operations Training includes:

Marketing

Grand opening advertising, local store marketing, print advertising, multi-media advertising, your store website and social media.

Customer service

An overview of the keys to great customer service, steps to learn customer cues and more.

Merchandising & Store standards

Learn how to merchandise your store to maximize profits. Plus, learn about the company store standards.

Product Knowledge

How to buy and sell your product.

Loss Prevention

Learn how to detect internal and external theft and how to utilize tools to prevent theft.

Inventory management

An in-depth look at seasonal buying and selling as well as clearance procedures to maximize profitability.

Store Training

This will includes hands-on experience at our corporate store, where you’ll see all of the information you learned during the previous two programs in action. Store Training includes: Introduction to the POS system, merchandising, customer service sorting/buying, inventory management, store opening/closing procedures, back-of-office administration, sales planning, personnel management, loss prevention and POS administration.

Store Training

This six-day program includes hands-on experience at our corporate store, where you’ll see all of the information you learned during the previous two programs in action. Store Training includes:

Day One

Introduction

Store tour and introduction to the POS system, merchandising, customer service and product classification.

Day Two

Admin

Store opening/closing procedures, back-of-office administration, sales planning, personnel management and POS administration.

Day Three

Inventory

Reviewing your lease agreement to make sure it matches your LOI and understanding when the landlord will turn the space over to you. Sorting/buying, merchandising, inventory management, POS troubleshooting and loss prevention.

Day Four

Marketing

Local store marketing, social media and handling customer complaints.

Day Five

Overview

An all-encompassing overview of the previous four days and putting what you’ve learned into action.

Day Six

Q & A

Questions and answers session and final training certification.

Training Prerequisites

For Business Training: We suggest you and your partner(s) to attend Business Training in the first available class after you have signed your Franchise Agreement.

For Operations Training: It is ideal for you to receive training on the operational aspect of the business as close to your “Open to Buy” period as possible. So as soon as you’ve completed Business Training, submitted your signed lease to us and ordered your fixture package for your store, you are ready to attend Operations Training.

Point-of-sale system

The unique software that runs our point-of-sale (POS) system was specifically designed to meet the ever-changing needs of the resale business. With touch screen capabilities and a built-in buy matrix, the system will assist in the buying and selling of your inventory along with tracking numerous aspects of your store including daily sales summaries, inventory buys, and detailed customer transactions. The proprietary software is the property of our third-party supplier and you will buy your software license and hardware from them.

Key Point-of-Sale Software Features

POS basics
  • Typical sales transactions – Discount and various coupon capabilities and payment options screens
  • Detailed administrative functions
Product buy matrix
  • Easy-to-learn touch screen system automation to effectively buy the right inventory at the right price
  • Department, category, brand-specific matrix with suggested costs and retails
  • Buy process is enhanced with interactive links to eBay and other buying links
Employee accountability
  • Track individual employees’ activities including sales, buys and returns and review inventory sell rate performance by employee
  • Can objectively measure and manage employee productivity
  • Leads to improved buyer training of best- and worst-selling items
Integrated, secure credit card processing
  • Chip and pin capabilities
  • Streamline customer transactions
  • Easy daily credit card transactions reconciliation
Online reporting capability
  • Can monitor stores performance remotely
  • Various executive summary reports on store performance with comparisons to other stores
  • Ability to drill down further in a report to help analyze the business metrics
Quickbooks integration
  • Easy and time-saving integration of daily sales activities into QuickBooks
  • More accurate and detailed daily reporting of key point-of-sale transactions
  • Improves month-end reporting analysis of your financials
Integrated loyalty program
  • Fully integrated custom rewards program
  • Tracks all transactions for use in data-driven marketing
  • Integrated with Children’s Orchard app
Tech support
  • Automatic data backups
  • Software updates are timely and readily available
  • Remote access software to communicate and train
Systems
  • Full Windows compatibility
  • Built on a strong and capable database system
  • Full features including barcode readers and scanners

Franchise business consultant (FBC)

Your Franchise Business Consultant (FBC) serves as your small business consultant and is responsible for ensuring your success in all areas of your resale operation including financial performance, merchandising and customer service. To accomplish this your FBC is in contact with you during numerous phases of your business including:

Role of the Franchise Business Consultant

Pre-opening visit

Takes place 2 weeks after opening your store to begin buying inventory

  • Duration: 1-2 days
  • Focus: Helping to ensure proper buying of products, making sure fixtures are installed properly and that the POS system is functioning correctly.
Pre-opening visit

Takes place the day before and the day of opening your store to begin selling merchandise

  • Duration: 2 days
  • Focus: Final tweaks to merchandising and staff training. Your FBC will be there as a resource for answering questions at the store opening.
Follow-up visit

Takes place approximately 90 days after opening your store

  • Focus: Operations, full analysis of customer service, POS training, and more. We also assist with small business practices such as hiring, bookkeeping, business planning/forecasting, attaining a clear picture of cash flow and any other operational needs.
Ongoing hours

Take place every 9-12 months

  • Focus: Your FBC is there as a small business analyst and counselor.
Monthly operations calls

Take place monthly

  • Focus: Inventory planning, advertising and marketing, POS reporting, budgeting and other items related to your business.
Conferences

Take place annually

  • Focus: Networking and training opportunities for all of our franchise owners, managers, and staff in one location.

Watch this quick video to learn more about how Franchise Business Consultant work with franchisees to build their businesses:

Marketing

Marketing is a very important piece in making a store a success, and we are here to help you in many different ways. With Children’s Orchard marketing support, we offer comprehensive training as well as ongoing marketing support to all franchisees.

Marketing is made up of many areas including electronic media, print media, social media, digital media, local store marketing and ecommerce. During your training, we will cover all of these areas in-depth as well as marketing budgets and how to best allocate them. The following is a brief breakdown of the different areas of marketing:

Electronic Media

This includes TV, cable, radio, Pandora, Hulu and others. We have a recommended media buyer that will help to get you up and running as well as plan long-term goals. Check out one of the latest Children’s Orchard videos below.

Print Media

We know the ins and outs of different forms of print media and how to best utilize them in our stores. We also create many items in-house for store and work with proven vendors that make getting your print materials easy.

Social Media

This is an ever-changing area and we offer a lot of support to franchisees. This includes assistance in setting up your social media, training, providing content as well as ongoing updates to be sure you stay current.

ECommerce

Not only do we sell products within our four walls, but we also cater to the digital shopper. Selling online is becoming mainstream in the resale industry and we assist with setting up your ECommerce store, training you, and teaching you best practices. In addition, properly marketing your online eCommerce store in order to drive traffic and building awareness is an ever-changing area for best practices. The marketing team is continually assisting franchisees in this new revenue builder for our stores. 

Digital Media

This includes childrensorchard.com a comprehensive, mobile-responsive website that presents customers with easily accessible information about the brand as well as individual stores. It’s a place to learn about Children’s Orchard’s unique resale concept and, ultimately, draw customers to your store. NTY Franchise Company works with a top search engine optimization (SEO)/digital company that helps to support the main brand website as well as provides a great option for you to promote your local store website with SEO.

Also, part of digital marketing is the free Children’s Orchard app. It’s tied to the “Club CO Rewards” program, our customer loyalty program, and allows your customers to track their reward points, receive and track promotions, refer friends, find locations & even store their receipts on their mobile device. This program is fully integrated with our Point of Sale allowing the system to be easy to use for both the customers and the stores. The best part is the ability to use the data from the point of sale for data driven marketing messages to make it as customized to customers as possible.

Local Store Marketing

Local area marketing is a key part in promoting a local business. We have great ideas that have worked for other stores and tips for getting a strong start in your market. Our goal is to provide you with the best training and tools you will need to be a success in your market!

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