About
An attractive, scalable franchising opportunity, Big Blue Swim School was founded by former competitive swimmers John Lonergan and Chris DeJong. As a Big Blue Swim School franchisee, you can offer swim lessons to children ages six months to 12 years old in a safe and fun environment through one-on-one training with qualified instructors. Big Blue's philosophy encourages kids to have a BIG moment at every class and encourages children to develop swim skills (stroke, breath, movement) and life skills (courage, perseverance, hard work).
Join with Big Blue Swim School as they expand and grow the brand through franchising, with the goal to open 45 locations by the end of 2019, and up to 150 locations by the end of 2020.
Now is the time to grow with us.
Top 10 Selling Points
- Very strong EBIDTA of 35%*
- Recession-resistant industry
- Fragmented industry
- Sustainable industry - All parents want their kids to learn to swim for safety
- 100% absentee model - Big Blue’s Executive Model allows you to hire someone to run the day to day operations
- Proven business model with strong unit economics
- With no dominant players in the swim lesson space, and recent decreases in state and local spending, the market demand for quality swim schools focused on basic skills is high
- Reoccurring revenue model: A family averages approximately 2 lessons per week
- Hundreds of A-quality retail locations becoming available because of the “Amazon Disruption”
- Fast ramp up - Proprietary pre-opening marketing program to position you as a market leader from day 1
Big Blue Swim School’s proprietary distance-based curriculum ensures measurement of students’ progress in the ways that matter so they can more quickly achieve better results and parents get a clearer understanding of their child’s progress. Parents are willing to invest in this vital life skill, and they are able to rapidly see not only that their investment has paid off, but more importantly, that their children know how to keep themselves safe in and around water.
Big Blue Swim Schools feature 13 lanes across two 91-degree pools, allowing franchise owners to map out class times by age group and make it easy for parents of multiple children to attend classes at the same time.
Why The Swim Lesson Industry?
Athletic participation for kids ages 6 through 12 is down almost 8 percent over the last decade**, but participation in swimming is growing, with 52 percent growth in year-round swim memberships from 2000 to 2017.***
With no dominant players in the swim lesson space, and recent decreases in state and local spending, the market demand for quality swim schools focused on basic life skills is high.
This is a recession-resistant and fragmented industry with a very strong EBIDTA of 35 percent.
Big Blue Swim School’s proprietary lesson management software, Lesson Buddy, systematizes operations for franchise owners and gives the franchisor access to data across the entire system. Lesson Buddy leverages membership, sales data and operational insights to make business recommendations, including when and where to have class times to maximize return, as well as monitoring the chemical makeup of the pool itself.
Parents love using the customer self-service mobile app to easily schedule lessons and view their children’s progress, which also relieves the franchisee of having to hire an employee to manage class scheduling for members.
Other brands in the swim school space leverage existing pools or have dedicated swim lessons but poor real estate, and difficulty finding and retaining talent. Big Blue Swim School exclusively hires full-time child engagement specialists to give children the experience and consistency they need and parents the peace of mind they deserve.
Now is the time for a national leader to emerge in the swim school space, and Big Blue Swim School has the strong branding, resources and team to take the lead.
Seeking Franchise Candidates
Big Blue Swim School’s ideal franchise candidates:
- Are looking for the next brand to add to their portfolio.
- Are experienced entrepreneurs with strong business acumen.
- Are excited about making a difference in their local communities.
- Are eager to use their strong people and cultural management skills.
- Have $600,000 minimum liquidity and minimum net worth of $1.5 million.
Now is the Time to Buy
Learn more about joining the Big Blue Swim School family today. Fill out the Request Information form and our team will contact you shortly.
*Figures reflect the actual annual gross revenue and annual EBITDA range for one affiliate-owned and operated BIG BLUE Swim School (operational for at least 5 full years as of December 31, 2017) during its 4th and 5th full 12 months of operation. These figures are published in Item 19 of our September 7, 2018, Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). Item 19 of our FDD includes actual average and median annual gross revenue, annual expense, annual EBITDA, and other annual financial performance information for 3 affiliate-owned and operated BIG BLUE Swim Schools (operational for at least 1 full year as of December 31, 2017) during their 1st full 12 months of operation, for 2 of those 3 Swim Schools during their 2nd and 3rd full 12 months of operation, and for 1 of those 3 Swim Schools during its 4th and 5th full 12 months of operation. A new franchisee’s results may differ from the represented performance. There is no assurance that you will do as well, and you must accept that risk.
**Sports & Fitness Industry Association and the Aspen Institute.
***USA Swimming
****World Aquatic Health Conference
