Rembrandt wasn’t always a legendary artist. First, he was a youth.
A national program entitled Young Rembrandts is doing its part to bring young new artists into the world – and they are looking at Fort Worth as one of the specific priority targets for expansion.
“Fort Worth has been identified as a good market for a new YR Owner for several reasons,” said Young Rembrandts Developer of Franchise Development Kim Swanson. “Fort Worth is the 15th largest city in the US (by population). There are over 130 schools serving elementary and preschool children in Fort Worth. There is also fabulous brand recognition nearby. We have many successful owners located in Texas.”
This includes one local branch already established in nearby Johnson County that also serves Tarrant County. There are also branches in Denton and parts of Collin Counties, Austin, West Houston, North Houston, Southwest Houston, El Paso and Las Cruces, and North Dallas.
Swanson said the hope is to have a new franchise in Fort Worth by later this winter or in the spring.
Young Rembrandts is an art enrichment program that focuses on cognitive development through drawing. The program is based on the belief that when foundation skills are taught to preschoolers and elementary students, there is a strong correlation between that involvement in the arts and future strong academic performance and personal achievement.
Classes are taught to ages 3 and a half to 12. In all, the program teaches more than 40,000 students each week in 31 states and four provinces.
The program is coming off a national campaign in 2018 to celebrate its 30th anniversary. There are currently more than 100 existing franchises.
Swanson said the program is a natural for art-loving Fort Worth.
“In a study done by the Arts Council of Fort Worth in partnership with the Americans for the Arts, it was found that the nonprofit arts and culture sector in Fort Worth brings a significant cultural and economic benefit back to the city,” she said. “Additionally, there are a lot of offerings for sports, academic and other interests in the child enrichment industry in the Fort Worth region. Young Rembrandts is a team environment for artists, and classes are a fun place for students to gather as a group or a club for what is usually a solitary activity.”
The brand is a home-based business in which franchisees partner and create close relationships with local schools and community centers for classroom space. Because of this model, franchisees have a unique opportunity to connect with their communities.
Young Rembrandts has very large territories to comparative service-based models and has built technology and corporate team support in order to make it manageable and achievable for franchisees to properly scale their business. Exclusive territories are built using the number of elementary schools and are defined by zip code.
Franchisees are encouraged to build a staff of part time local employees. Teachers, administrative help and additional roles can all be built to enable owners to scale the business and max out profitability.
“Being 30 years old, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of our early Young Rembrandts students actually become Young Rembrandts teachers,” Swanson said enthusiastically. “In the home office, we have three former students of Bette Fetter (our CEO and Founder) working to support our franchisees.”
One Young Rembrandt student in Ohio has participated every year since she was in preschool, Swanson said. She won a contest from Torani Syrup, and her artwork was featured on their bottles.
Another student success shared on behalf of Richard and Claudia Gonzales, owners of Young Rembrandts in East San Gabriel Valley, California, tells about a former student named Mark.
He first participated at a local parks and recreation, starting in kindergarten in 2005 all the way through elementary school in after-school and summer programs. Now in college, Mark still loves art and sees it as a creative release as he pursues a major in Computer Science.
In order to be eligible to open a Young Rembrandts franchise, candidates must have at least $40,000 in liquid capital and a net worth of $100,000. To learn more visit www.youngrembrandtsfranchise.com.
“We want to build a legacy in this community,” Swanson said. “And the first step is finding the right partner who believes in our mission and understands Fort Worth and what parents and kids here want in afterschool enrichment.”