Here at Kidcreate Studio, we always take pleasure in welcoming newcomers to our growing teaching franchise family, and this week we’re proud to introduce Phillip and Kelcy Summers of Midlothian, Texas! The husband-and-wife duo are on track to open their new studio location in their community, and hope to eventually open more locations in and around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
Both Phillip and Kelcy have strong backgrounds in the arts. Kelcy, a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance performance prior to embarking on a career in marketing and project coordination. Phillip, who worked in construction, retail, and as a contractor before spending the majority of his career in sales management, began as a film and theater major, and has past professional modeling and acting experience. “We’re both from heavy artistic backgrounds,” says Kelcy, adding, “That’s why we love this opportunity with Kidcreate Studio.”
The couple has also passed their love of the fine arts down to their two children- daughter Finley, 4 1/2, and son Graydon, 3- and makes it a point to incorporate art, dance, and music into many of their family activities. “I’ve always loved the arts, and it’s not just one art- as a family, we will literally turn on music and dance around,” says Phillip. “We have guitars, we have microphones, we like to go to shows and events, plus do art.”
In fact, Phillip and Kelcy’s children, particularly their young daughter, were their main source of inspiration for deciding to invest in the Kidcreate Studio opportunity. Phillip recalls the moment he and his wife realized how important art education was in little Finley’s life. “Our kids are pretty active and we have them in soccer, dance- actually the first thing they started was swim class. But Finley was coming home from school and just loved to color! She loved to decorate pumpkins- anything to do with art, she loves it! It’s really where we see her when she’s concentrating and so engrossed in it until she completes it.” He laughs, “She wants to hide what she’s doing until she’s completed it!”
Finley’s love of art prompted the couple to look for art-themed school-age and preschool franchise locations in their neighborhood, which led to their discovery of the Kidcreate Studio location in nearby Mansfield. However, the location was still a good 20-minute drive from the family’s home, and Phillip and Kelcy started thinking about how wonderful it would be to have a Kidcreate Studio franchise right in their own backyard! “We wanted a franchise in the neighborhood,” explains Phillip. “We thought it would be great to have something here for kids!”
This wasn’t the first time Phillip and Kelcy had considered investing in a teaching franchise opportunity for the young children in their community. The couple had previously considered franchising with a company where their children attended swimming lessons. “We looked into Aquatots first, which is a swim school for kids,” recalls Phillip. However, the swim teaching franchise had no opportunities available for the Summers family, as they had sold out of territory units. Still, the idea persisted in both Phillip and Kelcy’s minds, and they kept an eye out for the exact right opportunity to present itself. Enter Kidcreate Studio!
Phillip and Kelcy began their franchise Education Process with Kidcreate Studio in late June 2019, and quickly became very excited about the teaching franchise’s business model, philosophy, and values. “It just started spiraling into something we got really excited and passionate about, because we think it would bring an element to our town that would give the kids something new to do,” says Phillip about the Kidcreate Studio opportunity. “We have so many friends with kids our age, and want something close by that all of our kids could do together.”
Additionally, the personal story of our Founder, Lara Olson, resonated with the couple, as they were able to see a lot of themselves in her. “It’s very similar to Kelcy’s and mine,” Phillip says of Lara’s story. “She started off from a corporate background, her son loved art, and she wanted to make a place for the kids in the community to learn art. It sounded a lot like us!”
Not surprisingly, the opportunity to bring art instruction to the young children of the community was also a huge draw. The Summers loved the idea of owning a teaching franchise that would foster art appreciation and bring quality art education, as well as fun, to children in their neighborhood. “Art and music are now disappearing from schools, and we’re big fans of the arts- we don’t want that to disappear and we don’t want that to be just 20 minutes of our kids’ school week!” exclaims Phillip.
As Phillip and Kelcy move closer to their studio’s Grand Opening, they are excited to become business owners and, as Kelcy puts it, “control our own destiny!” However, embarking on a journey of entrepreneurship can be a daunting prospect, and Phillip was aware of the risks and headaches that can come along with starting your own business. “It wasn’t an easy leap for me,” Phillip admits, adding, “It’s always been something I’ve admired because I’ve been talking to business owners my entire career. I’ve been asking them, ‘Man, how did you make that jump?’” However, the strong corporate support offered by the Kidcreate Studio opportunity went a long way toward easing the couple’s concerns, and gave them confidence that they were making a good decision. “Franchise ownership 100 percent alleviated my fear of owning a business,” says Phillip. “The work Lara’s done building the curriculum, the marketing department, the training department- knowing we’re going to have their support and the opportunity to offer something different every time a kid comes through the door- that’s what makes this an easier decision, because you’re not having to start from scratch. If Kelcy and I were doing this from the ground up, that would all have to come from us! That would make it that much harder to build this business up in the first year. Lara has done everything for us to come out of the gates. If you just do what the plan lays out, then you should be very successful.”
In the Summers household, art is an everyday part of life. Thanks to Phillip and Kelcy, Kidcreate Studio is about to bring art into the lives of kids in their Midlothian, Texas community. The couple looks forward to being instrumental in the art education of their neighbors’ children, and hopes their first location will be profitable enough to expand their reach throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in the not-too-distant future. “Our endgame here is to open two to three more Kidcreate Studio locations around DFW and really commit to this for the long haul, where this will be our livelihood moving forward,” says Phillip. Kelcy adds, “I couldn’t agree more!”
We are thrilled to have Phillip, Kelcy, and their children in the Kidcreate Studio franchise family, and can’t wait to celebrate their Grand Opening in 2020! Stay tuned for periodic updates from the Summers family as we follow their journey into Franchise Ownership right here on our franchise website.
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