Preeti and Abhijit Patel at the groundbreaking of their Goddard School, which after five years of work is scheduled to open in early 2024.
The journey to opening a franchise can be challenging, and not many know that better than Abhijit Patel. A Goddard School franchisee, his five-year adventure from finding a location, signing and breaking ground is finally nearing its end.
“We knew in the back of our minds that we wanted to have a school,” said Patel. “The idea of education and early years education and kids really resonated with us.”
Goddard School offers early childhood education programs for children aged six weeks to 6 years. The school has a specialized learning program dubbed FLEX, or Fun Learning Experience, to help children explore their interests and prepare them for school beyond kindergarten. It has more than 600 locations across 37 states.
Patel and his wife, Preeti, are joint owners of their Goddard location in Tustin, California, along with Jasmin Patel and Jesal Mehta. Along with his foray into franchising, Patel is also the director of healthcare construction governance, business operations and program controls for City of Hope, a cancer research hospital.
While Patel takes pride in his work in the medical sector, he and his wife were always thinking about the possibility of opening their own business. “All along, we wanted to have our own business,” he said. “And we were looking at a lot of different things.”
A friend had a Goddard School in Orange County, where the Patels were able to get a close look at the franchise and hear the perspective of someone they trusted. “It was something in
education and with children,” said Patel. “It checked all of our boxes.”
The location hunt began in 2018, and as anyone who’s developed a business in California knows, real estate isn’t easy to come by. Patel found a spot after two years of searching, but it came with a condition. Owned by the United States Navy, the land was approved for the development of education and technology buildings, but there were plenty of bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Still, the Patels knew they had to give the spot a chance.
“Finding space in SoCal only happens once every couple years,” said Patel. “It took a lot of effort.”
Used to dealing with complex projects at City of Hope, Patel began navigating the process and got some help along the way in the form of five lawyers and TMC Financing.
“There were a lot of moving parts, and it doesn’t typically take that long to get a franchise off the ground,” said Jennifer Davis, senior vice president of TMC Financing. “Abhijit had almost every bell and whistle.”
Davis and TMC were the go-between for many of Patel’s dealings with the numerous agencies and bank during his development process, as well as the ones who helped him get a U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loan that would clinch the official signing. Even with her help along the way, it still took over a year and a half to arrange and gain approvals for the land sale.
Amid it all, another challenge emerged in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, which wreaked havoc on communication and supply chains during the process and even after construction could actually begin. Prices for just about everything related to the project began to climb, fueled by inflation.
“Everything went haywire and our project costs literally went up 30 percent,” said Patel.
Unwilling to quit and trusting that all the hardships would lead to the opening of a business they believed in, the Patels stayed motivated through the long and arduous process. Getting the SBA loan ensured that the school would indeed open, even after all the cost increases.
“It took a toll, for sure,” said Patel of the experience. “I don’t think I’ve worked this long and this hard in a long time.”
The plan for the Patels is to open their Goddard School in early 2024. Construction officially started this year after five years of searching, signing paperwork and waiting. So much waiting.
“A long way, but very happy that we made it this far,” said Patel. “I think this is a challenge we’re ready to take on.