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Child I.D. Program of America Interview
 March 3rd, 2006Interview of Karen Brown, Co-Founder of Child I.D. Program of America < International > Interviewer : Franchise Times Interviewees : Karen Brown (Co-Founder) Child I.D. offers child safety products to parents, including parent i.d. cards with all the information included to fill out a missing persons report away from home. The company contracts with preschools and elementary schools to take photos of children and sells the i.d. cards, refrigerator magnets, wristbands and other products to parents. The company was founded by husband and wife team Marc Bakerman and Karen Brown in 1988. 12 How did you decide to start franchising?
We were successful in what we were doing here locally (Los Angeles) and started to help family members open their own program. We then went to a distributorship, then on to franchising. Thank goodness we did. Distributorships don’t have the control—with a franchise we can control the quality and the security of the program. How has your franchisee support changed as you’ve grown? We have conference calls, Web site support and an intranet for our franchisees. One of the big changes has been in the software we provide them. When we started out we had a generic software. Over the years, we’ve developed a proprietary software that we consistently upgrade and add to. What kind of person are you looking for in a franchisee? They have to be able to have $5,000 in operating capital. We do a background check, so they have to have no criminal background. They really need to be an outgoing person who wants to make a difference in their community and loves children. 12 |
