Franchise Talk

Mom Turns A Need Into A Biz Into A Franchise: Maui PlayCare

After leaving the construction business to become a stay-at-home mom - now, of four - Bonnie McCarthy found life could be hectic.

She didn’t need all-day care for her kids, but she did sometimes want brief relief.

“I would go to the grocery store with a list of necessities but with the kids being kids, it was difficult to make it to the check-out line with all of the items from my list and my sanity intact,” McCarthy said.

“The same went for my children’s activities. While attending my 7-year-old’s hockey game, my 5-year-old insisted I watch her take the bleacher steps two at a time. This would have been fine, except that it caused me to miss my other daughter’s first goal.”

The answer: a new business - Maui PlayCare, which she opened in 2002 at Queen Ka’ahumanu Center. After seven years, she thinks she has a winner, so much so that she’s formed another company to franchise the concept.

It has taken about 18 months to develop the business plan and obtain regulatory approvals needed to sell franchises.

McCarthy used FranCorp.

“They take you in hand” for the complicated business. Becoming a franchiser requires filing federal disclosure documents for each state in which the company plans to operate.

McCarthy hopes to have five in Arizona, two in Florida, three in New York and two in Nevada by the end of this year. The closest to opening is one in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Photo: Courtney Thomas.