I hear the same handful of misconceptions over and over from people who email me about owning an Impact Tutoring franchise. Every one of them is wrong, and I'd rather you rule yourself out for the right reason than the wrong one. So let's clear them up properly.
"I need to be a registered teacher"
This is the one I get asked most, and the honest answer is no. Narelle, who now owns our Te Awamutu Hub, spent three years on the ground as an administrator, junior assessor and tutor before stepping into ownership, not as a classroom teacher. Anna, who built our Far North Hub from nothing, came in with a PhD in mathematics and twenty-plus years as a researcher and author. Jo, who opened our first central North Island Hub in Hawke's Bay, did spend eighteen years as a classroom teacher and Head of English. Three very different paths, all running strong Hubs. What matters is whether you care about the mindset of the young people in front of you, not which piece of paper you're holding.
"I need to already know how to run a business"
No, you need to be willing to learn, which is a different thing entirely. Your entry fee, $29,000 plus GST, covers training, systems and IP, everything it took me over a decade to build and get wrong first so you don't have to. You're not paying for a logo. You're paying for the groundwork already done: the assessment tools, the teaching resources, the systems for bookings and parent communication, and me on the end of the phone when you're stuck.
"It's too expensive to get started"
This is the misconception that stops good people before they've even looked properly. You don't need a commercial lease to open an Impact Hub. Our Otorohanga Hub is the example I point to most: it grew out of organic overflow demand from Te Awamutu, started in a low-cost community space, a hall, a church room, a community centre, and built from there. No shopfront, no fit-out, no bank of computers to buy before your first student walks in. We also offer flexible payment options to hold a territory while you prepare, so the fee itself doesn't have to be a wall either.
"I'll just be a number in someone else's business"
I don't think of the people who take this on as franchisees in the corporate sense. I call them torchbearers, because that's what they actually are, people carrying something I built out of my own kitchen table into their own community and making it theirs. Narelle took over an existing Hub and made it hers. Anna and Jo each built a brand new Hub in a region that had nothing like it before. Three completely different stories, and none of them involved answering to a head office that didn't know their town. You get the systems and the backup. The community, the relationships, and the way you run your week are yours.
What I actually want you to know
Every one of these misconceptions has the same shape: assuming the hardest, most expensive, least flexible version of franchise ownership is the only version that exists. It isn't, not with us. If you're a teacher, a teacher aide, a homeschooling parent, or someone who's simply spent years wishing a service like this existed in your town, the door is more open than you think.
If any of this sounds like it's been quietly ruling you out, go look properly. The franchise page explains the Hub model, the information pack has the real numbers on cost and territories, and the readiness quiz takes two minutes to tell you whether this is worth a longer conversation.
Jean McKenzie
Founder / Franchisor, Impact Tutoring