With comfortable facilities, family-friendly amenities, and proprietary scheduling software, the franchise offers an effective swim school experience for children and parents.

Big Blue Swim School, one of the nation’s leading swim school franchises, is a mission-driven business focused on showing kids they can do anything by unlocking their full potential in the water. Big Blue Swim School achieves this mission through several customer-facing differentiators, including proprietary scheduling software, pristine and comfortable facilities, top-notch amenities, and heightened health and safety procedures. Now, as parents look for safe experience-based activities for their children amid the pandemic, Big Blue’s unparalleled swim school model is appealing to more families than ever before. 

Big Blue’s LessonBuddy™ mobile app makes it easy for busy parents to schedule lessons, view progress, and more.

Big Blue knows managing a child’s activity schedule can be challenging, which is why the brand has invested so heavily in its innovative lesson scheduling software, LessonBuddy™. The proprietary platform is used to track a swimmer’s progress and manage lessons via mobile devices, allowing families to visualize their children’s skill advancements in real-time, as well as reschedule lessons with the swipe of a finger. 

“The mobile app is one of my favorite parts of the Big Blue Swim School experience,” said parent Ariel Weiss, who enrolled her 3-year-old and 1-year-old at the Big Blue in Johns Creek, Ga., in summer of 2020. “It makes it easy to log on and see when the lesson is and whether or not I need to sign up for a makeup session or reschedule.” 

In addition to easy scheduling and progress view, LessonBuddy also makes it easy for parents to schedule their billing, change their credit card numbers, and provide instructor feedback.

Larger facilities allow more classes for more flexible scheduling. 

Another key to Big Blue’s family-friendly offering is its massive stores, which allow for multiple classes at all different skill levels to take place at one time. With more than 2,500 lessons offered per week, on average, multi-child parents can easily schedule all their children to swim in the same 30- to 45-minute window. 

“The first thing you’ll notice when walking into a Big Blue Swim School is that our stores are significantly bigger than the industry average,” said Big Blue founder and president Chris DeJong. “This allows us to service families with multiple children at one time very easily, as opposed to forcing parents to bring their children at different times throughout the week. Parents are so busy, and we want to make it easy for them to prioritize their children’s swim lessons.”

And in addition to flexible scheduling, there are several other benefits on site that keep children and parents equally comfortable throughout each session.

“Our facilities are designed to maximize comfort for both children and their parents,” DeJong said. “With 90-degree, ultra-clean water, we provide a very different experience from the neighborhood YMCA or community pool, and our experience is likely a radical departure from what the parents experienced for their own swim lessons. Plus, our relaxing viewing area comes with free WiFi and is regularly sanitized, making it an enjoyable 30 minutes for parents.” 

An effective, distanced-based curriculum helps children excel.

Like Big Blue’s facilities, the brand’s teaching curriculum is a proven method that gets results quickly. Big Blue’s distance-based learning model allows the schools’ highly-trained professional instructors to teach classes that more accurately measure a student’s progress.

“We don’t evaluate our students by age; we evaluate their progress based on the distances they are able to swim,” DeJong said. “This approach ensures children are getting the schooling they need based on their skill level rather than their age.”

Big Blue’s recurring weekly lessons are offered year-round, giving parents flexibility to start and stop attending at their convenience. Rather than changing schools or applying for new programs as they grow, students can seamlessly transition through Big Blue’s four lesson programs.

“My oldest has always been a little bit scared of the water, but he has gotten so comfortable at Big Blue,” Weiss said. “Thanks to the amazing curriculum and experience, he knows exactly what to do and really enjoys going to class.” 

Prioritizing health and safety standards protects everyone’s wellbeing.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Big Blue leaped into action, implementing a number of protocols to ensure families felt safe at the facilities.

“It has been shown that the virus doesn’t spread in pools, thanks to information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control,” DeJong said. “But we keep the water ultra-clean with a state of the art pool filtration system and a UV light sanitizer that goes above and beyond standard pool operation protocol.”

Big Blue also implemented a cleaning protocol that includes the disinfection of all high-touch surfaces every 30 minutes, as well as a deep clean each evening using products that meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. 

The pandemic may have ultimately helped prove the unique resilience of the learn-to-swim segment, and with so much for families to love at Big Blue, the brand is emerging as the industry leader. Now, with 207 units secured across 24 states, investors are continuing to join the franchise with plans to bring the life-changing offering to more parents and children across the country.

Multi-unit franchise opportunities are available for qualified candidates looking for their next big opportunity, and veterans can receive a 10 percent discount on the $80,000 franchise fee. The total investment necessary to begin operation of a new Big Blue Swim School is $2,334,223 to $3,641,998 (refer to item 7 in FDD). To learn more or inquire about Big Blue Swim School, visit https://www.bigblueswimschool.com/franchising/.