Macaroni Kid Reviews

I was a Macaroni KID publisher for over a decade and I used to love it. The previous CEO was amazing. I have a hard time believing that the current CEO has a 100% approval rate. I think it's more likely that the previous CEO's rating transferred over. Macaroni KID was acquired by CertifiKID during the pandemic and it seemed like it would be a great transition with some opportunities to make more money. There were a lot of promises made but none of them came to pass. The current HQ does not value the publishers who treat this like a full-time job versus a hobby and there are no incentives to grow your business. The current CEO focuses only on national sales and has no clue about even the most basic information pertaining to running the business. For example, there was a registered motto of "Find Your Family Fun®" for the longest time. When asked by a publisher if Macaroni KID still held the registration for that, the CEO replied, "I have no idea." None of the publishers have any idea who is actually running the business. She is very sensitive and thin-skinned and can't seem to handle even the smallest amount of criticism. In the contract, there is a very clear delineation of which businesses the local publisher can work with and which ones are under National's domain. This would be great if the National HQ followed the same rules that they require the publishers to follow but I lost THOUSANDS of dollars in recurring revenue because HQ started claiming local businesses as national ones. For example, Code Ninjas is a national brand but each office is locally-owned and operated, so they should be under the local publisher's domain but HQ started making contracts with the national brand and many local publishers lost their accounts as a result. There are lots of companies like this (KidStrong, Code Ninjas, i9 Sports, My Gym, Aqua Tots Swim School, British Swim School, just to name a few) and HQ is slowly taking all of them. The company provides fewer and fewer resources and support. Each publisher has an email account that is limited to 5GB, which is a pathetically small amount for any business, but especially a web-based one. They used to have a team account on Canva for sharing graphics but couldn't keep the negotiated rate so they terminated that. They have a few shared articles each week that you can use for filler content but they are generally pretty bland and uninteresting. As a publisher, you have to manage every aspect of the business, including the calendar, content, social media, graphic design, and sales. It is a LOT to handle and only the most successful publishers can afford to hire help. I was one of those publishers. But last year I worked more hours and made less money than in any of the previous 5 years, including during the pandemic. As a publisher, you are also financially responsible for everything you need to run your business, such as a CRM, social media scheduler, graphic design sites, hired help, office supplies, etc. At the same time, HQ has taken over more and more pieces of the business YOU build and YOU pay for. They post on your social media pages, add their own calendar events, add businesses to your business directory, and add articles to your weekly e-newsletter and homepage. All of this content is very sales-y and very little of it is of interest to your community. Publishers have less and less discretion over how to run their business and how to best serve their community. If all you are interested in is a flexible schedule and occasional tickets to a local event, Macaroni KID might be for you. If you are looking to make a significant income without having to work a significant number of hours, you should probably keep looking.