Academy Execution Plan
Cohort 1 — Launch by Sept 15

1. Engage a Texas attorney (education + franchise). Get 2–3 referrals. Brief them on four things: (1) TWC career-school licensing or exemption for a tuition-based baking academy, (2) enrollment agreement + refund policy drafting, (3) student-labor exposure — unpaid students producing sellable product must pass the FLSA primary-beneficiary test, structure hands-on hours as training-first, (4) FDD drafting for the operator track later. Ask for a fixed-fee quote and timeline. engagement letter signed and kickoff call on the calendar.
2. Jack sets tuition + payment structure. Use the investment-range band data already collecting in GHL to price cohort 1. Decide: tuition number, deposit-at-acceptance amount, payment plan (if any), and refund terms (constrained by Step 0). Tuition never goes on the public page — shared with applicants on calls. Jack signs off tuition, deposit, and refund terms in writing.
3. Post the community liaison role. Part-time, Khmer-speaking, commission-heavy (paid per enrolled student who completes week 1). Donut-shop families are the best-fit students — already in the craft, motivated, and the strongest future operator-track pipeline. Source through existing staff networks and Cambodian community organizations in DFW before posting anywhere public. 3 candidate conversations scheduled.
4. Confirm the GHL pipeline is capturing everything. Every applicant contact must carry: source, path (baker/operator), investment-range band, and city. Build one saved report/dashboard the team reviews weekly. The apply form is already live and wired — this step is reporting, not plumbing. weekly pipeline report exists and someone owns pulling it every Monday.

WS1 Legal & Compliance

1. Career-school license or exemption secured (baker track gate) — step-by-step below. Attorney determines whether the tuition academy needs a TWC Career Schools & Colleges license or qualifies for an exemption, and files whatever is required. Licensed schools get TWC-dictated refund schedules, enrollment agreement requirements, and instructor/facility standards — build to whichever path applies. The full path to obtain it is broken out in the "TWC License — Step by Step" card under this workstream. written opinion or issued license in the drive; refund policy locked.
2. Enrollment paperwork pack built. Application → acceptance letter → enrollment agreement (with refund terms) → deposit receipt → tuition invoice / payment plan doc → media release. No student starts without a signed agreement and payment terms on file. pack exists as templates and the team has walked one dry run.
3. Student-labor review in writing. Students paying tuition while producing product we sell is the classic FLSA trap — hands-on hours must be structured so the student is the primary beneficiary (training-first, supervised, never displacing scheduled paid staff). Attorney blesses the curriculum's production structure in writing. opinion letter in the drive; instructor briefed on the boundaries.
4. FDD drafted and filed in Texas (operator track gate). Attorney drafts; Jack supplies unit economics, fees, territory approach, and system standards. Budget expectation: $15k+ and 4–8 weeks. Operator track stays waitlist-only until this is done — no pricing, no territory talk, no deposits. FDD filed; attorney confirms we may lawfully offer franchises in TX.

WS1a TWC License — Step by Step

1. Call TWC first — free, this week. Career Schools & Colleges division, 512-936-3100 or career.schools@twc.texas.gov. Describe the program (4-week hands-on baking intensive, tuition-charged, no degree, no federal aid) and ask directly: does this require a Certificate of Approval, or does an exemption fit? Non-binding, but it maps the terrain before paying the attorney to research it cold. call notes in the drive with the TWC staffer's read and any forms they point to.
2. Attorney rules exemption in or out — in writing. Candidate exemptions to test: avocational/recreational instruction (weak — our pitch is explicitly vocational), employer-sponsored training at no charge (doesn't fit — students pay), and short seminar/workshop carve-outs. If an exemption plausibly applies, file the exemption request with TWC and get their written determination — a letter from TWC beats an attorney memo in diligence. If no exemption fits, proceed to the license application immediately. written opinion + (if applicable) TWC exemption determination in the drive.
3. Assemble the Certificate of Approval application package. Core pieces TWC requires: school catalog (program description, hours, objectives, admission requirements, tuition & all fees), enrollment agreement with the TWC-mandated refund schedule baked in, instructor application(s) with documented qualifications ($20 each), director/staff info, facility description for the training kitchen, and financial statements. The WS1 enrollment-paperwork pack and this package are the same documents — build once. complete application package reviewed by the attorney before submission.
4. Pay fees and submit. Small-school initial application fee is $1,001 (annual gross tuition under $100k and no federal financial aid — we qualify at ~$24k/cohort; $3,000 if we ever cross $100k). Add $225 per additional program beyond the first and $90 per registered rep if we use recruiters. Fees are non-refundable even if denied — submit a clean package the first time. application submitted with fees; confirmation on file.
5. Work the review cycles fast. TWC targets a first response within ~5 business days; every revision request must be answered within 30 calendar days, and up to 3 cycles fit inside their ~90-day approval goal. Our job is to turn every revision request around in days, not weeks — this is the single biggest lever on the timeline. all revision requests answered within 5 business days of receipt.
6. Pass the site visit. TWC inspects the training facility before approval. The shop/kitchen used for cohorts must match the facility description in the application — equipment, capacity, safety. site visit completed; no open findings.
7. Resolve the prepaid-tuition security question. A surety bond is no longer automatic, but collecting money before training starts (our $500 deposit + tuition) is prepaid tuition — TWC may require a bond or other security. Ask explicitly during the application; if required, price it in (typically a small annual premium, not the face amount). TWC's security requirement answered in writing; bond posted if required.
8. Ongoing compliance calendar. Once licensed: annual renewal, student records retention, refund-policy compliance on every cancellation, and TWC notification for program or fee changes. Put renewal + reporting dates on the ops calendar the day the certificate issues. compliance dates on the calendar with an owner.

Timeline reality check: TWC's approval goal is ~90 days from a complete application. It is July 10 — a license-path application submitted this month lands approval around early October, which slips the Sept 15 cohort. Two honest outs: (1) the exemption path, if TWC confirms one applies, keeps Sept 15 alive; (2) otherwise cohort 1 moves to the October cadence start already in the plan. Do not enroll ahead of the answer to buy back the date.

WS2 Tuition & Revenue

1. Stand up tuition collection. Stripe payment links (or invoices) for: deposit at acceptance, tuition balance, and payment-plan installments if Jack approves a plan. Every payment ties back to the GHL contact. Refunds must be executable exactly per the WS1 policy — test one end to end. a test deposit + tuition payment + refund have each been run and reconciled.
2. Cohort P&L tracking. One sheet per cohort: tuition collected, refunds, instructor backfill cost, materials (~$3k), liaison commissions, content spend. The academy has to stand on its own as a revenue line — this sheet is what tells us if cohort 2 pricing changes. sheet exists with cohort 1 budget filled in; updated weekly.
3. TWC grants — internal staff only. Skills for Small Business covers training for employees, not tuition-paying students — it no longer funds academy seats. Keep it in the back pocket for upskilling existing GG staff through academy content, as a separate thread. Do not build cohort economics around any grant. noted as a parked thread; nobody is waiting on TWC for cohort 1.
4. Track outcomes anyway. Per student: start date, completion, hired-by-us yes/no, wage if hired. Placement outcomes are the academy's best marketing proof and the operator-track qualifier — log them from day one. tracking sheet exists and cohort 1 rows are filled as they happen.

WS3 Curriculum & Instruction

1. Name the instructor. Pick the strongest current lead baker and buy out their shop hours (backfill their shifts). Jack can teach at most 2 guest sessions per cohort — the program must run without him or it doesn't scale and the raise-deck "systems" story dies. named instructor with backfilled schedule for the full 4 weeks.
2. Write the 4-week curriculum from what already exists. Do not invent from scratch — document how our shops already train. Week 1: dough, proofing, fry basics + food-handler cert. Week 2: glazing, finishing, full production runs. Week 3: full shift ownership at a live shop (paired). Week 4: solo production shifts + assessment. Operator-track adds: daily cash log, inventory ordering, scheduling, and the daily checkin system in weeks 3–4. one-page syllabus per week + skills checklist per student exists.
3. Define pass/fail and graduation criteria. Written assessment rubric: production speed, consistency, food safety, reliability (attendance is a scored item). Graduation day = week 4 Friday; top grads get interview offers — offers, not promises, and nobody is told they're guaranteed a job at any point. Operator-track finalists get flagged for WS1's FDD process, not promised anything verbally. rubric approved by Jack; instructor trained on it.
4. Lock the training kitchen. Pick the shop with slack capacity for hands-on hours (or off-hours use of the busiest kitchen). Confirm equipment and ingredient budget (~$3k materials, covered by tuition). Students are NOT on payroll — log training hours for records and rubric scoring only, and respect the WS1 student-labor boundaries (training-first, never covering a scheduled paid shift). location, calendar, and hours-logging method confirmed.

WS4 Student Recruiting — Baker Track

1. Launch the academy TikTok handle. Dedicated handle, one baker's day-in-the-life per week, shot on a phone during real shifts. The pitch is craft + credibility, NOT a job ad: "learn to bake from the team running 7 shops — we hire our best graduates." Never say or imply free training or paid training. Track cost-per-enrolled-student; if paid spend can't enroll a student for under ~10% of tuition, change the content, not the budget. handle live, 4 videos posted, apply link in bio.
2. Activate the referral bonus. $500 per referred student who enrolls, pays, and completes week 1 — paid to the referring employee (Jack confirms the amount before announcing). Announce in the staff Discord and at shift meetings. Print it on a card managers can hand out. announced in Discord + every manager has confirmed their crew knows.
3. Hire and onboard the community liaison. From the Do Now candidates. First assignment: 10 warm conversations with Cambodian donut-shop families in 30 days — the next generation learning the craft properly, with a path to running or owning shops. These families are the highest-fit paying students AND the future operator pipeline. 3 warm intros in 30 days validates the channel; zero means re-hire. liaison signed, first-month target agreed in writing.
4. Work Facebook local groups. DFW community, small-business, career-change, and food/baking hobby groups — not jobs groups (this is a program, not a job posting). A real person's post with photos; no tuition numbers in public posts, "DM for details" instead. 2 posts/week rotating groups. posting calendar exists and week 1 posts are up.
5. Run the funnel fast. Applicant → phone call within 48 hours (program walkthrough + tuition conversation happens here, verbally — never in writing before the call) → in-shop visit/tryout within 7 days → acceptance + deposit within 48 hours of the visit. Anything over 10 days apply-to-accept bleeds candidates. One person owns scheduling; no-shows get one reschedule, then closed. funnel stages exist in GHL and cycle time is on the weekly report.

Do not spend on

Indeed, ZipRecruiter, portal job listings, Google Jobs — this is not a job posting. No paid ads until organic cost-per-enrollment is known.

WS5 Recruiting — Operator Track (waitlist mode until FDD)

1. Add the operator CTA to Jack's top content. One line — "we train operators now, waitlist at academy.goldenglazedonuts.com" — added to the top-performing 20% of existing posts and each new operator-energy post. No new content required. CTA live on the next 5 posts.
2. QR codes in all 7 shop lobbies. Counter card: "Love this place? Learn to run one." QR → academy page. Print, laminate, one at every register. photo of the card at each of the 7 registers.
3. Score the waitlist weekly. Watch the investment-range bands: if fewer than 20% of operator applicants tick $2.5k+, flag to Jack — the deposit mechanic gets rethought before launch, not after. Also tag any current baker/employee who applies — internal candidates are the highest-conversion pipeline. band distribution appears on the weekly report.
4. Hold the line on promises. Until WS1 delivers the FDD: no pricing, no territory talk, no "you'll get a store," no deposits accepted. Script for inquiries: "Operator program details come with the formal disclosure documents later this year — you're on the list." everyone customer-facing has the script.

Do not spend on

Franchise brokers ($50k/deal), franchise portals, trade shows.

WS6 Content Capture

1. Assign the capture owner before cohort 1 starts. Someone on-site 2x/week with a phone gimbal. Raw footage into a shared drive folder, organized by student/week. If nobody owns editing, this workstream produces a folder of dead files — the owner ships edits, not clips. named owner + posting cadence (3 pieces/week during cohort).
2. Get media releases signed at onboarding. Every student signs a photo/video release on day 1, with a real opt-out. No release, no filming that person. release form is in the onboarding packet.
3. Build the cohort-2 recruiting reel from week-2 footage. Don't wait for graduation — the "week 2: first solo batch" moment is the best recruiting asset. Cut it while cohort 1 is still running so cohort 2 recruiting opens with real proof. reel posted before cohort 1 ends.

• No tuition, deposits, or enrollments until the career-school licensing path and refund policy are signed off in writing. This is the baker-track equivalent of the FDD rule.
• No franchise offers, pricing, territory promises, or deposits until the FDD is filed and legal signs off. Waitlist language only. When in doubt, say less and route the question to Jack.
• No job guarantees, ever. "Top graduates get priority interviews" is the ceiling. Nobody customer-facing says "you'll get hired" — in writing, on calls, or on camera.
• Students never cover a scheduled paid shift. Hands-on hours are training-first and supervised — a tuition-paying student doing an employee's job is an FLSA problem.
• No filming a student without a signed release.
• No public posting of tuition or program pricing. Tuition is shared on calls with applicants only.
• This page and the business plan are confidential. Don't forward outside the team.