TeachPro’s
Franchisee
E-Book

By:
Jim Damiani

.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 – The State Of Education in the United States
Chapter 2 – The TeachPro Solution
Chapter 3 – How Is TeachPro Different?
Chapter 4 – The TeachPro Story
Chapter 5 – A Growing Industry
Chapter 6 – What Do We Sell?
Chapter 7 – Who Are Our Franchisees?
Chapter 8 – A Day in the Life of a TeachPro Franchisee
Chapter 9 – What Are The Startup Costs?
Chapter 10 – How Much Money Can A TeachPro Franchisee Make?
Chapter 11 – A TeachPro Franchisee Profile
Chapter 12 – Where We Are Going?
Chapter 13 – If a Tutoring Company Answers “No” To Any of the Following Questions, the Parent Probably Needs To Keep Looking
Chapter 14 – Questions You Need To Be Able To Answer When You Call To Discuss the TeachPro Opportunity
Chapter 15 – Next Steps:

Preface

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Buying a new franchise for sale business is an important step for even the seasoned entrepreneur. The due diligence process is familiar to some and just words to others. At the TeachPro franchise we understand this. We also understand that most people want to gather their own details without a small business franchise sales process jumping all over them. So, we offer you this e-book with the intention of giving you an understanding of the education crisis and the tutoring franchise industry. We want you to get a good feeling for both, and for how the TeachPro franchise can be the solution to your desire to begin a good small business small business franchise career while giving back to your community. We give you this e-book with the sincere hope that it is beneficial to your decision-making process. Whatever direction you go, we wish you the best of luck.

Chapter 1 – The State Of Education in the United States

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“This is an absolute wake-up call for America. The results are extraordinarily challenging to us and we have to deal with the brutal truth. We have to get much more serious about investing in education.”
~ U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in an interview with The Associated PressThe state of education in the United States is troubling. Schools have failed all students in the basics of Reading, Writing, Science, and Math. They have stripped vital arts and physical education classes from the curriculum, in an effort to produce better results in the core subjects. However, 10 years into the most recent iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which is often referred to as No Child Left Behind (No Child Left Behind)

Education is in trouble nation wide. No Child Left Behind has not delivered its promise. The talk of many is to return all decision making back to the school districts. And it was the school districts that No Child Left Behind supposedly was to rescue it in 2001.

The problems are multiplying. The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and below-average 25th for mathematics.

Source: Page 8 of the PISA Report (2009)

“The mean PISA reading score for each country/economy show that reading standards vary greatly among countries and economies in ways that cannot simply be attributed to the countries’ different stages of economic development. A nation’s wealth influences educational success; but GDP per capita now explains only 6% of the differences between countries’ average student performance. The other 94% of differences reflect the fact that two countries of similar prosperity can produce very different educational results.”
Source: PISA 2009 At A Glance

Page 13 of the PISA Report (2009)

Chapter 2 – The TeachPro Solution

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What we know is the education system will not get better until we solve our problems with reading and math. All other subjects depend on proficiency in those two subjects.

Reading: When children become good readers in the early grades, they are more likely to become better learners throughout their school years and beyond. Becoming a reader involves the development of important skills, including learning to:

• Use language in conversation
• Listen and respond to stories read aloud
• Recognize and name the letters of the alphabet
• Listen to the sounds of spoken language
• Connect sounds to letters to figure out the “code” of reading
• Read often so that recognizing words becomes easy and automatic
• Learn and use new words
• Understand what is read

The National Reading Panel issued a report that identifies five key areas of reading instruction:

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Fluency
4. Vocabulary
5. Text Comprehension

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the sounds in the words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes.

Phonics instruction teaches children the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. It teaches children to use these relationships to read and write words.

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Their oral reading is choppy and plodding.

Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and between the text and their background knowledge. In other words, fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. Less fluent readers, however, must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention for understanding the text.

Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. In general, it can be described as oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print.

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read. As beginning readers, children use the words they have heard to make sense of the words they see in print. Consider, for example, what happens when a beginning reader comes to the word dig in a book. As she begins to figure out the sounds represented by the letters d, i, g, the reader recognizes that the sounds make up a very familiar word that she has heard and said many times. Beginning readers have a much more difficult time reading words that are not already part of their oral vocabulary.

Vocabulary also is very important to reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.

Text comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading. As they read, good readers are both purposeful and active.

Good readers are purposeful. Good readers have a purpose for reading. They may read to find out how to use a food processor, read a guidebook to gather information about national parks, read a textbook to satisfy the requirements of a course, read a magazine for entertainment, or read a classic novel to experience the pleasures of great literature.

Good readers are active. Good readers think actively as they read. To make sense of what they read, good readers engage in a complicated process. Using their experiences and knowledge of the world, their knowledge of vocabulary and language structure, and their knowledge of reading strategies (or plans), good readers make sense of the text and know how to get the most out of it. They know when they have problems with understanding and how to resolve these problems as they occur.

Research over 30 years has shown that instruction in comprehension can help students understand what they read, remember what they read, and communicate with others about what they read.

TeachPro Franchise has positioned itself to be a part of the solution. We see the need, we see the problem and we have the skills to fix these problems with the students that are tutored by TeachPro Franchise.

Chapter 3 – How Is TeachPro Different?

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There is only one solution to student’s problems with reading and/or math. We have to go back and re-pour the foundation under these students.

TeachPro begins with an assessment test that clearly identifies the student’s skill gaps. Many tutoring businesses companies feel their teachers are qualified to identify the student’s needs without a test. We do not agree. What we know, is teachers that begin tutoring without a pre-test waste many sessions with the student trying to pinpoint the problems. This is frustrating to the student and expensive for the parents.

Parents look for a tutoring businesses company for many reasons. Regardless of the parent’s level of education, most parents lose their talking power with their own children when it comes to education. Parents become concerned for many reasons. Most often it is the child’s school telling the parent there is a serious problem. Many times the school will suggest the parent consider holding back the child from moving to the next higher grade. That threat gets parents on the move to find a proactive solution. Enter a tutoring businesses company. In fairness to the average parent, they don’t know what to ask a tutoring businesses company to be certain they are qualified. Often it starts and ends with asking the tutors qualifications. If the tutor is a state certified teacher that satisfies most parents that their child will be in good hands. Maybe not.

The TeachPro Franchise business starts out by asking the parent if they want us to bring their student to grade level, above grade level or significantly above their grade level. Their answer is important and we take the time to be sure they understand what each of these means. The TeachPro Franchise considers grade level to be an average “C” student. Above grade level is an average “B” student. And significantly above grade level is an average “A” student. Remember, we are generally called to help with a student that is not achieving any of these levels. We use a form the parent checks off and initials. We do this because we know the parent called us because the school is telling them there is a serious problem. We know that a student making progress will generate fewer negative school comments to the parent. Many parents take this as “no news is good news”. The TeachPro’s Franchise tutoring prices are very competitive. Regardless, most parents are cutting back on something else to make this new expense fit into their budget. So the combination of reduced complaints from the school and possibly complaints from the child wanting more play time, the parent is likely to pull the plug on the tutoring lessons. Now is a great time to pull the paper where they initially selected what they want their child to achieve. This is important for two reasons: the student may not be to a point where they can hold their own going forward. And, consider the cost you have as a franchisee finding customers. It is much less cost to hold onto a customer that still needs you than to go out and find a new one to replace that customer.

The TeachPro’s Franchise management software does many things.

• It scores the students pre-test and selects the goals based on the student’s lowest benchmark scores. These goals are mapped to the new national common core state’s standards.
• It selects curriculum that focuses exactly on the students identified skill gaps. The curricula packets contain text books and work books from several publishers. We developed the lesson plans, extended activities, flash cards, etc. We also created the answer books.
• It creates a Parent’s Proposal that shows: the student’s scores, goals selected, the 12 rules of the TeachPro program, and the scheduled tutoring times and fees.

Progress Reports are important. After each tutoring session the tutor will enter into the TeachPro franchise online management program the time tutored and what was covered. Every two weeks we require the Progress Reports be given to the parent(s). Often it is emailed and followed up with a phone call to discuss the report. It is really important this process be managed. This is your only time to keep the parent involved in the process and understanding there is more that needs to be accomplished. It cannot be stated too often that when the school stops sending home negative comments on every paper it does not mean the student has achieved the goals initially set and agreed to by the parents.

Incentive programs are important. TeachPro has an incentive program called Smart Street in place to handle this piece of the tutoring experience. TeachPro’s Smart Street program is set-up so that students can earn credits during the tutoring session, the tutor enters them into the TeachPro online management system and can track the students progress towards their goal. If a student reaches their goal, they will be rewarded with a gift they selected at the start of the program. An incentive program keeps the student happy and improves their performance. We recommend spending between $10 and $20 dollars per month. This amount should be agreed to with the parent and billed to them each month along with your other fees. When you run your TeachPro Smart Street program properly students are your best salespersons to keep the tutoring lessons going. Another way said, they will argue with their parents when they hear talk that the parents want to discontinue the tutoring sessions.

Invoicing is also handled through the TeachPro franchise online management program. How this is setup is important. There are three ways you can invoice:

• Pre-bill 30 days at a time (recommended). We always feel you should not tutor ahead of the money. But when you charge the parent is an important decision. Don’t be rigid on your billing dates. Find out when they feel that date should be each month. The parent will pick a date that immediately follows when they are paid.
• Post-bill 30 days at a time. This is the method that will cause more non payments than any other. When the parent is certain they don’t need you anymore they no longer have the same incentive to be current with their payments. Again, we recommend you not tutor ahead of the money.
• Collect a payment each time you tutor. This method creates the most absences. When the parent is running short of money they will often rationalize the tutoring session can be skipped.

Chapter 4 – The TeachPro Franchise Story

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TeachPro’s co-founder is Jim Damiani. Jim spent 36 years in the heating and air conditioning industry. At Lennox Industries he achieved the position of Senior Vice President of North American sales operations. He was recruited as president of ClimateMaster, the worlds leading manufacturer of geothermal systems. He was then recruited as president of York International’s Unitary Products Division (a nearly two billion dollar division). He retired in 2000 and spent a year playing golf and doing other things he had convinced himself “go along” with retirement. Today, he likes to say he flunked retirement.

His wife and co-founder, Jackie Damiani, has her Bachelors and Masters in Education. At this time she has been an educator for 39 years. They decided to do something together, so they bought an education franchise and then opened four fixed location tutoring centers. Jim was the business and sales side of the business and Jackie handled the education side of the business. Soon, they found themselves the largest franchisee in that franchise. They simply outgrew their franchisor and entered successful negotiations to go out on their own. They sold their fixed location learning centers to their directors in 2005.

The sale of these locations allowed them to focus more on their No Child Left Behind after school tutoring program. The lure of this program is that it served students whose parents usually could not afford this level of tutoring. They started in Oklahoma and eventually expanded to 21 states. From Oklahoma they initially expanded to Arkansas and then to Texas. At that point, they realized they needed a very good management system to keep track of their expanding business. They hired Peter Njihia, who is still their Director of Programming. Peter has both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science. Peter hired additional programmers and they developed the management program they called Scout. Scout was initially designed to control the key 15 indicators needed to run a successful after school tutoring business.

In 2008, they sold their No Child Left Behind tutoring business. They excluded the Scout Online Management Program and Scout Consultants from the sale. They immediately began to lease it to other No Child Left Behind tutoring companies. Their next step was to expand the program to handle the school districts part of that business.

In 2009 they decided to build their own assessment test. At this time that has been completed for grades pre-K through 8th grade. The product is called the Danforth Assessment Test. This project was managed by their daughter Juliet Stuteville and is still managed in their Kansas City location by Juliet and her team. Juliet has her bachelors in education. TeachPro still uses a 3rd party test for high school.

Eighteen months ago we decided to take the multiple divisions of our company and form a new company called TeachPro. To do this, we took our 11 years of tutoring experience and decided the best business model is the in-home tutoring model. In the TeachPro franchise we use the Danforth Assessment Test to identify the student’s needs. We modified the Scout Online Management Program to focus specifically on the in-home tutoring business model. We use the curricula packets we put together over the years to run the No Child Left Behind tutoring business.

Chapter 5 – A Growing Industry

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A recent article in the New York Times estimates the size of the tutoring industry as $5 to $7 Billion. The fastest growing segment of that industry is in-home tutoring. Our parent company, eAbruzzi, Inc., is very involved with tutoring companies in the No Child Left Behind program. eAbruzzi’s online management program is used by tutors in nearly every state. Through that usage, we see only two successful tutoring models. They are in-school tutoring and in-home tutoring. Why? Because the parent does not have to provide transportation. Well-known tutoring businesses companies, such as Sylvan Learning, have not signed up as many students as in-home tutoring franchises companies and in-school tutoring companies, despite their major brand recognition. The reason is the students have to travel to their facilities.

In-school tutoring is a factor in the No Child Left Behind program but not in the private parent pay tutoring industry. Another important reason is the lower cost of in-home tutoring. The in-home tutoring company does not have the overhead cost of a permanent education learning center. The rent is one factor but the initial setup cost for furnishings specified by the franchisors make that model very expensive. Call around and price shop the different tutoring small business franchises companies you know about; often the fixed location companies will charge at least 50% more.

Other reasons for the popularity of in-home tutoring are one teacher to one student. Learning centers typically have a minimum 1:3 ratio. Another important reason is there are fewer distractions. Put a student that is easily distracted in a room with up to 15 students sitting three to a table and the student has a problem.

Chapter 6 – What Do We Sell?

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Franchise buyers want to know exactly what they can expect from their small business franchise opportunity franchisor. They want to know what level of service and support they will get, how much it will cost each month and how dependable the service will be.

Let’s start with what it costs. The TeachPro Franchise does not and will not make their money on Franchise Fees. The Franchise Fees charged are designed to cover initial TeachPro Franchise expenses. The TeachPro Franchise will make their money the same way the franchisee will, selling tutoring lessons.

• The TeachPro Franchise offers a generous discount if one of the operating owners is a state certified teacher.
• The TeachPro Franchise sells territories in four different population sizes: 50,000 people, 100,000 people, 150,000 people and 200,000 people. Anything larger than 200,000 requires the franchisee to buy another franchise.
• The royalty fee is 6% or a specific monthly fee, whichever is greater. The fees are:
• the greater of 6% or $325 per month for 50,000 population territories;
• the greater of 6% or $400 per month for 100,000 population territories;
• the greater of 6% or $475 per month for 150,000 population territories;
• the greater of 6% or $500 per month for 200,000 population territories.
• The National advertising fee is 2% and collected monthly.

Other fees are as follows:

• When we reach the level of 40 franchisees, the TeachPro Franchise will begin a program that allows franchisees to transfer their calls to us when they want to take a break. TeachPro will gather the prospect information and forward it to you.
• The TeachPro Franchise Online Management Program will cost each franchisee $50 per month.
• If a franchisee sells their franchise, the transfer fee is $1500. The new franchisee must pay a $3000 training cost.
• The franchise agreement is for 5 years. The renewal fee is $700 and the franchisee must sign the then current Franchise Agreement.
• Danforth Assessment tests will be billed at the rate of $6 each. We require you price the test at $25. There are times of the year that you can and should offer the assessment test for FREE.
• Learning packet prices range from $25 to $47, depending on subject and grade level. An entire set of Answer Books cost $75. Additional sets of the Answer Books may be copied by the franchisee. We require you mark up the curricula packets at least 20%. (Cost X 1.25)
• You are required to spend, on average, $500 per month advertising your TeachPro franchise. The in-home tutoring business has a predicable sales curve.
• The TeachPro Smart Street incentive program is a range of $10 to $20 per month. You will not be allowed to mark up this fee.

The TeachPro Franchise sells a tutoring program that has worked for thousands and thousands of students over the years. And when we find a new piece of curricula that we feel will get even better results, we make the change. (The) TeachPro Franchise system is so dependable that we require you offer your customer 5 free tutoring sessions if your first thirty 90-minute sessions do not improve the student’s Danforth Assessment Test score by at least 25%.

The TeachPro Franchise has a customer service department that understands your business and can quickly show you how to fix any problem you encounter. They also understand reasonable requests for program improvements. Therefore we are always improving our product.

Chapter 7 – Who Are Our Franchisees?

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The TeachPro Franchise customers fit a wide profile:

Chapter 8 – A Day in the Life of a TeachPro Franchisee

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As an entrepreneur you need to keep in mind the old saying “the early bird gets the worms”. So set an aggressive schedule for you in your business.

Your day starts in your PJ’s or your workout clothes, sitting at your computer with your coffee in one hand and the mouse in your other hand. You are looking at the following things:

You go to the owners Dashboard. Here you can see:

• Your individual tutors and their customers
• The hours to date for each customer
• Year-to-date revenue
• Month-to-date revenue
• Projected revenue
• Year-to-date absences
• Month-to-date absences
• Student-to-teacher ratios in those situations where there are multiple students per teacher. Think scholarships.
• Student status – Total students, tested but not being tutored yet, tutoring students, and completed students
• Year-to-date tutor hours
• Month-to-date tutor hours

The Dashboard is your guide to Management by Exception. You can see what happened through the day before. You may see something you don’t like so now you have a specific task you need to iron out that work day. We view the Dashboard like a football playing field. The chalk lines are drawn. In football, when a player steps out of bounds the whistle blows and the play stops. In your business it should be the same.

• Review your advertising plan. What is working? What is not working? Do you need to place an ad to increase leads?
• Spend the day making contacts.
• Call on school counselors
• Talk to non profit organizations that cater to youngsters. Is there a way to partner with them? An example is to tutor some of their member students at their locations.
• Study what your competition is doing. Where are they advertising? What are they doing that gets your potential students?
• Invite people that can help your business to meet you for lunch. If they will let you, pay for their lunch. We like the lunch meetings because the restaurant is a neutral location and always makes the meeting friendlier.
• Interview new tutors. This is a good place to mention your rule needs to be that you only hire “kid magnets”. If they are dry and uninspiring in the interview, they will be that way with your customers. This is not the way to get future word of mouth customers. Remember, “kid magnets”.
• Return customer calls.
• Schedule initial tests. In the beginning, you the owner do these tests. Why? Because they are really sales calls and you need to personally get a feel for them and how they go. Eventually, you need to train someone else to do this. So you need to master this activity first.

Chapter 9 – What Are The TeachPro Franchise Startup Costs?

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Time to channel “your inner miser” the right way! “Smart entrepreneurs are doing more with less,” says Joseph R. Cardamone, president of the U.S. Federation of Small Businesses. “With diminished cash flow and tight credit, only those businesses that operate efficiently will survive this economic downturn, which may last several years.”

*Currently the Franchise Fee for an In-home tutoring franchise is a territory with up to 50,000 persons of population is $5,000 if you are an educator with a current, non-provisional teaching certification granted to you by any state. The Franchise Fee for an In-home tutoring franchise is $7,500 if you do not have such certification. For a territory from 50,000 to 100,000 persons of population, the Initial Franchise Fee is $7,500/$10,000. For a territory from 100,000 to 150,000 persons of population the Initial Franchise Fee is $10,000/$12,500. For a territory from 150,000 to 200,000 persons of population the Initial Franchise Fee is $12,500/$15,000.

Chapter 10 – How Much Money Can A TeachPro Franchisee Make?

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The two things every franchisee prospect wants to know are how much does the franchise cost and how much money can they earn? Franchising rules make it very difficult to identify how much a person can make with a TeachPro franchise. We choose to answer this question by showing a series of proformas for the Oklahoma City, OK metro area. There are six proformas. Each one shows a franchise at a different level of sales activity. Each one shows profits based on the Oklahoma City economy. It should be understood that Oklahoma City is one of the lowest cost of living markets in the United States. So it is the responsibility of the reader to adjust each of the proforma numbers to meet the economic conditions in their city. There are many ways to do this. One is to mystery shop existing in-home tutoring franchises in the city they wish to build their business. Another way is to compare the cost of living numbers for Oklahoma City to their city. There are several websites that do this calculation:

1. http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html
2. http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx
3. http://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator

The most important ingredient to a successful small business franchise is the drive and skill of the franchisee. These proformas identify a franchise at various stages of development. It should be kept in mind the demographics of the territory selected by the franchisee will play a large role in the success of their franchise. Most parents want the best education for their children. But it takes money to pay for the services of a TeachPro franchise. It is important to buy the franchise territory in an area where the demographics suggest families are very likely to have discretionary income. The TeachPro Franchise has the product to help children improve mastery of reading and math. Competing successfully to be the parents tutoring choice is influenced most by the capable efforts of the franchisee.

Chapter 11 – A TeachPro Franchisee Profile

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A successful franchisee must be ready for many changes in his or her life.

A prospective franchisee usually comes from a job that required them to specialize. A marketing manager does not work with payroll; a traffic manager does not work with advertising, etc. A franchisee usually inherits all jobs in their franchise day one. They must be multi-taskers and will do many of the following tasks:

• Find an accounting firm
• Find an attorney to setup the business. Corporation? LLC?
• Setup the utilities, internet, telephone, cell phone account, etc.
• Buy accounting software such as Quickbooks.
• Purchase computers, printers, desks, chairs, etc.
• Setup a payroll company if different from the accountant.
• Set up an account with FedEx or UPS.
• Buy company insurance.
• Get a company credit card.
• Set up a company bank account
• Setup your new domain name for your email and web site.
• Setup health insurance.
• Hire employees

It is the Franchisor’s responsibility to provide a good business model. But what if it does not work as perfectly as you expected? What do you do then? We believe franchisees have to be selected on the basis of how they will handle that question. Every place has its own unique culture. So it is naïve to believe the franchisor’s model will fit everyone all the time. The franchisee must be a problem solver. When Plan A doesn’t work, they must move on to a Plan B. And they may have to develop that on their own.

A franchisee must be a team player. With individual territories, it is important each franchisee follow the rules so the brand becomes the same good experience everywhere. Think about it. You drive into a McDonalds in a strange town because you believe the quality and experience will be the same as in your home town. It’s the same with your brand; team players make that work.

For me the P&L statement and balance sheet became my main work focus. And that moved me to the top of each company I worked for, when I had a real job. But the job I had along the way that I really loved was sales. So leaving the corporate work force and going to work in my own small company was a good move for me. After doing all of the initial things mentioned above, I spent the majority of my time launching our sales. It was a new kind of sale but I caught on and we grew quickly. And I was having fun. When plans fell apart, I was able to call on my assessment and management skills to move around the problems. And I was having fun.

So my belief is the successful franchisee has to be:
• Tired of working for someone else
• A self starter
• A problem solver
• A lover of sales
• And a good boss

Chapter 12 – Where We Are Going?

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The TeachPro Franchise, an in-home tutoring franchise, expects to expand to 500 locations in all 50 states.

Our company will become the number one tutoring franchise in the United States. We have the skills and products it takes to make that happen. Our market is remedial tutoring in the core subjects of reading and math. To achieve our goal, it will take the single-minded focus of everyone on the team.

We will make the changes necessary, from time-to-time, to keep up with best materials, etc. But the goal will be achieved through individual successes that are passed on from one customer to the next. The goal will be achieved because we will have franchisees that select tutors that are ‘kid magnets.” Said another way, the goal will be achieved because of our strong focus.

Here is what CEO Jim Damiani says:
“TeachPro is made up of the best pieces of our other brands. (The) TeachPro (Franchise) online management program handles all of the details of the program. The Danforth Test is used to measure student mastery. Said differently, it identifies student skill gaps. Our grant writing division is available to franchisees to write grants they find in their territories. And the Smart Street incentive program keeps the student motivated. I have not found an equal product in the other available in-home tutoring companies. Successful companies sell themselves by their points of difference.

Chapter 13 – If a Tutoring Business Company Answers “No” To Any of the Following Questions, the Parent Probably Needs To Keep Looking

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Staff Qualifications:

• Are your tutors state-certified teachers?
• Do your tutors have teaching experience in a public or private school?

Determining Your Student’s Needs:

• Is an assessment test given to pinpoint specific gaps in the student’s basic skills?
• Does the battery of tests focus on multiple skills such as vocabulary, comprehension, math concepts, math applications, etc.”

Individualized Program:

• Is an individualized tutoring program designed specifically for each student for each class?
• Is the program linked to the results of testing?

Personal Attention:

• Does the program offer a 1:1 student-to-teacher ratio?
• Will the student be working with a tutor face-to-face at all times?

Curriculum and Method of Instruction:

• Does your library of curriculum come from some of the nation’s leading publishers in education?
• Will you make sure the student has mastered a skill before you move onto the next?

Success Rate:

• Does your program achieve, on average, over 25% increase in test scores for 30 sessions of tutoring?

Motivation and Self Confidence:

• Do you include activities that aid in self confidence?
• Do you have a specific program that will motivate the student? (Can they earn rewards such as MP3’s, portable CD’s, walkie-talkies?)

Chapter 14 – Questions You Need To Be Able To Answer When You Call To Discuss the TeachPro Franchise Opportunity

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Questions about your career:

1. What is your work history?
2. What do you currently do?
3. What are your responsibilities?
4. Why are you looking to start a business?
5. What are you looking for a business to produce?
6. What would you like to be earning in one, three and five years?
7. How does what you want to earn compare to your current earnings?
8. How much cash does it take to run your household each month?
9. What other financial objectives do you have? (such as increase net worth, etc.?)
10. What does winning look like to you?

Questions about your family:

1. Are you married? If yes, does your spouse support you starting a business?
2. Do you have children? How many? What ages?

Questions about your other career or franchise options

1. What other concepts have you looked at?
2. What kept you from moving forward with these concepts?
3. What other career options have you investigated? Why?

Questions about your personal finances:

1. If I were to review your financial statement, what is the cash you have available to invest?
2. Leaving out personal items like furniture and cars, what would you ballpark your net worth to be?
3. If I were to pull your credit report, what would it say?

Chapter 15 – Next Steps:

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Call Jim Damiani at 855-255-7323 (toll-free) if The TeachPro Franchise feels like something you want to be a part of. You can count on him to be frank about the industry and your chances to be successful, based on the information you give him.