My franchise story: Former teacher makes education her business

“Tutor Doctor has given me the opportunity that I was looking for," says Amrit Rahi-Deogun, Tutor Doctor Greenwich franchisee

Amrit Rahi-Deogun launched Tutor Doctor Greenwich in August 2017. In less than two years, she has over 100 tutors on the books and the number of families she works with has almost doubled year on year. The mother-of-two puts her success down to her experience working in education, within both schools and youth services – supporting children with their learning. After realising this passion could become her business, Amrit has never looked back.

“Tutor Doctor has given me the opportunity that I was looking for,” she says. “I love being able to see children and young people achieve their full potential in every way – whether it be academic or personal. Seeing results, making families happy is very rewarding to me. But not only that, it has enabled me to spend more time with my own family. I regularly take my children to and from school, so it’s had an overwhelmingly positive impact on my family life too.”

Amrit graduated from Leeds University in 1996 with a degree in Maths. She started working in youth services in Greenwich in Bexley where she did a whole range of jobs: delivering extended school’s provision, delivering youth activities in areas of deprivation, managing youth centres, supporting voluntary sector organisations and much more. Whilst working hard, Amrit met her partner, got married and the couple moved into their first place together. After the birth of their first child, the young mum decided that she wanted better working hours to fit around her son.

Amrit decided that being a school teacher would bring her a better flexible schedule, so went to study for her PGCE at Goldsmith’s University. From there, she secured a job as a maths teacher. Throughout the years, she worked her way up the ladder, firstly as Head of Key Stage 3 and then towards becoming Head of Department. However, pregnancy left her reconsidering once again.

“I’d given birth to my daughter and being on maternity leave meant I could pick up my son from school,” she explains. “It was whilst doing the school run that I began thinking about doing something else for me – something that could fit easily around my family. I craved something with even more flexibility and that’s when I started thinking about having my own business.

“I realised that I had to start thinking about the long term and have a career where I could be more available for my children. I thought about my strengths in supporting children and I realised a tutoring business would be perfect. That’s when I came across Tutor Doctor. Here was a way to start my own business with the support of a global network behind me – so I went for it!”

Tutor Doctor is the fastest growing in-home tutoring franchise in the world. Franchisees work with families to thoroughly assess a child’s needs and then carefully select the best-fit tutor based on goals, personality and learning style. Tutors then visit students at home or work with them via an online platform, so that they can learn in the comfort of their own home, at a time that suits them. Tutor Doctor franchisees arrange and oversee the tutor-student relationship for a truly bespoke solution and exceptional level of service.

In August 2017, Amrit and her fellow new recruits flew out to Toronto for an intensive seven-day business boot camp. Tutor Doctor’s award-winning training programmes prepare new franchisees for everything they need to run a successful business so that when they arrive back home, they’re ready for launch!

“It was very full-on, although extremely thorough, and I came home equipped with everything I needed to get going. It was great to find out everything there is to know about the business model and to be reassured that I would have the support from a great team should I ever need it,” says Amrit.

After you launch your franchise, you are actively supported across all areas of your business through structured training programmes, weekly coaching calls, weekly global calls and on-demand support as you need it. As your business grows, Tutor Doctor has specifically designed support systems to help you continue growth, build momentum and ultimately scale your business to help you achieve your financial and personal goals.

Amrit arrived home, prepped with the tools she needed to hit the ground running. She had peace of mind in knowing that, if she ever needed support on any aspect of business, her dedicated Learning Support Specialist (LSS) was only ever a phone call away.

“At the beginning, I completely immersed myself into the business and said yes to any opportunity that would come my way. I underestimated how much time and effort my husband and family would have to put in to support me, in order to get the business up on its feet,” she says.

Tutor Doctor has almost 600 franchise territories in 15 countries across the globe. Already topping the bill in Europe, the UK is also one of the top spenders on private tuition worldwide, with 25 per cent of households using private tutoring services. Its UK network of 70-plus franchisees all enjoy an exciting, scalable business whilst making a positive impact in the lives of children.

Looking back to her first year, Amrit says that the support she got from her family, friends and the local community was a driving force behind getting the business rolling. To grow the business, Amrit realised the best people to be in her team would be other like-minded mums in the community.

“Mothers know the struggles of providing the best education for their children, so they felt strongly about my business. Once I had the faith of other people behind me, it was only up from there. I just had to believe that I could do it.

“By the time I’d got through the first six months to May, things were looking really good. We had the usual slow-down time in the summer, but I hired an admin assistant in October to help with things around the office. The start of the new school year bought an influx of business, so it was necessary,” reflects Amrit.

Things were going so well that Amrit made the decision to hire a finance assistant in November. This allowed her to focus solely on consultations but also gave her the chance to do the things that she loves. A keen runner and swimmer, Amrit thoroughly enjoys her new work-life balance.

“It’s all started to come together very nicely. My business has really flourished, and I couldn’t be happier. Tutor Doctor has allowed me to continue doing the work that I’ve always loved, helping those in need, but become my own boss at the same time. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to give something back to my community. The impact of my franchise both to my own family and others now and in the future is something that I’m incredibly proud of,” says Amrit.