We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura George a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

As a mother of four boys and an entrepreneur, I have learned to manage many responsibilities and obligations and have gained insight from them all, which has helped me to stay nimble and strengthen my creative and leadership skills. All the valuable experiences I have gained in life – working in a small, women- and minority-owned advertising agency, serving on the Northwestern Kellogg Admissions Committee for two years as a full-time MBA student, providing customized ACT/SAT tutoring and college and MBA essay coaching/application consulting as a sole proprietor for a decade – led me to founding and growing my college consulting and tutoring company, Laura George Consulting (LGC).

The origin story for LGC draws from equal parts entrepreneurial spirit, passion for empowering others, and serendipity. When my part-time sitter asked for more hours nearly seven years ago, I agreed, but I felt compelled to do something productive with that extra time. During my years as a sole proprietor in the test prep and college consulting space, I had noticed the presence of many area tutoring firms as well as independent essay coaches and college consultants, but no one provided a sole source of trusted expertise to families and students throughout the journey to college. I founded Laura George Consulting to fill that void and pursued a goal of understanding and meeting the specific, individualized needs of every family and student with whom I worked. After expanding my team slowly and thoughtfully, I now employ an amazing group of expert PSAT/SAT/ACT tutors, educational consultants, and essay and application coaches who are equally passionate about our continued mission to empower each unique student to chart a clear path forward to their best-fit colleges.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Laura George Consulting is unique. We partner with families and students to help them navigate the entire journey to college. Our team of experts provides an unparalleled level of customer service throughout our partnership in pursuit of our mission to empower students to achieve acceptance to their best-fit colleges.

We have found that parents and students have become increasingly stressed and overwhelmed by the college planning and admissions process over the past several years. Our goal is to meet each family and student where they are in this process, help them determine the best services that will support their unique journey, and deliver those services with the highest level of integrity, personal attention, and care. Our model is unique in that we do not advocate that families sign up with us for multi-year, “all services included” contracts, as we know every family is different and may not need or benefit from our many types of services. Instead, we offer a wide range of targeted services and packages as well as hourly options from which families can select in order to pursue the precise support and guidance that will best meet their student’s needs and goals.

Every family is paired with a Parent Liaison, who provides concierge-level guidance and service and serves as a consistent, trusted, knowledgeable “go to” person throughout a family’s partnership with our team of experts. We advise and support families on all aspects of the college preparation, search, and application process to minimize confusion and stress. Our team of tutoring, coaching, and advising experts provides your family a one-stop source for expert guidance on:

– Customized, one-on-one high school entrance exam tutoring (SSAT, HSPT, ISEE)
– Planning/maximizing the high school experience
– Customized, one-on-one ACT/SAT/PSAT tutoring
– Academic major/career interest assessment
– College selection and planning
– College essay and application guidance
– Scholarship search guidance
– Live online group tutoring courses for ACT and SSAT
– Recorded comprehensive ACT course and essay boot camp webinar coming in late winter 2023!

Our team works virtually via ZOOM with families and students across the country and internationally. While we are thrilled to work with families from a wide geographic range by drawing upon the robust resources of our seasoned team, we remain true to our roots as a small company, and we pride ourselves on maintaining an unparalleled level of high-touch customer service and personal support.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Whenever I share the story of launching my company with anyone, I always give significant credit to the power of social media. When I started my career in the 1990s, it would have been a much greater uphill battle to gain traction as an individual trying to launch and scale a business. The growth of platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and their ability to empower individuals to reach exponentially larger numbers of potential customers enabled me to quickly develop a platform through which I could share my expertise with a larger audience and thus establish credibility and gain clients more rapidly.

The most valuable advice I received about harnessing the power of social media came from a complete stranger (with whom, appropriately, I connected on a local working moms Facebook group). She offered to provide online marketing advice in exchange for taking her to lunch, and I happily obliged. She encouraged me to start a Facebook group in which I served as the expert and shared my vast knowledge about the college application and admissions process. I immediately established Parents of College Bound Kids, a Facebook group in which I blogged about a wide range of relevant topics, curated and shared related articles, and answered members’ questions. The group quickly grew and now supports nearly 10,000 members. Parents of College Bound Kids has helped me reach many more families, share my knowledge, and gain new clients.

I also started a weekly newsletter, Clear Path Forward to College, via my LinkedIn business page, which allows me to cultivate a growing audience of professionals who are also parents seeking advice about the college process.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

One of the unique aspects of my business is that every family is paired with a dedicated Parent Liaison (PL) throughout their partnership with us (which can span across multiple years and service types during the journey to college). Our PLs regularly touch base with clients, give updates on student progress regarding tutoring or essay work, send a monthly newsletter email filled with robust information and resources, and are generally “on call” when families need them. This unprecedented level of access and service has led to very pleased, satisfied families who kindly refer new clients to us regularly.

We also strive to provide valuable, free resources to the public on an ongoing basis. Earlier this year, we launched a free membership group, The Compass, on our website. By joining this group, families can gain access to timely and helpful written and recorded resources that provide information about a wide range of topics pertaining to college planning and admissions. We also partnered with renowned psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo to provide video content regarding teen mental health, a vital area of focus for families in today’s stressful climate.

Additionally, we offer free diagnostic testing and ACT/SAT informational open houses, live talks on social media, a free live chat function on our website that is staffed three times a week, and many more resources to help families through this journey. We also support educational foundations, area sports teams and arts organizations for students, and community organizations that provide vital services to local residents. We mentor students, provide pro bono tutoring and essay assistance, and generally seek to give back to the communities that have so graciously supported our growth over the years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laurageorgeconsulting.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurageorgeconsulting
• Facebook: www/facebook.com/laurageorgeconsulting
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/laura-george-consulting-llc
• Other: LinkedIn newsletter – Clear Path Forward to College: www.linkedin.com/newsletters/clear-path-forward-to-college-7000847105443418112 Link to register for a free 20-minute consult call: www.laurageorgeconsulting.com/lgc-free-20-minute-consultation

Image Credits
Katrina Wittkamp