Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel & Tristan Thompson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Rachel & Tristan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
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Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Tell us the story about the last time you had that thought, what was going on, really paint the picture for us so we can understand what you were going through and how you thought through this question and what (if any) conclusions or insights you came to.
What people may not know about Tristan and I is that after Tristan’s professional basketball career he became an entrepreneur, as for myself after college I worked in corporate for ten years before transition into business ownership with my husband. We regularly have this conversation as Tristan has never experienced anything different from working for himself, and I had to make a very uncomfortable adjustment from a corporate job to being a business owner. Being a business owner is vastly different than from working in corporate for a lot of reasons, but these are some of the highlights I have noticed:
1. As an employee I followed rules, standards, and policies, as an employer and owner.. I create the standard and uphold the rules and it my responsibility to ensure everyone knows and is adequately trained and knowledgeable of those expectations.
2. As a business owner, you have a significantly more flexible schedule to do the things you want to do or what you need to do, however your day does not end at 5PM, and it’s difficult to get an uninterrupted vacation or day off. Sometimes the success of your business could rely on you answering the phone, regardless of what time or where in the world you are.
3. No one is going to have your back as a business owner more than you and it’s your job to clean up any mess, and put out any fires. There is no upper management to cover you, you cover you and the integrity of what you built.
4. You are going to hear “no,” more than you are going to hear “yes.” And sometimes you’ll never know why. As personally as you may take it because it’s your business and you’re personally invested, you can’t let it stop you or make you doubt yourself. It’s ok to adjust your approach, make mistakes and fix them along the way… but don’t let the rejection keep you down or else you’ll get nothing done.
Tristan and I work in an industry that works with students and their parents, there is a lot of emotion and expectations when someone hires our services to help their child. There can be very challenging and emotional days where you wonder how much longer you can do it, how many difficult days you can take, and what is next. Sometimes I think about going back to corporate myself, but the pros of being a business owner has significantly outweigh the cons, if it were easy wouldn’t everyone do it? As for Tristan all he has ever known is working for himself, the idea of working for someone else, is impossible for him to imagine, which is why he focuses on expanding and growing, building teams to delegate and trust with more work to allow us to focus on upcoming projects and ventures. The reality is, once you have worked for yourself and have been able to be successful at it, the idea of working for someone else in a corporate job isn’t something you think about doing.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Tristan: When I was studying for the SAT, I actually went to my aunt’s Tutoring Club in Pearland, TX, she started that location. I was able to get a full ride basketball scholarship to UNT, during my summers in college I would tutor at her center, and after I played professional basketball a few years, went back to work for her, and eventually became a partner and bought my own center in Allen, TX. It has since been consistently rated the best tutoring service in the Dallas area. My wife, Rachel is from Cypress, TX and after we had our son, we decided to open another location in Cypress, TX, which she operates today since transitioning out of working in corporate education.
About Tutoring Club: From Pre-K to College, we are the one-stop shop for all of your educational needs. We will help your child on their way to success regardless of their skill level. We offer comprehensive beginning reading programs focused on mastery of phonics, reading fluency, and sight word proficiency to make sure our students are starting off on the right foot. If your student needs help with the fundamentals in math, reading, writing, coursework from school, or even SAT & ACT Prep, our highly skilled tutors will get them pointed in the right direction. We work hard to develop study skills and good organization habits to make sure our students are prepared for success. As an added bonus, we continuously monitor your student’s grades via their school’s online grade platforms to help make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Our individualized approach targets your student’s weak points and improves upon them, bringing their ability up to meet goals that we have collectively established with you and your family. By covering key points at the student’s own pace, we allow them to flourish and learn at a stimulating and rewarding rate.
We are truly proud of our custom approach – every child is different, and we work with each child to meet them where they are at and go from there. The best part of our jobs is seeing kids truly make a 180 in their academic track, seeing them gain their confidence back, and getting those calls/texts from parents saying how appreciative they are for what we have done for their child – when students come in with their progress reports/tests with As, it’s just a great feeling. Rachel and I have both been very successful in our academic careers and professional careers, but also genuinely caring about each student, asking them about their day, their extracurricular activities, letting them know we SEE them. We know for parents working with their own children can be emotional, it’s nice to be able to take the pressure off but also have a GAME PLAN for their child’s future. We take a lot of pride in what we do.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Tristan: The first experience that comes to mind when having to pivot in business is when the pandemic hit. That was a difficult time for everyone, but especially business owners, people were losing their jobs, people were home and confused, it was a really scary time. In regards to education, school had gone completely online, so naturally as did we. Parents [new clients] weren’t really looking for tutoring at the time, our priority was helping our currently cliental and having to shift online to virtual tutoring sessions was a challenge but in that time it was best alternative to do doing nothing for our students. In a time of uncertainty we were able to continue to help our families, and eventually re-opened with social distancing practices in place, and actually grew, where as some businesses closed, so we are very grateful.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We work with students and parents, when it comes to raising kids we KNOW it takes a village. So when parents invest in us, we become a small part of their village. We help kids improve in their school work, help with their homework, gain confidence, we love hearing about their extra curriculars, we counsel, check in with kids when it looks like they had a rough day, attending games, and we have even been invited to birthday parties! We genuinely care about each of our students’ success but love sharing in whatever part of their lives they want to share with us. And showing you care, goes such a long way. It is so much more than tutoring for us, and being genuine in our approach but also yielding the results parents expect of us, is what keeps families with us for years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tutoringclub.com/cypresstx/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tutoringclubcypress/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/TutoringClubCypressTX/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tutoring-club-of-cypress-cypress
- Other: Allen, TX Website: https://www.tutoringclub.com/allentx/ Allen,TX Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tutoringcluballen/?hl=en Allen TX, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TutoringClubAllen/ Allen, TX YELP: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tutoring-club-allen-2