We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yolanda Fontanez-Coleman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yolanda below.

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

The idea for launching my tutoring business came from my firsthand experiences teaching in Philadelphia. Witnessing the significant need for personalized educational support, I felt a profound sense of responsibility to address this gap. Moreover, I was driven by a deep desire to extend my impact beyond the confines of a single classroom and reach a broader span of learners. By founding my tutoring business, I aimed to provide high-quality, individualized tutoring services that could make a tangible difference in the lives of students, empowering them to achieve their academic goals and unlock their full potential.

Yolanda, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a young girl, I loved working with children, I was the family babysitter, I nannied for many families and my passion to work with children grew from there. I started teaching right out of college, I was a bilingual kindergarten teacher for the first few years. Then towards the end of my 10 years of classroom teaching, I had the pleasure of moving forward with one of my classes for 3 grades, in the teaching world, we call that looping with your class. It was such a cool experience to be with one group of kids for 3 years, I built such a strong relationship with my students and their families. I got to experience immense growth in my students, I believe that knowing & understanding your students well help in aiding in their academic success and progress. It was through this experience of “looping” that I realized how important building rapport and meeting your students where they are, are a huge part in a student’s academic success. I remember vividly working with a small group of students during my final year as a classroom teacher and thinking, “there has to be a program that focuses on tailored & personalized learning programs for students”. At the time, I didn’t realize that would be last year in the classroom, I ended up going on an early maternity leave, with my twins and I never returned to the classroom.

Prior to having my children, I had intentions of returning to the classroom, however when I held my twins for the first time, I knew I could not go back to work full-time. As a two income family, I needed to figure out a way to make it work financially for our new family of 4. It was with a lot of research and during my many marathon training runs, that Team Tutor came to fruition.

I was able to realize that my deep yearning to create a tutoring program that is tailored to a student’s academic needs and learning style can actually become a reality. During the very beginning stages of parenthood and creating Team Tutor, I was working during nap times and night times. It was not easy. But my goal was to be able to provide a steady income for my young family (now 5) while being able to stay in the very industry that fueled my soul and that I was so passionate about, educating and inspiring children!

It seems like it was yesterday that Team Tutor was created, we are celebrating 20 years this year! We have this amazing team of teachers and an internal team that takes pride in our work. We work with many families and schools to provide the highest level of personalized tutoring for all students in grades K through 12. Our mission is to provide each and every student with the tools they need to achieve academic success in the classroom and beyond!

As I look back at my career and the growth of Team Tutor, I am so proud of the community we have built and the support we have established for so many students. I am inspired daily by the dedicated tutoring staff we have, our internal team is beyond committed to our mission and our students, families and school partners. I look forward to many more years of supporting students in our communities, all students can learn if they are given access to programs such as Team Tutor!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I love the word, pivot! It’s a great indicator of how flexible and nimble you are and as a business owner, flexibility is vital!

Prior to Covid, our business was about 95% in-person tutoring model. However, 4 years post covid we are flipped and now do most of our work virtually. At first, it seemed like there was much resistance in terms of our staff wanting to go in-person to provide our services. Now the online tutoring model actually is more beneficial for the organization as a whole.

We worked many ways to flip it so we could go back to an in-person tutoring model again, but as we continued we took a step back and looked at the pros/cons of what an online tutoring business model would offer.

Having a flexible mindset and moving into offering more online tutoring also expanded our reach and has allowed more schools and families the opportunity to work with Team Tutor! Pivoting in business is required and staying open minded and flexible will allow you to experience opportunities when you least expect it!

Any advice for managing a team?

There is so much that goes in to leading a team and maintaining a high morale in your organization. One of the key elements is having a set of core values that you follow. These core values should be embedded in how you run your organization. Our core values is H.E.A.R.T (Humble, Empathy, Accountability, Responsibility & Team Collaboration). Our core values set the tone for organization and our recruiting team uses them when they screen for new hires.

I am a strong believer in knowing your team and putting them in the right spots so they can lead, grow and feel empowered, I have been leading a team for about 20 years and understanding where your teams strengths and weaknesses lie can really assist in ensuring you are building a positive team and culture.

In order to effectively lead and maintain a positive work culture and high morale, I believe listening to your team is a huge factor. I have 1-1 meetings bi-monthly with each of my internal team members, we structure the meetings so they are able to share their concerns and needs. We do start every meeting with gratitude and wins! I believe that starting our meetings with positivity really sets the tone in the meeting and in our org. We also have monthly tutor chats for our tutors so they can connect and share their concerns with our team. These meetings give our team the platform they need to connect and share their concerns.

I also feel that supporting your team goes along way, and promoting that the team supports each other. Building a positive rapport with the team is very important. It builds a positive morale and deepens the work culture.

Offering opportunities for growth within the organization is another way to build high morale and a positive work culture. Personal and professional growth empowers individuals and it has a positive impact on the overall work culture and morale.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.teamtutor.com
• Instagram: teamtutorllc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamtutorllc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yolanda-fontanez-coleman-1b3a057/

Image Credits
https://www.facebook.com/KaraRaudenbushPhotography