Expansion Means More Tools, Technology and Tactics in Place to Help Franchisees Grow and Manage Their Businesses
It’s a time of record-breaking expansion for Class 101 franchises, and we are increasing home office staff and investing in tools and technology to support that growth on our path to 50 locations in 2018.
We announced several franchise-wide enhancements during this summer’s annual conference at Xavier University in Cincinnati. The most extensive is the implementation of a robust new platform software system to help franchisees manage and scale their business. The system standardizes processes such as sales reporting and invoicing. We’re also expanding our support staff. Bryan Smith, Chief Financial Officer, is the newest home office team member to join the Class 101 college planning franchise family. Bryan owned his own accounting software firm for 18 years before joining Class 101.
“We are in extreme growth mode, and it’s important to ensure that along the way we meet the demands of our growing business,” says Tom Pabin, Class 101 Founder. “Hiring Bryan is just another stepping stone toward ensuring we are operating at high standards and managing our rapid expansion.”
Class 101 national college planning franchise helps high school students get into better colleges and qualify for higher amounts of scholarships and financial aid. The college application process is complicated and stressful, resulting in students who get very little, or zero, financial aid and who often end up at the wrong school. Class 101 addresses this need by meeting one-on-one with students once a month for hour-long sessions throughout the year, resulting in improved ACT and SAT scores and GPAs. Additionally, our college planning experts guide students as they draft a high-performance resume and powerful essays, visit schools, complete applications ahead of schedule and navigate the scholarship and financial aid processes. The results are phenomenal. Class 101 students apply to 10 schools on average and receive more than $160,000 in scholarships and aid, much more than the average U.S. high school student who applies to a handful of schools and receives about $20,000 in scholarships and aid.
Class 101 Branding Benefits From Strong Company Culture
Class 101 has an extremely supportive company culture. Our franchisees form a strong and passionate network of business owners who provide advice and expertise to their fellow franchise owners. Beginning with their training days at our Lexington, Kentucky, headquarters and beyond, our franchisees share their knowledge informally, as well as formally through our twice-weekly franchise calls led by Tom.
“It’s really an exciting time to join our network of franchisees and get in on the ground floor of a business that really meets a pressing need for families who don’t know where to turn for help with college planning” – Tom Pabin, Class 101 Founder
We are also taking steps to improve our external communication processes, streamlining the sales process for potential clients. We are rolling out several exciting sales and marketing tools, including a standardized sales presentation, sales brochure detailing our unique college planning services and new individual center landing pages that provide franchisees with their own local web presence.
Class 101 Looks to the Future and Even International Expansion
Class 101 continues to expand into new parts of the country — such as Southern California, where the first of four franchise locations has opened in the affluent Orange County city of Irvine, consistently ranked as one of the top college towns in the nation. We are also getting hundreds of inquiries a month about our Class 101 business opportunity, including some from international locations.
“Eventually we’ll have such a large national presence that we’ll establish area directors and we’ll have a master franchise program that places franchisees in oversight positions managing entire states,” Tom says. “These are just a few of our 2017/2018 corporate goals that we shared at our conference at Xavier University. It’s really an exciting time to join our network of franchisees and get in on the ground floor of a business that really meets a pressing need for families who don’t know where to turn for help with college planning.”
Throughout 2017, Class 101 has expanded well beyond our Kentucky roots into cities as diverse as Boise, Idaho, and Bloomington, Indiana. The possibility for expansion internationally is also on our list of corporate goals. For business- minded individuals with a passion and heart for serving young people, the potential for growth with a Class 101 college planning franchise is tremendous as we stay on track toward 100 locations by 2020.
Join Class 101 College Planning Franchise
The initial investment to begin a Class 101 franchise is $40,490, and the potential for high revenue starts on day one. Several of our franchisees have surpassed the $100,000 revenue mark in their first or second year. The average gross sales for our top five franchises in 2015 was $137,000, according to our most recent FDD.
There’s never been a better time to join Class 101 college planning franchise. We’re enjoying unprecedented nationwide growth and are looking for new franchise owners who are passionate about helping young people find the right school and save money on college tuition.
Find out more by researching our franchise website, call 859-759-0495 or request a copy of our free franchise information report.
