Providing families with choices is a driving force for entrepreneurs who launched their busy and growing location in 2016
As Class 101 Savannah franchise owners, Philip and Janese Cooper have been instrumental in improving the lives of young people in their community. Beyond the personal connection they have with the students and their families, they are excited about the technology tools Class 101 has recently implemented to help students maximize their college application experience.
Philip has served on the board of the Frank Callen Boys and Girls Club of Savannah and is a past board chair. He’s also been an assistant basketball coach at a local high school. Janese has been a Kumon instructor since 2007 and has also served on the board of the Chatham Savannah Youth Futures Authority. Working closely with youth in their community as well as parenting their two teenagers, they understand the pressures facing high school students today. They see Class 101 as a valuable opportunity to help local teens navigate the stressful and competitive college application process.
“We’re excited about our goals and objectives for 2019, one of which is to get more interest in our community and raise our level of awareness through participating and serving our community and helping families understand our services. We’re here for students and we’re here about trying to help them save money for that college experience,” Philip says.
We recently spoke to Philip about the training and support Class 101 provides to its network of franchisees, which has now expanded nationwide, as well as what inspired him to join our growing franchise family.
How did you get interested in bringing Class 101 to your community?
My wife and I were interested in helping students in our community have access to better opportunities and Class 101 really stood out. I know for us we really didn’t have that guidance when we were graduating from high school and there are so many things that I have learned through the Class 101 process that I think, “Wow, I wish someone had told me these things.” So having that knowledge and information is one of the things that drives us to give back to our community and show them that we are here to help support them through the college application process.
How do the new support platforms rolled out in the past year help you grow your business?
Our Class 101 training has been awesome. The new platforms that we have allow us to raise our level of accountability. They provide great checks and balances not only for us as franchisees in understanding the systems and processes, but they also provide a level of confidence and transparency with the families. It’s been really great to have that new technology at our fingertips so we can provide better service to our clients.
How do these improvements help you help clients?
The great thing about our technology is that it lets us maintain data information on our students as they are going through their academic lives and their processes. It also allows us to remain in constant contact and communication not only with our students but their parents as well. We are also able to reach out to our community leaders and our marketing partners to keep them updated on information relevant to what we are doing.
Through our ACT and SAT prep-check program we are really able to get real-time feedback, offer baseline scores, help students where they are and see how we can get them to improve their scores and really take it to the next level. That’s what these new technologies have done for us, and it really makes being a franchisee a little bit easier just having that comfort and confidence to know that you have a support system that is around you to make that happen.
What do you love most about getting up and going to work?
It’s about watching students have the light bulb click on and take ownership of their college-application process. One of the things that is really exciting for us is we really push the adage of we want you to have a choice and not just settle and say, “This is the only school I have available to me or this is the only opportunity.” We want our students to have more so they can say, “Now I have done so well with my academics and I’ve got a great score, now I have a choice.” After working with us they can say this school is offering me this amount of money, but it’s too far away or it’s too cold. And this school is offering me the same amount of money, and it’s closer to home and it’s more of what I want. Class 101 really allows students and families to have more choices to help them do what they want to do and what we want to do, which is provide great futures for our students.
Join our growing national network of college planning franchisees
If you’re passionate about helping young people and would like the chance to make a living while helping families save thousands on college costs, Class 101 may be the business opportunity you’ve been seeking. We’re enjoying unprecedented nationwide growth and are looking for new franchise owners.
This growth and momentum is gaining industry recognition, earning Class 101 several spots on go-to rankings for the franchise industry. Franchise Gator named us an Emerging Franchise to watch for the second year in a row. The popular franchise opportunity portal also named Class 101 as the 13th fastest-growing franchise in the nation in 2018 on its annual Fastest-Growing list, up from 15th place in 2017. Entrepreneur also has recognized our college planning franchise as a Top Franchise Opportunity for Less than $50,000.
Find out more by researching our franchise website, calling 859-687-9629 or requesting a copy of our free franchise information report.
