Today we’d like to introduce you to Chastity Cordova-Heyward.
Chastity, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
How I got started this entrepreneurial journey started when I worked as an Executive Center Director for a Sylvan Learning Center competitor for tutoring services. Once I gained that experience, I realized that this was a good fit for me but not as an employee of a company but as an owner of my own tutoring services.
Once I saw the challenges of the competitor tutoring company that I was working for and all the corporate red tape I had to go through to try and have my center student population grow, I started to look at other franchise tutoring companies and liked the Sylvan Learning Center brand and reputation with the success they have with 40 years of experience in the industry and successfully serving over 4 million students nationwide over the years. After a couple of years of research, I came to the conclusion that no other tutoring company could compete with Sylvan Learning Center success and brand recognition- this is what gave me the drive and ambition to work harder to own a Sylvan.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Since reopening the Sylvan Learning Center it has not been a smooth road. Some of the struggles that I have come along the way is hiring the right people. Particularly in educational tutoring, it is important to hire credential teachers that can be molded and trained into employees that represent the values of the business and reflect the Sylvan brand through their teaching performance. Another issue is dealing with the day-to-day realities of running a business and regaining the trust of parents in the community. Furthermore, the biggest struggle I have been noticing is finding the Work/ Life Balance has been taxing and has cut into my family time with my husband and kids, as well as finding any time with friends.
Please tell us about Sylvan Learning Center.
Learning is one of the essential elements of childhood development, with effective tutoring from credential teachers. The Sylvan Learning Center franchise is in the business of facilitating quality tutoring in all subjects to learners at different schooling levels from K-12 graders to help them improve their school performance, as well as enrichment and STEM/Robotics programs.
As we align and aim with the goals of the Sylvan Learning Center of Temecula, I am focusing on improving and enriching tutoring of science, English, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM) subjects to my students. I have extensive working experience, knowledge, and training in the fields of education, management, sales, marketing and staffing, which has helped me in operating this new entrepreneurial venture. I intend to reorganize the Temecula Sylvan Learning Center with a focus on future growth to expand to both Riverside, San Diego and Orange County while maintaining and improving the quality of learning at the institution for the families that value education. Our facility reflects Sylvan’s personalized tutoring guarantee, promising to improve the performance of the learners by up to two or three times their performance in math and reading. My plans for Temecula Sylvan Learning Center is to use my educational expertise and highly customized learning plans for individual students while facilitating the wholesome development of my learners.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, there are a few things I would have done differently. I would have tried to get employment for a startup companies for a few years and then gain more experience with other startup companies that have scaled up to multi-million dollar businesses. By working with other startup companies that have tremendous revenue growth due to luck, timing, or something that they could not control- it would have taught me to be innovative, creative and find a way to win on my entrepreneurial journey. This could have helped me understand what a fast-growing company looks like and let me be the first to tell you it is not pretty starting a franchise and it is very messy. So, many things go wrong and keep breaking when you are growing and your business thriving. By working with others, you will learn what works and more importantly, what does not work. The main reason for working for other startups is to get the right mentors and to learn how the real entrepreneurial business world works.
Entrepreneurship is not as glamorous as most people think, let me repeat that again, “it is NOT glamorous”. Success is not easily achieved and it does not look like what you might think considering what so many successful social media influencers might try to sell you online. No matter how much research you do or smart you are, you will make mistakes. Just like other millionaire entrepreneur are not perfect with starting businesses, they have all made mistakes along the way.
But once you get a handful of startup companies under your belt from all different sizes, you would have a good understanding of what it takes to succeed.
Contact Info:
- Address: 27287 Nicolas Rd b107, Temecula, CA 92591
- Website: www.TemeculaSylvan.com
- Phone: (951) 972-8985
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @SylvanTemecula
- Facebook: @SylvanLearningTemecula
- Other: @outspokenwifey ( instagram)
Image Credit:
Marketing Pics @Sylvan Learning Center Corp; Photographer: Monique Wright @foreveralicephotography (Instragram); Makeup: Alex Smile All Day @temecula_mua_alex (Instagram); Photo Retoucher: Zarihs @zarihsretoucher (Instagram); Hair: Glam Squad City (www.Glamsquadcity.com)
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