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After 20 years working in I.T. and computer programming, colleagues Haishan and Surender began to look into their next business venture. The pair knew they wanted to get into business for themselves, so they began looking into different business ownership opportunities. Their path became clear when Surender’s daughter grew frustrated at school and he began looking into educational brands in more detail. He stumbled upon Best in Class and knew right away this went beyond a new educational opportunity for his daughter, but also a business ownership opportunity for himself.

“While researching the various brands, we noticed that Best in Class provides a lot of flexibility for their franchisees, including being able to add in programs when needed,” said Haishan. “Many education franchise brands have a strict curriculum and set programs that limit what they can offer to students. Best in Class has their own proprietary math and English enrichment programs, as well as private tutoring, and interactive SAT/ACT test prep classes.  But at Best in Class, if you have the skills, you can also go ahead and open a class in other specialized subject areas for your students. This was not allowed in most of the other education franchises we investigated.”

Haishan and Surender opened their first brick and mortar center in Mayfield Heights, Ohio in October 2016. The co-owners credit much of their location’s success to their talented team of educators, and the Best in Class education programs and curriculum. Due to their success in Mayfield Heights, Haishan and Surender opened the brand’s first satellite location in Solon, Ohio, last February.  In addition to the primary brick and mortar franchise, the brand also offers a unique franchise agreement for an auxiliary location called a ‘satellite office’ to operate in a given territory.  This unique expansion opportunity will enable a franchisee to branch out into another area and secure a ‘temporary site’ in a shared space, such as non-commercial facilities like the Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA, churches, or community centers.  This enables the franchisee to establish a presence in the satellite market before proceeding to establish a permanent brick and mortar site.  This was another unique model that attracted us to Best in Class.

“Opening a brick and mortar location is quite costly, though we knew we wanted to open another center in Solon since there was a need to serve that town,” said Haishan. “The corporate team spoke to us about a satellite location and this was an opportunity we couldn’t turn down. Now, we are able to add a new community to our reach and it is only 20 minutes away from our initial location.”

Opening the satellite location in Solon has allowed for Haishan and Surender to become even more successful as Best in Class franchisees. Much of this success can be attributed to the corporate team, which has supported them throughout the entire venture of opening a brick and mortar location, then a satellite location.  Not only did Haishan and Surender open the first franchised ‘satellite office’ for the Best in Class brand, which has since opened others in California, Florida, and Texas, but they are the first satellite office franchisees to graduate the satellite site into a brick and mortar retail site!

“With the support of corporate we have both been able to keep working in I.T., but still remain heavily involved with both of our centers,” said Haishan. “In the next few years we are hoping to invest all of our time into our locations and open additional centers, with particular interest in Cleveland or a neighboring state.”

The startup costs for a Best in Class franchise range between $63,800 to $125,480, and the franchise fee ranges between $32,000 and $35,000.  To learn more about Best in Class Education Center franchising opportunities, please visit https://www.bestinclassfranchise.com/.

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