How Reginald Manning Made Tutor Doctor a More Affordable Option in the Memphis Market

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Tutor Doctor brand in Memphis, Tennessee, but a combination of franchisee ingenuity and corporate support have gone a long way.

Franchisee Reginald Manning’s Memphis territory was a new market for the Tutor Doctor brand when it opened in July of 2015. Manning used a franchise consultant/broker to help him find Tutor Doctor. Manning’s previous experience included being the chief operating officer for a group of charter schools, and this experience in the world of charter school management was certainly helpful in his new pursuit.

“The biggest challenge in my market was that Tutor Doctor wasn’t known there,” Manning said. “No one knew of it.”

There was also the matter of cost.

“People in my market were not used to paying $2,000 for tutoring packages,” he said.

To make the Tutor Doctor offering more enticing for customers, Manning created monthly subscriptions, versus requiring people to just pay for tutoring services in a lump sum. This allowed customers to participate on a rolling basis. Manning made this change about 18 months into his business.

The result was a perception change around tutoring; parents in Manning’s market no longer perceived affording tutoring services as such a challenge.

“Really I just repackaged what Tutor Doctor already had and created what I felt worked for our market,” he said. “Tutor Doctor did not stop the door in my efforts to be successful in my market.”

Tutor Doctor’s corporate team was supportive of Manning’s initiative.

“Tutor Doctor is an established brand with a proven system that can work in any market, but we understand that certain markets face unique challenges,” Tutor Doctor Franchise Development Director Dennis Campbell said. “We want to make sure we adapt to every market we’re in and provide our franchisees with market research before they start their business and see what model will work best.”

Community alliances have also proved major for Manning’s territory.

“We still offer one-on-one tutoring but we also have several partnerships,” he said. “We do partnerships with nonprofits and bring tutors into their organizations.”

Manning’s territory also offers ACT group tutoring at schools, community centers and nonprofit organizations. (The ACT, he noted, is the more dominant standardized test in the state of Tennessee. His Memphis franchise also offers SAT tutoring.) He has found organizations offering ACT tutoring and subcontracts tutors to work with those organizations.

“We’ve been leveraging our expertise and resources around test preparation throughout our school district,” he said.

Moving forward, Manning would like to offer test prep services on a larger scale.

“We’re thrilled with the success Reginald has made in the Memphis market and we’re excited to see his efforts continue to grow,” Campbell said. “His perseverance has made a huge impact and he is a great example of how the Tutor Doctor brand and franchisees can work together to come up with market-specific solutions.”

Manning is also appreciative of the support Tutor Doctor provides. He specifically praised Tutor Doctor’s Franchise Field Consultant, Sherry Stevens.

“Tutor Doctor has been very accessible in giving feedback and coaching,” Manning said. “Being able to be a strategic business owner with Tutor Doctor is important, and they do offer enough flexibility and autonomy to explore and suggest ways to make the business and systems better.”

Tutor Doctor is an in-home tutoring service that pairs tutors with school-age students in a variety of subjects. Tutor Doctor also offers adult tutoring, special needs tutoring and a veteran program. The startup costs for a Tutor Doctor franchise range from $68,500 to $101,700. The franchise fee is $49,700.