Entrepreneurs consider many factors when choosing a franchise. Dr. Aaron Washington and his wife, Maria, wanted to open a business that would make an impact in the community.
“We wanted something we could scale and be impactful as far as providing jobs, but also providing a great service to the community that’s not the same as everyone is used to seeing,” Aaron said. He has a Ph.D. in chemistry and was an adjunct professor at USC Aiken when they opened Tutor Doctor of Evans.
Maria, a former medical operations director, runs the operations for Tutor Doctor and is very proud of their franchise’s growing impact.
“In our first year, we worked with one school in addition to individuals. Our second year, we worked with even more schools. This year, hopefully, we will be at 10 schools, if not a district,” she said. “We are also looking at working with companies to offer tutoring to employees’ children. We help all ages and grades, including ACT, SAT, and ASVAP prep.”
The Washingtons’ dedication to helping others is what led tutor recruiter Herlaysia Hagwood to nominate them for the Augusta Business Daily Businesspeople of the Month. She said: “The Washingtons are such great people to work for and their morals concerning the company are outstanding. They are great with building relationships in the CSRA community to help bridge the education gaps of not just our youth, but people of all ages. Most importantly, I love their motto for the company ‘We are in the mission of changing the trajectory of student’s lives.’ They believe in not just assisting a student with education struggles, but they also bring them up to their current level and beyond with the hopes of the learner become an independent and confident learner.”
Aaron said they provide individualized, personalized attention to each student, identifying where education gaps are and providing a path forward for students to be independent learners.
“As an educator, you look at intervention as the best way to help kids come back. You stop, you go back over the basic concepts and help them be more understanding of the things they missed,” he said. “In the classroom, though, you don’t have time for that, especially when you have 25 to 30 students. At Tutor Doctor, we like to partner with the educators. We engage as much as we can with the educational professionals and figure out where we can best supplement their education through our individualized approach.”
The Washingtons said their students’ successes drive them to succeed and to grow the business.
“There’s no child left behind with our services. We work with all students, including special education students,” Maria said. “Listening to parents and hearing their concerns, then relating to our child who needed tutoring and went from Cs to Bs to As in the same year reminds me that we are providing a service we know works.”
In 2024, Washington’s plan is to continue partnering with more schools and community organizations while exploring corporate partnerships to provide tutoring to employee’s children.
“Coming from a healthcare background,” Maria explained, “you spend 12 hours a day at work. How can you have the time and energy to go home and help your child with homework or subjects they’re struggling with? We can even provide remote tutoring options to offer peace of mind and a morale boost to employees.”
For more information, go to TutorDoctor.com/Evans or call (706) 287-8583.
