Today we’d like to introduce you to Brianne Macpherson.
Hi Brianne, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
It all started because of Covid. I was a teacher in my local school-board and was really frustrated that I couldn’t help as much as I wanted to because of unnecessary red tape. I continued to teach online through Covid because, although I didn’t agree to how things were going, my students deserved my best effort in a bad situation.
When Covid ended and we returned to the classroom, one of my most challenging students squared-up with me; he was going to punch me and there wasn’t much I could do about it. Luckily, my admin walked by during the face-off and removed the student from the classroom. The student returned but I knew my days in the classroom were numbered.
That evening I decided on a change and quit the school-board. I had several students I was teaching in local libraries after school that could help supplement my income. It started with seven students. I’d spend the majority of my evenings driving around the city to meet different clients. I was gaining clients but running out of time. That’s when my first office came to be.
I shocked everyone. I was so quick to rent a space and grow the business that no one could keep up with the updates. I can’t describe the calling I had to grow this business -it was a certain ‘knowing’ one has. My little 500 sq.ft office was warm and vibrant. I had no advertising scheme, I had no budget, I (secretly) didn’t even have a business plan! Yet, people found their way to me. I had 10 students that followed me to the office space. I remember being so embarrassed with my low enrollment that I was adding fake names to our school scoreboard to make it look like we had more kids than we did.
In the fastest (& slowest) way possible, the clientele grew. I had to hire teachers to teach alongside me. With a client-base of about 20, the ‘closet’ we were teaching in was bursting at the seams. We started our hunt for a new space. Still, with no business plan, we shot from the hip and found an 1800 sq.ft. space just down the road. The space was perfect except for the major renovations and thousands of dollars to make it achieve it’s potential.
While this was going on, we landed a family who needed an alternative education route for their child. I was privately contracted to teach her the Grade 8 curriculum and help her with the transition into Grade 9. Per her parents, she had too much social anxiety to attend school. We spent an entire academic year together. It was a great success but something I considered a “one and done” situation. I wasn’t a school; I was a tutoring centre.
The next academic year, I was approached by another family. They were completely unrelated to each other but the situations were incredibly similar. Another Grade 8 girl who had too much anxiety to go to school. The school, in the parent’s words, had written her off. She was on a learning plan geared for a Grade 5. Working one-on-one with this student, I was able to determine her true abilities. Her own lack of confidence got in the way of showing her true potential. The one-on-one support was helping her tremendously.
Another family caught wind of this tiny day program I was running and enrolled their children as well. Now my pseudo-school had 3 students…then 6. Then I had to register with the government and become a “real” school. I had become an official private school.
It’s been two years since then, we’ve grown our school with a second campus and about 20 students. We offer part time and full time options to help bridge the gaps in education. We work with everyone: home-schoolers, public-schoolers, and people who just want something different for their child’s education. Our programming has transformed to benefit students with hidden-disabilities that impact their learning in the classroom. We offer low-stimulation environments for students who have low-support needs. Our one-on-one support helps everyone but especially the kids who have dyslexia, hearing impairments, or any other impairment that the school-board can’t adequately provide resources. I endearingly call our school “The School of Misfits.” Our mandate is to catch the kids who aren’t “bad enough” to get additional support but aren’t able to grasp the concepts without support. Our school is catching the students who fall between the cracks.
It’s hilarious to me that I desperately held onto the concept of “only being a tutoring company.” It was a challenge for me to accept that the business was growing way faster than I could keep up. This business is bigger than me; it’s bigger than our original mission. I often joke that this business is like water-skiing, except I’ve fallen off my skis and I’m being dragged behind the boat. As long as I don’t let go of the rope, the business will get to where it’s supposed to go.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Has any growing business had a smooth road? If my journey was a road, it’s been full of potholes which have been filled by my tears of stress and anxiety. We have had great successes and we’ve had major setbacks.
From floods to financial hardship, I would like to think we’ve experienced it all.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We’re different because we have a collaborative approach to education. We borrow ideas from all sorts of methodologies (think: Reggio Emilio, Montesorri, institutional education, nature schooling). We don’t believe any one model fits every student so we borrow methods to accommodate the learner instead of trying to make the learner fit the method.
How do you think about luck?
I don’t know if this counts as luck but my incredible husband is the reason why I am where I am. He owns his own business and understands how tough things can get. He is there is pick me up every single time. He is there to be critical, he is there to be supportive. Even more so, he’s there to call me out on my s!@# (remove this and insert another word if it doesn’t fit your values as a publisher LOL).
Additionally, luck was on my side but so was the 18-hour days I was working. It was luck, but it was my amazing staff. It was luck but it was parents who believed in something different that allowed the company to be here.
Pricing:
- Full Time Private School: $410/monthly (CAD)
- Part Time Private School: $200-390/monthly (CAD)
- Tutoring: $35-45/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.busybeeeducation.ca
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/busybeeeducation/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/busybeeeducationsolutions
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thatbusybeeteacher
