Passion for education leads to business venture

BY KRIS BEVILL

Ellen Jacobson was a veteran teacher looking for a change. After spending 18 years teaching at various grade-school levels, she still had a passion for helping children, but she wasn’t sure if the classroom was where she wanted to be. She took a year of absence to re-evaluate her future and happened to glance through the classified ads the one day that Sylvan Learning Center advertised for a franchise opportunity in her hometown of Bismarck, N.D. “I just knew there was such a need for something like that,” she says. “The more I found out about the business, the more I thought, ‘I know I can do this.’”

Jacobson had no prior business experience, but as she says, sometimes naivety has its benefits, and before long she was the proud owner of Sylvan Learning Center’s first North Dakota location, which opened in July 1995. “If I looked back, I never would have had the courage to do it,” she says. “I think it was meant to be because everything fell into place; not that there weren’t some challenges along the way. I had to learn a lot and I decided to do what I could do best and hire the rest.”

Jacobson acquired loans to cover about $100,000 in expenses needed to cover her start-up costs, including franchise fees, equipment and furnishings. After two months of operating, she was breaking even. Seven years later she made her final loan payment and the center continues to operate successfully to this day.

Working alongside Jacobson since day one has been her daughter, Kari Weigel, who took over majority ownership of the Bismarck location last December as Ellen eyes retirement. Weigel was just 17 when her mom decided to open the Bismarck center, but she played a role in choosing the location, setting up shop to open for business and working in the center until leaving for college. She remained involved in the business somewhat while living in the Twin Cities for several years after college, but it wasn’tuntil 2004, after moving back to Bismarck with her husband and young family, that she returned to a full-time position and began preparing to take over the business.

Now, not only does she own 70 percent of the Bismarck location, she is expanding the business throughout North Dakota. Weigel and her husband, Ryan, opened a Sylvan Learning Center in Fargo in late June, filling a gap that was left by the previous franchise owner’s decision to close. The Fargo center will employ 10 people to start and will grow with demand. Weigel expects the Fargo location could eventually surpass the Bismarck center, which generates about $1 million in revenues annually.

Additionally, Weigel and Jacobson are planning to expand Sylvan’s services to better provide for learners in the western part of North Dakota. Weigel says families and educators have been urging them to open locations in communities impacted by the Bakken for some time, but until recently it just wasn’t feasible. “It was way too expensive and we couldn’t afford to do a whole center in any of those locations,” she says. However, Sylvan recently unveiled a digital platform, known as SylvanSync, making it possible for franchisees to set up satellite locations. Weigel anticipates opening a satellite location in Williston by the start of the school year. The pair is seeking partners in Minot and Dickinson with libraries, schools or other businesses that will allow them to hold instruction sessions a few times a week, and plans to open satellite locations there in the future.

Jacobson laughs when reminiscing about her sudden plunge into business ownership 18 years ago, but she has no regrets about her career change and doesn’t miss the classroom. “That’s a tough job,” she says, adding that at the center she gets to see the entire gamut of education and finds it fulfilling and fascinating. “I love the business aspect of it, but we still get the best of both worlds because we’re working with parents and their most precious items — their children.” PB

Kris Bevill Editor, Prairie Business 701-306-8561, kbevill@prairiebizmag.com