I was perusing through the New York Times today and really didn't feel like reading about the same b.s. that I hear everyday - "Goldman Records Record Profits; Cuts back Bonuses" and things like "Obama Health Care Bill Slow To Form." Thanks Captain Obvious, is what I'd like to say. Yea it's good to keep on top of the "fat cat" Wall Street bankers and its good to keep tabs on the Health Care Bill but this is all old news, with all the talk for some more focus on Main Street then why don't we get some Main Street on the front page. So I cut to the small business section and found an article that is eerily related to what we are going through at MoneyThink. Heres a link : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/smallbusiness/21sbiz.html?scp=1&sq=Looking%20to%20Expand,%20But%20Fearing%20it%20Too&st=cse . Its an article about a company formed by an NYU student 7 years ago called "Thinking Caps Tutoring."
The company "provides personalized study-skills coaching, subject-specific tutoring, enrichment programs and SAT preparation to about 300 middle school and high school students annually. The founder of the company, NYU grad Alexandra Mayzler is now dealing with the issue of expansion and she is really struggling with the inherent trade-off in quality versus quantity. While it is every entrepreneurs dream to have an empire, sometimes it is just not feasible. Certainly, we can all see that with national moguls like "Kaplan" and "Princeton Review" in "Thinking Caps Tutoring's" field, that there are definite economies of scale. Yet, as we have learned with MoneyThink, it takes a lot more then the potential for scale - it takes a heavily-detailed blueprint and many dedicated people's efforts.
While Alexandra has decided for the time being to keep her company at its current size and not expand outside of the New York Area, MoneyThink will continue to pursue a national organization and while I believe this is an admirable goal, I think it may be too soon. I like to have a strong foundation down before I start to work on the second floor. Nonetheless, I have immense faith in the group of people heading national expansion and have no doubts in MoneyThink's stability. I believe a national presence is necessary for any powerful organization; the wheels are turning very quickly and I don't want anything to get left behind.
The people we have at MoneyThink will no allow it to fail - the sheer power and resiliency present in the organization is immense and I have the utmost faith in the organization. We have a bright future, but its necessary to take every opinion possible and a problem that a lot of U of C graduates faced when implementing "Chicago School-type organizations" in foreign countries was not looking at enough case studies. So here we have it: a case study of a small business thats pretty similar to MoneyThink. Not to say we need to follow exactly what Alexandra is doing, but we need to take it into account and learn from it.
Posted by Dustin Popiel
The company "provides personalized study-skills coaching, subject-specific tutoring, enrichment programs and SAT preparation to about 300 middle school and high school students annually. The founder of the company, NYU grad Alexandra Mayzler is now dealing with the issue of expansion and she is really struggling with the inherent trade-off in quality versus quantity. While it is every entrepreneurs dream to have an empire, sometimes it is just not feasible. Certainly, we can all see that with national moguls like "Kaplan" and "Princeton Review" in "Thinking Caps Tutoring's" field, that there are definite economies of scale. Yet, as we have learned with MoneyThink, it takes a lot more then the potential for scale - it takes a heavily-detailed blueprint and many dedicated people's efforts.
While Alexandra has decided for the time being to keep her company at its current size and not expand outside of the New York Area, MoneyThink will continue to pursue a national organization and while I believe this is an admirable goal, I think it may be too soon. I like to have a strong foundation down before I start to work on the second floor. Nonetheless, I have immense faith in the group of people heading national expansion and have no doubts in MoneyThink's stability. I believe a national presence is necessary for any powerful organization; the wheels are turning very quickly and I don't want anything to get left behind.
The people we have at MoneyThink will no allow it to fail - the sheer power and resiliency present in the organization is immense and I have the utmost faith in the organization. We have a bright future, but its necessary to take every opinion possible and a problem that a lot of U of C graduates faced when implementing "Chicago School-type organizations" in foreign countries was not looking at enough case studies. So here we have it: a case study of a small business thats pretty similar to MoneyThink. Not to say we need to follow exactly what Alexandra is doing, but we need to take it into account and learn from it.
Posted by Dustin Popiel
