Today we’d like to introduce you to Pascal Bell.
Hi Pascal, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Pascal Bell and I am the founder of Bethesda Scholars LLC. I grew up in Maryland and in middle and high school, I always enjoyed helping my friends and peers in class with homework or learning new content. I especially loved math, and saw the value of supplemental academic help as my father helped me get ahead in math. By high school, I was accustomed to informally tutoring my friends and younger sister, and had developed strong math skills.
So Bethesda Scholars started as a simple idea that was based on this principle of peers helping other peers: pair successful high school students with younger peers looking for tutoring, and charge an affordable rate that was more accessible than standard tutoring companies. The program was initially started by my friends who were a few years older than me, and consisted of a handful of tutors and students. When they graduated, my twin, Aksel, and I took over the program.
Realizing the need in our community for affordable and quality tutoring, Aksel and I invested our time into growing and founding an official company, Bethesda Scholars LLC. After our first year, we grew the company by 300%. Little by little, we improved the company’s services and processes. We invested in a new tutoring software, recruiting and hiring processes, and partnerships with local schools to help spread the word.
As parents discovered our tutoring, we received positive reviews, and the company grew by word of mouth. Today we have worked with over 600 families and have provided over 11,000 hours of tutoring to our local community!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge has been finding, recruiting, screening, and hiring top tutors. The best students in class are often busy with extracurricular activities and their academics that they can’t commit to tutoring. Additionally, there are not many of these students so sourcing them and finding enough of them to match our demand has been challenging. In the fall, when demand peaks, we will occasionally have to make a client wait a week or so before being matched with a student.
Finding in person tutors has also become difficult with the convenience of online Zoom meetings. Many tutors don’t want to commute in person to a client’s house, and instead would rather tutor virtually. Especially with Aksel and I no longer in the DMV area since we moved to college, we have had to find creative ways to recruit tutors. One thing that helped was spreading the word among college tutors, who were excellent virtual tutors for older high school students taking more challenging classes.
Lastly, switching softwares was a big bump in the road. It required reworking our workflows, explaining the change to clients, getting clients onboarded, and getting tutors onboarded. Parents would sometimes be resistant to change, and this sometimes led to pushback.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a peer to peer tutoring company that strives to provide quality tutoring at affordable rates. We have tutors who can tutor any age high school or below and in any subject. The biggest differentiator of our tutoring service is the peer to peer aspect. Tutors are 2-3 years older than their student and have often gone though the same school system as their student. We are known for the mentorship and camaraderie that develops between student and peer tutors, the affordability of our service, and the talent of our tutors. We are a local company integrated with the local community and school systems.
What makes you happy?
Teaching makes me happy. I love it when someone I’m teaching finally understands the content I taught them, and I see a huge grin appear on their face as everything clicks. That “ah ha” moment makes all the time spent teaching them worth it. As a tutor, this is one of the most fulfilling moments I experience with other people. Their gratitude makes me know that the knowledge I taught my students made a difference in their lives.
Pricing:
- Individual tutoring starting at $43 an hour!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bethesdascholars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethesda_scholars?stkn=MXF0bzVjNzJqOGg2cg==
