Meet Cris Chacon | CEO & Tutor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cris Chacon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cris, is there something you believe many others might not?
One piece of conventional advice that I partially disagree with is to outsource everything except what you’re good at. My main point of contention is that you should do everything yourself for your business when first starting, including what you’re not great at, at least until you reach a certain threshold where you can leverage outsourcing this work to build in energy and space to make strategic decisions. By initially doing everything in my business myself, I learned a tremendous amount about every aspect of my business and have a solid grasp of all operations, which has given me insights as to what I actually am good at and what I need to hire someone else to do. Without this initial period of experimentation, I may have missed out on fully developing the picture of what it looks like to run my business successfully.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Entrepreneurship was never really on my radar until after graduating college. I was under the guise that working as a teacher and coach would provide for my family’s financial needs while also satisfying my desire for a fulfilling career that allowed me the flexibility of time spent with loved ones. I quickly learned that that wasn’t going to be the case after starting my first teaching position, where I earned less than several of my peers and faced challenges in the classroom that left me questioning my chosen profession. Around that time, I was also learning more about the financial independence movement and its allure. I explored the ideas of drop shipping, affiliate marketing, and real estate. Still, none of those avenues resonated with the teacher inside me, so instead, I set my sights on the education industry.

When deciding what business to start, I reflected on my skillset and experience and determined that scaling my tutoring operation made the most sense as a starting point. I was a student-athlete peer tutor at my college and eventually branched out to tutor students at nearby schools through a nationwide agency. After moving back to Colorado after graduation, I could start building the business from scratch, deploying the knowledge I had built up during my time as an undergraduate contractor tutor. I decided that the tutoring company I built would be founded on the principles I sought to improve in the industry, namely adequate compensation for tutors and high-quality instruction for students.

The company has been built on key principles that have helped the tutoring business succeed, namely flexibility, discipline, and communication. We believe in working efficiently and effectively, so we’ve built systems throughout the business to streamline processes and simplify complexity. This has required enduring discipline in doing the grunt work up front to understand problems, interpret data, and build useful tools that help resolve these problems, including accounting, recruiting, and marketing solutions. Without a commitment to doing the hard work it takes to build with a clear vision, the business would never have taken off.

On the client facing side, flexibility and strong communication have been the pillars on which our customer satisfaction and scale have been built. We make it our mission to make it as easy as possible for our clients to work with us by accommodating their optimal tutoring set-up while consistently communicating about progress and expectations upfront and throughout our time together. We don’t believe in locking clients into lengthy, rigid contracts and offer our first session as a risk-free trial session where students can work with us to ensure our partnership is a good fit and families only have to pay if they are satisfied/or want to move forward. We also offer flexibility on pricing, giving families the option to pay session by session or purchase a discounted package of hours that never expire and can be used for any subject and any student in their family. We even partner with a local non-profit to offer a $500 grant that qualifying families can apply for to fund working with us.

Throughout our journey, one of the most important lessons is that small but continual progress is essential in developing a quality operation that not only meets customer needs but also adequately fulfills and compensates employees. Every tutoring session affords the opportunity for us to learn something valuable about how to be the best we can be, whether it be through tutoring new content, coming up with different ways to explain a concept, or better understanding student needs and goals to tailor our sessions for their optimal learning experience. We learn from our mistakes but don’t dwell on them, and we use every experience to help inform future decisions. We also are in constant contact with our tutoring team to ensure they feel supported and are equipped with the resources to do their jobs well.

Given all of these components, our business offers industry-leading, competitive pay rates for tutors, along with earning the trust of our clients by helping them accomplish their academic goals, as evidenced by our 5-star average rating across all platforms (Google, Thumbtack, Tutors.com, NextDoor, Facebook, etc.).

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would definitely take them on a hike in Boulder, either to Chautauqua or Sanitas, follow the hike up with a meal at Rincon Argentina, and spend some time on Pearl Street. I’d also take them to a game at the Ball Center, to watch the Nuggets or Avs, and then hit the town for some night life, followed the next morning with brunch at Lucille’s and a round of golf at Fossil Trace. Finally, we’d definitely hit the slopes somewhere in the mountains and fuel up on some pizza at Beau Jo’s.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my parents, my teachers & coaches, and students. My parents because they made tremendous sacrifices to ensure my siblings and I received a quality education. My teachers & coaches because they held me accountable to be my best. My students because they bring me joy in the little things that they do everyday to keep teaching fresh and fun.

Website: flatironstutoring.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/69319216/admin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flatironstutoring/

Image Credits
Wixo