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KnowledgePoints(™)
12600 SW 68th Avenue
Portland, OR 97223-8338
503-620-4800
866-204-4220

Concept: Knowledge-Points (™) is a nationwide tutoring program where franchise owners partner with non-profit institutions, for-profit businesses, and individuals to share the mission of providing the finest in academic skills instruction at affordable rates in safe, convenient neighborhood locations to help children reach their full potential, according to the company.

Product Description: The company’s Educational Management System is a proven and affordable proprietary program of individualized tutoring currently offered in reading, math, and study skills and is targeted to children in grades K-12.

Market Position: The student tutoring industry generated an estimated $2.7 billion in domestic revenues in 2001 and is part of the larger $102 billion for-profit supplemental education industry in the United States. The domestic tutoring market is served by three categories of providers: individual part-time tutors (approximately 51 percent of the market); single unit or regional tutoring centers (approximately 27 percent of the market); and national tutoring companies (approximately 22 percent of the market).

Historical Data: Know-ledgePoints was incorporated in January 1999 as A Thousand Points of Knowledge, Inc. In the preceding two years, Berry Fowler and his wife Anne, the former director of curriculum research and development at Sylvan, developed the company’s Educational Management System in reading, math, and study skills. In 1999, the system was licensed to a small number of teachers for field-testing in their private tutoring businesses. The following year, the company began licensing the system to franchise owners. The name was changed to KnowledgePoints to make it easier to say and remember, and to Growth

Projections/Strategy: Currently, KnowledgePoints has a base of 38 franchise owners and 85 operating learning centers in 23 states.

Growth has been steady and strong. In 2000, the gross revenue generated by the learning centers was $200,000 and nearly doubled the following year to $392,000. Learning center revenue climbed to $1.08 million in 2002 and forecasts project it to more than triple in 2003 to $3.88 million. By 2007, the company expects learning center revenue to exceed $92 million.

Franchise Facts: Start-up costs range from $165,000 to $175,000, and include a franchise fee of $50,000.

Few would argue with the statement that the U.S. educational system is in trouble-but rather than argue about anything, W. Berry Fowler is doing something. He has created KnowledgePoints(™), a tutoring company that delivers superior results at affordable prices, and has launched an aggressive national expansion campaign to get these services into communities across the country.

Fowler is the founder and former CEO of Sylvan Learning Centers(®), which is the largest supplemental education company in the world. After creating Sylvan in 1979, he sold it in 1985 and moved on to other entrepreneurial ventures and even indulged in a period of temporary retirement.

In 1999, he was drawn back to his tutoring business roots and began developing what is now known as KnowledgePoints—a uniquely-positioned, rapidly-growing tutoring company. Fowler’s demonstrated expertise in developing a world-class tutoring program and franchise system, coupled with a personal passion to help children reach their full potential, has been the driving force behind KnowledgePoints’ remarkable performance thus far.

Fowler’s motivation to create KnowledgePoints was initially driven by his desire to help a friend’s child who was having trouble in school. Then he realized the service could work as a fundraiser and could help his own daughter’s school. The result is a company that offers a service that is desperately needed throughout the United States at a price point more parents can afford.

KnowledgePoints’ distinctive delivery model of partnering with existing non-profit and for-profit entities allows the company to provide services at a lower cost than other national programs—typically between $25 and $35 per hour—without sacrificing results or profitability.

Meeting a Critical Need
The need, Fowler says, has never been more severe. The country’s educational system is in a state of crisis. Funding cuts have resulted in increasingly crowded classrooms and reduced education resources at a time when our need for and dependence on education to maintain our global dominance has never been greater. Today, approximately 40 percent of our 53 million children perform below grade level in the two key areas of reading and math because they lack basic skills, and many will never catch up because the public schools do not have the resources to provide the individual attention they need.

“We are the wealthiest, potentially the most successful country in the world,” Fowler says. “These kids of ours have to compete on a global basis. Do they have the skills they need to be prepared for the future? The truth is, we’re falling short. And we have to correct the problem.”

Two principal dynamics are driving market demand for affordable tutoring. The first centers around how the public education system in the U.S. has evolved. School funding has not kept pace with growth in student enrollment, which has resulted in higher student/teacher ratios, fewer classroom resources, and, consequently, increasingly poor student performance. The second is related to changing lifestyles.

The number of families with both parents working and the number of single-parent families has increased. Along with that is a generally faster pace in the average family life, which means that fewer parents are able or willing to spend the necessary one-on-one time to assist with their children’s ever-increasing burden of homework.

Clearly, the stage is set for an organization that provides affordable, effective tutoring to help students build the basic skills that are the foundation of learning, self-sufficiency, and self-esteem. Fowler has developed a franchised program that will do this through a community partnering effort.
Making it Happen

Here’s how it works: Knowledge-Points franchise owners—referred to as area sponsors—operate within territories with populations of 400,000 or more, and partner with select local schools, churches, community centers, and other non-profit organizations (YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, park and recreation districts, etc.) as well as with for-profit businesses to deliver the company’s tutoring program to youngsters in their communities.

The area sponsors provide their partners with a turnkey learning center that includes all learning materials, furniture, equipment, the use of the company’s Educational Management System, and complete training in the delivery of the diagnostic and prescriptive tutoring program, along with ongoing oversight and management assistance. In return, the partnering organization supplies the facility, the staff, and certain marketing resources.

By utilizing the employees, facilities, and infrastructure of the partnering organization, KnowledgePoints area sponsors are able to significantly reduce the overhead associated with delivering tutoring and pass on a substantial portion of the savings to the student in form of reduced fees while still providing the partner with a revenue source.

It is this approach of delivering services through local partnerships that allows KnowledgePoints to be the low-cost provider of student tutoring while maintaining a high level of quality, results, and profitability. Challenges and Rewards KnowledgePoints recognizes that managers of non-profit organizations are generally and justifiably leery of for-profit businesses attempting to trade on the goodwill and reputation of the non-profit. Those managers are more likely to build alliances with local businesspeople whom they know and who are established in the community and, therefore, share the non-profit’s commitment to improving the lives of people locally. Many of these same hurdles exist when establishing partnerships with for-profit businesses.

The KnowledgePoints franchise model allows area sponsors to effectively overcome those hurdles. Establishing a KnowledgePoints learning center allows the partnering organization to serve the community and generate revenue. For non-profits, this is a classic example of the concept of “social entrepreneurship,” which is emerging throughout the non-profit world. With too much to do and too few resources with which to do it, non-profits must turn to collaborations with for-profit entities to achieve their goals.

A KnowledgePoints learning center is an effective method of creating significant ongoing revenue while providing a much-needed service to the families in the community.

KnowledgePoints partners may also be for-profit businesses. For example, in Spokane, Washington, a high-end grocery chain has opened learning centers in their stores. The centers serve the community, generate revenue, and increase foot traffic in the stores.

Though the company was built on the concept of generating revenue by providing services for which the clients pay, the landmark No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has created a substantial opportunity for KnowledgePoints learning centers to provide services which are paid for through government funding. “We are certainly taking advantage of this opportunity to help children as well as our franchisees and partners,” says Fowler.
“However, we are not relying on these funds for our business success. We are not assuming that this government funding will be available long-term.”

To ensure that KnowledgePoints franchise owners remain competitive and successful, the company is committed to continuous improvement of existing programs and development of new programs to meet students’ needs. This year, the company will introduce several new programs, including:

Basic academic assessment at an affordable rate. This is a new approach to provide parents an affordable, crystal-clear picture of their child’s reading or math skills at about a third of the cost of the current diagnostic assessment being offered by the national tutoring companies.
Personal Data Assistant (PDA). In collaboration with the Palm Company, KnowledgePoints will integrate the use of the PDA into its program to assist students with developing strong organizational skills.
College test preparation. The demand for college entrance exam preparation courses is continuing to grow, and KnowledgePoints is exploring avenues through which it can offer such courses in a large classroom setting at learning centers on weekday evenings or on weekends when the space is not being utilized for tutoring.

W. Berry Fowler, founder and chairman of KnowledgePoints(™), is the founder and former CEO of Sylvan Learning Centers(®). Fowler founded Sylvan in 1979 and sold it to KinderCare, Inc. in 1985. He has served as the chairman and CEO of The Little Gym International, Inc., a child physical fitness, gymnastics, and motor skills development franchise company. He is also president and CEO of W. Berry Fowler Company, a business consulting firm in Spokane, Washington, and is the author of Return to Krypton, a book about the secrets of entrepreneurial success.

According to W. Berry Fowler, “I became aware of the need for affordable tutoring by chance. About six years ago, some friends of mine moved from Spokane to Florida. A few months later, I got a call from the mother. She knew, of course, of my background with Sylvan, and her daughter Ashley was doing very poorly in school since the move, so she asked my advice. I recommended that she take Ashley to a Sylvan location and have her tested to find out exactly what the problem was”.

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