Far From Standard (FFS) opened an East Lansing tutoring location in the fall of 2007, expanded in the spring of 2008 and is looking at yet another expansion.
FFS is a Michigan-based tutoring company owned by Neel Chheda that has facilities in Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills and East Lansing. They have three suites in East Lansing on Michigan Avenue above Urban Outfitters. They have about 1,800 square feet, but Katy Demitruk, COO and head marketer for FFS, says they’re looking at expansion options.
“My goal is to run out of space,” she says. “Hopefully we should be able to get that fourth suite by this fall.”
FFS’s first semester in East Lansing yielded 25-30 students. The spring of 2008 brought in about 40 and the fall of 2008 boosted that number to 60.
“It’s gone up by about 50 percent each semester,” she says. “Eighty percent of our students return for our classes with another recommendation. A lot of it is word of mouth.”
FFS has roughly 25 employees.
“We take almost any topic, but we really focus on math and science courses,” Demitruk says. "All students don't learn in the same way; there is no standardized way of teaching. We change our styles based on the individual student. We don't have a standard way of teaching; we are Far From Standard."
Source: Katy Demitruk, Far From Standard
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.