America Needs Education Sector Entrepreneurs

Feb 1, 2022

It is generally acknowledged that despite having abundant resources government is less efficient and less productive in the delivery of goods and services for the public than the private sector.  An easy example is the difference between having a package shipped with the United States Postal Service versus FedEx or UPS.  It is also recognized that government provides goods & services that cannot or will not be provided by the private sector at the price point necessary to facilitate a compassionate society that strives to provide equal opportunities to all of its demographic groups.

One area where government has historically been a dominant provider of services is education.  As a graduate of a public high school and state university, plus the son of a teacher who dedicated her professional life to helping children with learning disabilities, I can attest to this system’s historical ability to nurture & develop children for future life success.  Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting public health policies imposed have resulted in significant detrimental results for the nation’s children academically and in terms of social development.  The following McKinsey study provides a good overview of some of the issues the pandemic has created in our learning communities:  https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning.

This situation creates both an entrepreneurial opportunity and a call to action for those who like me, believe the future is dependent on the proper development of skills and knowledge in younger generations.  It is going to take hard work by many to help a generation of children get back on track and up to speed academically to where they would have been without the pandemic.

IBA, with its market leading education industry transaction division(https://ibainc.com/industries-served/education/), is uniquely positioned to help people engage in this arena. In the past, we have sold numerous schools and educational programs for entrepreneurs who were ready to retire after many years of dedicated service.  The most recent being the Montessori Schools of Snohomish County.  If you are looking to sell an established education business, we would welcome the opportunity to provide an overview of our client services.  If you wish to buy a mature, profitable, operating school or education program, it would be our pleasure to share information about the ones we are currently representing for sale and/or add you to our Buyer Database Program (https://ibainc.com/buy-a-business/), so you are made aware of the next time one enters the market in your desired education niche or geographic area.

Frequently, parties also come to IBA to engage with our franchise brokerage division.  Two advantages of buying a franchise are you get to select the business model you want to executively manage and place it in a geographic area of your selection.   Strong entrepreneurs identify a demographic group with needs and seek to satisfy them with quality products and superior customer service.  As the McKinsey study provided earlier conveys, there are going to be significant needs for education support services post pandemic.  This equates to an opportunity to address those needs and be a community hero as an education service provider.  Many highly regarded franchises have established, proven systems in place to address educational shortfalls in local communities or individual students.  Some of the favorites of our franchise brokers include Kumon (https://www.kumon.com/), Mathnasium (https://www.mathnasium.com/), Huntington Learning Center (https://huntingtonhelps.com/), Tutor Doctor (https://www.tutordoctor.com/), and Sylvan Learning ( https://www.sylvanlearning.com/).  If you would like to learn more about franchise opportunities in the education space, our franchise brokerage team would welcome the opportunity to provide an overview.

The beauty of working with IBA as a buyer of a business or franchise is 100% of fees are paid for by the seller.  Business owners looking to sell appreciate our 100% performance based compensation model and emphasis on confidentiality and best practices throughout the sale process.

A national call to action is going out to help American children impacted academically by COVID-19. The question is will you respond to that call in your own household, by volunteering at a local school, seeking employment in the education industry, or by becoming an entrepreneur owning a school or educational program.

IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, and mergers & acquisitions community on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family owned businesses.  IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.