Giving Voice to the Family Business
This week, I got to fulfill a longtime dream. I flew out to Seattle – which is where I grew up – and spent a few days consulting with my sister and her organization, Eastside Academics School.
Yep, my sister was my client. I had the chance to dig deep and do some work with her and the school that she runs, which was started nearly 40 years ago by our mom. And it was pretty amazing.
The backstory.
For years we have daydreamed about what it would be like to actually do a project together, but the timing and the setting was never quite right. I’m a proud board member and I regularly offer up my opinions, suggestions and advice – but this time, with the freedom and flexibility of running my own firm, we were able to seize the moment and work together at last.
We both grew up with this school. Our mom was an early pioneer and advocate for alternative education, building from a career in teaching special education to tutoring on the side and, eventually, launching a school in 1980.
The original vision was to provide customized, individualized education for students who are overlooked by the public-school system. By doing this in a small class setting, the model was both affordable and also fostered a sense of community and self-advocacy that set the kids up for success in school and in life.
Today, while not much about that model has changed, the need for this school and what it offers has only proliferated. Over the years there have been ups and downs, lessons learned, and a lot of challenges.
Nearly ten years ago, after our mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and the disease began to take its toll, my sister took over the school to help secure its future. Stepping away from her teaching position in charter schools, Jenn evolved quickly from a teacher into a business owner, and she made a series of strategic decisions that would both honor the past and guarantee a future for the school.
One of the best decisions she made was to convert from a small business into a non-profit entity, a move that would enable us to continue and expand our tradition of offering scholarships to deserving families and to scale and reach even more students.
This was a big area of focus for our project together, coming in the months leading up to the school’s 40thanniversary this Fall. We outlined a combination of strategic planning, visioning work, a little customer research and some executive positioning as well.
The Project.
What I love most about these sorts of projects, especially where the research comes into play, is the opportunity to go in with a clear hypothesis and to either confirm it or prove it completely off base.
In this case, what we got was really more of the latter.
The thing about non-profits and mission-driven organizations is that standing still is rarely an option. If your mission is truly delivering a positive impact on society, then there is an obligation to at least explore ways and opportunities for growth – if only to ensure you are not missing a chance to reach more people and deliver even more good.
But with a school that depends on balancing of individual attention with a carefully crafted learning environment, growth can be a daunting prospect for administrators, teachers and the community alike.
What we wanted to know was this:
How do we scale up and also protect what makes us who we really are?
And, related to that, how can we break through and get our story out there in an increasingly fractured and noisy marketplace?
Back in 1980, EAS was almost the only game in town for students who wanted an alternative experience to what the public-school system had to offer. But flash forward four decades and the broader Seattle area is brimming with small schools of all shapes and sizes. Does anybody really have the time to care about what sets ours apart?
To find our answers, we took a look at the latest surveys of the school community and we spoke to some of the staff and students as well. We began to define what – internally – we think sets our school apart. And then we brought in 7 parents who represented a cross-section of the student body – with diversity in age, grade-level, income and learning styles – to test these theories in the form of a focus group.
What we learned.
Characteristically, the parents were engaged and passionate, and they were honored to be asked for their opinions. So that was perhaps takeaway #1 from this project: a humble reminder of how much we can gain in our relationships with our customers simply by asking – in ways both formal and not – what they think, believe and care about. I could see the way the interaction in the room gave energy to everyone involved, especially my sister.
In the course of the discussion, we validated a lot and we uncovered a number of surprising insights as well. Perhaps the most prominent of these was that one of the parents chimed in and pointed out that we kept referring to the “saturated market” of private and small schools.
“You keep saying there are so many other choices out there, but the truth is that nobody – not one single school – offers exactly what you do,” she said. “I’d say the market isn’t saturated so much as wide open.”
That was learning #2. We came into this project operating under the assumption that the market was too full of competitive schools that offer what we do and instead, we learned that we are in a class of our own.
We used this insight to guide the rest of the discussion in an exploration and articulation of what, exactly, that differentiation is. And the beauty is, we are doing it with the guidance, input and language that our customers actually use, rather than locked away in a room by ourselves.
Where did we land? Well, to share that here would be to undermine our top-secret planning for the big reveal and the new positioning for Eastside Academics School later this year. But what I can say is that learning #3 was this: No matter how small, how competitive, how old or how new a company may be – there is always something unique and personal to be unearthed that sets your business apart. Especially for family-owned businesses with a legacy and an authentic story to tell.
You just need to do the research and create the space to unearth it – so you can give it voice and share it more vocally with the rest of the world.
For some of us, that story is also the story of our family. For my sister, it’s the story of the students she helps – and the many more I know she will reach going forward.
You can learn more about this amazing school by visiting the Eastside Academics School website. To see how we can help you unearth your own story and validate your differentiation and positioning, drop us a line here.