Electronic Payments Acceptance Adds Up For Mathnasium

When my wife and I opened our Mathnasium franchise (a math tutoring center) in Mill Valley over a year ago, we thought it would be successful. As we built our clientele, one student at a time, we knew that debit/credit card acceptance would be a key component to our financial sustainability.

Tutoring is not an exact science. Though we have helped many children become more confident in math, some have needed a little extra help from time to time. If we feel some children need some extra tutoring, we will ask their parents if they’d like their kids to continue in our program, and if the answer is yes, we simply charge a little more to the parents’ credit/debit cards—which are usually already on file. It’s a no fuss situation. If we only accepted cash, we’d have to wait for the parents to go the ATM and withdraw the appropriate amount for our services. Some parents can be absent-minded, so the process can take a while. It’s usually not a great wait, but still a wait.

We also strive to serve children of all backgrounds. Unfortunately, we must also run a business. For some parents, our prices can be cost prohibitive. If we only accepted cash, we’d have to turn away children whom really need math help. Credit cards give some of our kids’ parents the flexibility to pay off tutoring fees over time, instead of when they first come to us.

Today, we have hundreds of students, and we regularly bill their parents’ charge cards. What can I say, at Mathnasium, with credit/debit card utilization, it all adds up!

Category: Blog

Tags: Business Growth, Customer Convenience