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Sylvia Borgo, owner of DJ Educational Consulting, shares her journey from classroom teacher to successful college consultant and explains how she maintains a small, intentional practice that prioritizes deep student connections. She offers practical advice about the power of organization, time management, and professional collaboration in building a sustainable consulting business.

• Named her business after her children's initials (and coincidentally it jived with her love of music)
• Transitioned from 20 years of classroom teaching, including 13 years at a college prep charter school
• Started volunteering with a community-based organization to stay connected with helping teenagers
• Completed her college consulting certificate during 2020 when she had extra time available
• Grew her business through referrals from other consultants who had reached capacity
• Believes in freely sharing information rather than hoarding knowledge
• Maintains an intentional solo practice to preserve deep connections with students
• Works with approximately 20 students per grade level to maintain quality and work-life balance
• Meets students both in-person and virtually, which differentiates her from exclusively online consultants
• Specializes in working with students from specific local high schools
• Uses time blocking, including dedicated social media time once monthly
• Offers two package options: 30 hours (for 9th-11th graders) and 20 hours (for 11th-12th graders)
• Meticulously tracks time using Toggle to manage client expectations and forecast capacity

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Aubrey Groves shares her journey from Chinese language teacher to joining her mother's college consulting business, Davis Groves Educational Services, and how they've built a thriving practice focused on creating work-life balance for working parents.

• Joining her mother's college consulting business after teaching Chinese for six years
• Bringing technology improvements like Google Docs to streamline their processes
• Transitioning to a fully remote business model and creating more efficient systems
• Developing a filtering system for identifying client "red flags"
• Evolving their curriculum to ensure students take ownership of their applications
• Finding the right balance in potentially using AI for appropriate tasks
• Creating a business that intentionally supports working parents
• Setting firm boundaries around personal time with two dedicated days off weekly
• Building a mother-daughter business relationship that leverages different strengths
• Focusing exclusively on seniors from August to November to maintain quality service

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or share it with a friend in the college consulting industry.

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Stephanie Mead shares her journey as an "accidental entrepreneur" who built a successful college consulting business by trusting her instincts over conventional business wisdom. Her experience demonstrates that personal authenticity can be the strongest foundation for business success.

• Started as a test prep tutor while pursuing an acting career over 30 years ago
• Discovered her natural talent for connecting with teenagers
• Transitioned organically into college consulting through client demand
• Grew a tutoring team to 15 people before scaling back to focus on what she loved
• Found that a smaller business actually generated more take-home profit
• Implemented an innovative hourly billing system instead of traditional packages
• Recently added two associates using a profit-sharing model rather than employment
• Uses a virtual assistant to handle administrative tasks, improving efficiency
• Believes strongly in being true to yourself in business decisions

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or share it with a friend in the college consulting industry.