Grosse Pointe Park Man Offers Learning on Wheels

Michael Richman's eye-catching Jeep--wrapped in a Barney purple and slime green ad for the Tutor Doctor--can be seen zipping around town, throughout the Grosse Pointes, St. Clair Shores, Harper Woods and a handful of other cities.

It's probably safe to say that some students who see him--or any one of his roster of tutors--coming, just want to look the other way and pretend not to see, especially when he turns up at their door for a consultation, something Richman does for free before he matches tutor with pupil.

“Sometimes, when we first start, I’ll ask the student, ‘So you want a tutor?’ The mom is glaring at them, ‘You want to do better in school, don’t you?” Richman says, laughing.

“What’s great is once the student gets to know the tutor and starts learning it and things get easier they get it, they want to do it.”

It’s the customized pupil-tutor matching and Tutor Doctor’s use of local schools’
curricula and materials that set him apart from other tutors or educational services. And it’s that colorful vehicle that makes house calls too that makes it stand out.

"I call it a learning center on wheels," says Richman, a Park resident turned entrepreneur after another auto industry layoff. Richman is a graduate of Ohio State University and has a background in materials management. He’s part of family with many teachers, and he started his Tutor Doctor franchise, an in-home tutoring business with 200 franchises in the U.S. and Canada, in January. The 10-year-old company is headquartered in Toronto.

The tutors he lines up work with students of all ages, from elementary to college. There are those students struggling in a subject, those working to master more challenging coursework or foreign languages or in need of test prep for school or college entrance.

One South student’s parents hired Tutor Doctor to prepare her for the essays she'll be writing for college entrance exams and applications. A 41-year-old man has gone back to college and needs some extra tutoring for subjects he’s lost grasp of after all these years.

What makes Tutor Doctor different from say a Sylvan Learning Center or Kumon, besides tutoring at home, is that Tutor Doctor tutors use the school's curriculum, not their own, he says.

"I’m not going to say they're not good at what they do….Tutor Doctor took the route of we're going to customize it, we're going to work with your school's curriculum.”

With learning centers, a student can be strengthened in subject matter, “but then they go home to do their homework. Contrast that to sitting at the dining room table, kitchen table, getting help with YOUR homework, YOUR curriculum.”

Consultations are free and besides the time he spends talking to parents and children about why they called for help, what they need, he puts much time in to matching the tutors. Richman went through training and is always kept up on best practices and research in tutoring.

“What I do really is focus on finding tutors that are skilled at what they do…Part of our thing is matching a kid to a tutor that best suits their needs, personality, learning style, likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests.”

“We want to create something like a bond. A kid who's struggling in school isn’t going to get excited about sitting at a table for an hour or two… if they don't relate them.”

Richman stumbled on Tutor Doctor while researching other franchises after he decided he no longer wanted to be at the mercy of an industry with fluctuations that lead to layoffs. An animal lover, he considered pet care or boarding.

“I was immediately attracted to Tutor Doctor, the aspects of making a difference by working in the community, helping families, all of those things that may look like marketing caught me…As it turns out these people live by these values. You know how people have these values statements on the wall and then they do the opposite? What I found the more I got to know the people at Tutor Doctor was these people live these values… They only bring in franchisees that fit. It’s not just having the money to buy a franchise.

“There's a whole process to go through. There’s a selection committee. There’s training.  They have to be sure without a shadow of doubt you're a good fit or they won't offer you the opportunity.”

“Going through the process it felt like I was the right fit…I said I worked all those years for a paycheck. The last place I worked made axle shafts. At the end of the day that really isn’t a huge contribution to the world. I figured i didn't want to work for a paycheck anymore….

Living in Grosse Pointe, he knew it was a place that cherished a good education.

“I thought Grosse Pointe is going to be a core part of business because education is so important.. People tend to have the money for tutors.. And St. Clair Shores too. I thought that’s where my business will also come from. But

I have people who live in Detroit, Warren, some houses I drive up to and i say there’s no way they can afford….but what I’ve found is families will give up whatever they have to.”

This week, he says, Tutor Doctor tutors are getting students ready for finals.

And more calls are coming in about summer.

“Kids lose 2.6 months worth of math in summer,” he says. “They can lose some of what they’ve learned in every subject.”

“I try to encourage families that call to get a packet from school….or organize a program….

"I'm getting a lot of calls about summer…That's exciting….We are definitely in growth mode."

Exciting? Maybe for him.

“It’s’ probably not how they want to spend summer,” he says. “But a little help now can go a long way tomorrow” 

Through May 31, $100 of new enrollments will be donated to a local charity of client's choosing: Forgotten Harvest, Services for Older Citizens, Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society or Wigs4Kids.

To schedule an appointment or learn more about Richman's Tutor Doctor visit the website or call 313-566-4750