Chrissybil started her tutoring company with only $500!

Contributed by Founders First

Thanks for taking the time to tell us your story! Can you give us a quick introduction?

Sure! My name is Chrissybil Boulin and I’m the owner of Jumpstart Tutoring Center. We provide one on one and group tutoring services to students throughout the state of Florida.

Jumpstart was founded in late 2018 and I started the company with literally $500, no prior business experience and no co-founder.

No business experience and no co-founder? That’s pretty unique. What was the inspiration to start the company?

I have degrees in political science and development economics, but all throughout my life, education has always been something that has influenced me in really big ways. In fact, my first time tutoring when I was just 12 years old.

See, I never really got a traditional job like working at a supermarket or a restaurant. I spent most of my free time tutoring peers.

I remember the first time that one of my friends’ parents called me and I was so confused wondering why they’d be calling! They told me that my friend had been struggling in school and that after speaking with the teacher, it was recommended that she reach out to me for tutoring.

And so that’s kind of how my journey began at that time. I’d never really put a label on it, calling myself a teacher or educator, but I just knew that I loved seeing my friends build their confidence and I loved being a part of that journey to facilitate.

Super interesting! So many businesses are inspired by discovering we have a talent or gift others recognize and it sounds like that was certainly true in your case.

Let’s chat about a different subject: Covid. How was your business impacted by the pandemic?

Covid was really hard for us. We started in late 2018 so we didn’t even have a full year and a half under our belt before Covid hit. As a small business we didn’t have a lot of savings. I actually only had a one page website, and 66 followers on Instagram.

To make matters worse, I did all of my marketing face to face, you know meeting people, going to schools and libraries, holding workshops for parents, that kind of thing.

And naturally, once Covid hit, that was completely unacceptable, because the schools were closed, and so we really struggled to stay afloat.

That sounds rough. What did you do to keep going?

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The first thing we did was build up our branding kit. Then we started to build out our website and increase our following on social media. Next came building out our team to focus on digital marketing and SEO.

From there we hired a grant writer and that really is what saved us. With their help we were able to win $40,000 worth of grants from companies like Facebook and Springs and Scissors and The United Way of Broward County.

So there are definitely a lot of opportunities out there, but without really building a team and just being so focused on staying afloat, we wouldn’t have made it. But thank goodness we did!

A great example of resilience and creative problem solving. What did those experiences teach you?

You know, looking back, all of those challenges really inspired us to take our next step, which is the big pivot into ED tech.

We want to expand our offering because we understand that not all students can afford private tutoring but there is still a need for customization and access to it and so that’s really why we’re moving forward in that direction.

Makes a lot of sense! Now I know you were recently recognized by Forbes, being named to their 30 under 30 list in the area of education. Was that recognition meaningful to you?

Yes! The most meaningful recognition of my life so far actually.

I remember just being in college and looking at the Forbes list and just

looking at the people, particularly who were in the education category and thinking about you know how cool it’d be one day to be there. 

It’s an incredible honor to represent my family, to represent the Haitian American community, and to represent all of our partners, students and tutors.

It’s amazing and that’s definitely an incredible milestone for us, especially now as we’re looking to fill out our $1.3 million seed round.

By doing that, we’ll be able to launch our product and really capture market share. So it’s an incredible honor.

What about other milestones Jumpstart has been able to achieve? What else are you especially proud that you’ve been able to accomplish?

Though entrepreneurship is filled with ups and downs, Jumpstart has had a lot of great milestones. 

For starters, I’m proud that we’ve worked with over 2,500 students and are helping students save hundreds of thousands of dollars off of college tuition costs just this year alone.

Additionally, I’m proud that we’ve built a network of partners including libraries, schools and NGOs and we have the highest increases on the SAT in our area which is 180 points – double that of our competitors.

We’re really allowing kids not only to do well on a test, but empowering them to have access to college without having pile on debt. We serve students in grades pre-K through 12 so I’m hearing success stories from elementary school and middle school branches as well.

It’s just been incredible to see this dream come true, and to hear about all of the lives of students were positively impacting.

I would say that it’s always been my goal to find a way to do good in the world, while also doing good for myself and it just feels really great to see that happen.

That’s outstanding. What kind of advice would you have for the next up and coming entrepreneur out there, that may be looking to grow their business?

Grit is number one. I mean there are so many ups and downs.

This time last year we were just grateful that clients were starting to come back and so to be here really is an honor, but you have to be prepared for that. You have to be prepared for the fact that entrepreneurship is going to have ups and downs.

You have to have grit and tenacity, but ultimately doing something that you are passionate about is what’s going to make it worthwhile. It’s what’s going to inspire you to keep going when you do have to have those 75 hour work weeks, and you do have to have those late nights.

And you have to sacrifice time on other things that you love so find something that you’re truly passionate about. 

Especially if you’re a young entrepreneur, find something that is a natural talent for you and look at ways that you can use that talent to solve a problem that people have, better than anything that’s on the market.

And so I’d say believe in yourself. I literally started off with 500 bucks. Where there’s a will there’s a way and with the Internet, you can get freelancers, you can do so much. You can learn so much for free.

Keep learning. I’m reading eight books this month and I think that it’s necessary because I just want to make sure that I’m leading my company and everyone that depends on us in the right direction

So keep learning, have grit, find something you’re passionate about and dream big.

Awesome, thank you so much for taking this time today to share with us and share with all the other entrepreneurs out there. We really do appreciate this.

Thank you!