From Teacher to Franchise Owner: Stories From AnzanPro Partners
The most common question people ask before opening an abacus franchise is some version of: "Do I need a business background to make this work?" The honest answer from AnzanPro's network is that a teaching background is often a more useful starting point than a business one — because the core product is a learning outcome, and the people who understand how children learn have a structural advantage in delivering it.
This post profiles three AnzanPro franchise owners who made the transition from teaching to running their own education business. Their stories are real, their numbers are real, and their candour about what went wrong is as valuable as what went right.
Priya Deshmukh — Pune, India
Background: School Mathematics Teacher, 11 Years
Priya spent over a decade teaching mathematics at a CBSE secondary school in Pune before she opened her first AnzanPro centre. She first encountered abacus education through a student whose parents mentioned the child had been attending an abacus class. She noticed a marked difference in that student's number fluency compared to classmates of similar academic ability.
"I asked the parents about it. They told me the class was 45 minutes twice a week, and their child could do mental calculations that my 9th-grade students struggled with. I started researching immediately."
After evaluating three franchise options over six months, Priya chose AnzanPro for two reasons: the digital reporting infrastructure aligned with how she thought about tracking student progress, and the territory protection model meant she could invest in her local school relationships without worrying about a competing franchisee being placed nearby.
The First Year
Priya opened in January, targeting the post-admission season when Pune parents are most actively enrolling children in extracurricular activities. She had 22 students in month one — partly because she spent December visiting three schools in her area and arranging demonstration sessions through teacher contacts she had built over her career.
"My biggest advantage was that the school coordinators already trusted me. I was not a salesperson walking in with a brochure — I was a fellow educator with a professional track record. That opens doors that are closed to most centre operators."
The first year was not without difficulty. Priya underestimated fee collection complexity — parents who paid informally (cash, variable timing) created cash flow unpredictability. She switched to a structured prepaid term model by month four.
"Nobody told me I would spend 20% of my time managing fee payments. The teaching part was natural. The business administration was the learning curve."
Where Priya Is Now
Priya runs two AnzanPro centres in Pune — her original location and a second she opened in her 18th month of operations. Combined, she has 184 active students across both centres and employs two part-time instructors. She expects to open a third centre within the next year.
"Teaching taught me how to observe a child and understand where they are in their learning journey. That skill transfers directly. What I had to learn was everything on the other side — marketing, hiring, financial planning. Those took time, but AnzanPro's onboarding process covered a lot more than I expected."
What Priya would tell teachers considering the jump: "Your teaching instinct is the most valuable thing you bring. Do not underestimate it. But do invest time in understanding the business side before you open — the cash flow management, the tax registration, the staff relationship. Those are learnable skills. Your teaching background is an advantage you already have."
Fatima Al-Rashidi — Dubai, UAE
Background: KG Teacher, 8 Years
Fatima taught kindergarten in Dubai for eight years before opening her AnzanPro centre three years ago. She had a deep interest in early numeracy development and had noticed that many of her students arrived with significant gaps in number sense that were hard to address in a regular classroom.
"I started researching abacus education as a learning science question, not a business question. I wanted to understand whether it actually worked. When I found the evidence base, I started thinking about it differently."
Fatima chose AnzanPro largely because of the platform's age-appropriate onboarding. Her background teaching five and six-year-olds gave her a clear view of what would engage that age group versus what looked good in a demo but would not survive first contact with a real child.
The First Year
Dubai's parent community is international, mobile, and digitally sophisticated. Fatima's target demographic included families from across South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe — all with different cultural reference points for supplementary education.
"In Dubai, parents want results and to be kept informed. The digital reporting from AnzanPro's platform was a competitive necessity here. Parents compare you against programmes that send detailed weekly progress emails. If you are sending manual WhatsApp messages, you look amateur."
Fatima reached break-even at 28 students in month five. Her honest year-one challenge: pricing confidence. "I underpriced for the first six months. I raised fees after I had enough testimonials and Google reviews to justify them. I left money on the table early on."
Where Fatima Is Now
Fatima's centre has 110 active students with a waiting list. She has hired two instructors and moved to a larger space. She is the highest-rated children's education centre in her district on Google, with 94 reviews averaging 4.9 stars.
What Fatima would tell teachers considering the jump: "The gap between teaching and running a business is not as wide as you think. You already manage groups, plan content, communicate with parents, and handle difficult conversations. That is most of what running a centre requires. The rest is administration — and administration can be learned."
James Whitfield — Leeds, UK
Background: Primary School Teaching Assistant, 6 Years
James worked as a teaching assistant in a Leeds primary school for six years before opening his AnzanPro centre. He encountered abacus education by chance — a colleague brought a soroban abacus to the staffroom after returning from Japan, and James found himself unable to think about anything else for three weeks.
"I went home and watched hours of abacus competition videos. I started reading the research on how soroban training affects working memory. Three months later, I was talking to AnzanPro about a franchise."
James completed AnzanPro's training programme over three months while still employed, opened as a weekend-only operation initially, and transitioned to full-time in his ninth month.
The First Year
The UK market presented specific challenges. Supplementary education is mainstream in British Asian communities but less embedded elsewhere — and Leeds has a mixed demographic. James narrowed his early marketing to schools where supplementary education had existing cultural traction.
"I made the mistake of trying to market to everyone. In my third month, I focused on two primary schools where families already had a reference point for supplementary education. My trial class conversion went from 30% to 65% almost immediately."
James's teaching background gave him a specific advantage with students who had mild learning differences — an ability to adapt instruction without losing the batch's momentum that most abacus instructors are not trained for.
His honest challenge: isolation. "Running a business is lonely in a way that working in a school is not. AnzanPro's UK franchisee network helped — monthly calls and an active peer group. But the adjustment from a collaborative workplace took longer than the business learning curve."
Where James Is Now
James's Leeds centre has 67 active students at 26 months of operation. His revenue exceeds his previous teaching assistant income. He is evaluating expansion into a second room or a second location.
What James would tell teachers considering the jump: "Start while you are still employed. Use evenings and weekends for your first batch. You will learn more in your first month of real classes than in any training programme. Open, learn, improve."
Common Themes
Across three different countries, backgrounds, and market contexts, Priya, Fatima, and James share four consistent observations:
Teaching background is a genuine competitive advantage. The ability to read a room, adapt instruction in real time, build rapport with children, and communicate with parents from a position of professional credibility accelerates student retention and referral generation in ways that business-background franchise owners often have to learn the hard way.
The business skills are learnable. Fee management, marketing, tax registration, staff relationships — all three describe these as learnable skills that they acquired primarily through doing, with support from AnzanPro's onboarding process and peer network.
Year one is the hardest. Not because the work is overwhelming, but because the uncertainty is uncomfortable. How many students will I have in month three? Will the next batch fill? Each of them describes a period of doubt in months two to five before growth became consistent.
Work-life balance improved — eventually. All three work hard. But they work at times and in ways they choose. The school calendar constraint — being required to be present during school hours, taking on cover duties at short notice — has been replaced by the demands of business ownership, which they describe as more stressful but more controllable.
If you are a teacher or school professional considering whether an AnzanPro franchise could be the right next step, the most useful first move is a conversation with our franchise team. Visit anzanpro.com/franchise to read more about the training process, territory availability, and what the first year of operations typically looks like.
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