Sylvan Expands in Florida through owners Ranjit and Sophia Wasu

Ranjit and Sophia Wasu are on the fast track to business ownership by expanding the Sylvan Learning*brand in the state of Florida. [caption id="attachment_16117" align="alignright" width="190" caption="Sophia and Ranjit Wasu"][/caption] A native of Florida, Sophia grew up in Melbourne and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa. Here she received her bachelor’s degree in business finance. With a finance background, she was offered a position at Regions Bank as an Assistant Manager. In a new career, Sophia’s responsibilities concentrated on client relations as well as creating and maintaining professional relationships with other businesses.  In 2009, Sophia traveled to London for a wedding and met her soon to be husband, Ranjit; after three days, the two were engaged to be married. Ranjit received his engineering degree and an MBA in computer sciences from City University of London. Upon his graduation, he worked with Mane Contract Services as their IT Director. After flying back to the states, Sophia resigned from Regions Bank to move to London to begin her life with Ranjit. Upon Sophia’s arrival back to the UK, the newlyweds soon transitioned into the ultimate business duo, opening a bakery together in South Hall, London.  At the time, the bakery brand was in the early stages of franchising, Sophia and Ranjit opened the system’s twelfth location. Completely new to business ownership, the Wasu’s learned more about each other and what it took to run a successful business. Over the next two years, Sophia and Ranjit quickly adapted to various roles within business ownership. Absorbing the key components and coming from the scheduled corporate world, the bakery laid a new foundation for them to work together as a team. Not only did they manage the bakery, but each day presented different challenges; one day they could be making the deliveries and taking orders, the next could be attending meetings and making schedules. After their time spent with the bakery, the Wasus sold the business and decided it would be beneficial to start a new part of their lives in the U.S. From here, Ranjit took it upon himself and researched franchise opportunities and stumbled across Sylvan Learning. They discussed their options with a business broker and schedule to meet with the offices in Melbourne. Having two young children and placing a high priority on education, the Wasus felt Sylvan was the ideal fit for them.  Knowing both ends of the spectrum of the structured corporate side and diverse side of the franchise industry, Ranjit and Sophia are tag teaming the expansion of Sylvan Learning. How did you learn about the brand? Well, we kind of fell into it, Ranjit did all the research and we decided to meet staff at the Melbourne office. Following, we traveled to the headquarters in Baltimore and that was the main selling point for us; we loved the brand and what they stood for. Why did you choose an opportunity with Sylvan? We have two small children and are both very educationally based; we wanted to provide the best thing for our children. Sylvan is a business we are proud to be apart of and it’s very enlightening. Sylvan felt right for us and our children, as well as families in the community. Are you involved with any charities or do any community outreach with your business? At this point no, but we are looking into a local children’s football league sponsorship. Once we are more settled, we want to look into creating relationships with the local schools.  We really want to see what programs children at our center are involved with and become involved with those specific organizations. What challenges have you overcome to get where you are now? Being from different parts of the world and living where each other did, we both went through some sort of culture shock. Balancing a new marriage, having children and moving right away was difficult but not impossible. What is your end goal with Sylvan? In the next five years, we would like three centers and would like to stay in/near Florida, this way we aren’t just the business owners but involved with each individual center as much as possible.