By Jack Schacht.
I started my company, My College Planning Team, in 2014 because – like many of you, I’m sure — I saw middle-income families struggling to pay for college and how very little high school counselors knew about financial aid and college financial planning. (How could they? They have so much on their plates already.)
I thought I could do well by doing good – and we have. Over these years we have served families and launched hundreds of students on their college careers.
Now, at 84, I’ve determined that it’s time for me to sell MCPT and (finally!) retire. This is an opportunity for a financial advisor who also sees a huge need among their clients: grandparents and parents with high school-age children who are staring at the prospect of paying for college like deer in headlights.
Yes, it’s a business, but it’s also a mission – one that I and my team of 40 academic, financial aid and financial planning experts find immensely gratifying. If you are seeking a new business opportunity, it could be a great fit for a number of reasons.
MCPT is among the few college planning companies in the U.S. that regularly hosts workshops at public high schools and libraries.
We are able to do this because many of the team members are from the nonprofit sector as college financial aid directors and academic counselors. The workshops are complimentary. In addition, all of the speakers have been published and are effective in getting a high percentage of the audience to request a complimentary personal college planning session.
We are in the top 10% of all competitors in our major markets in our Google authority ranking. This will give a new owner, who is willing to keep investing in SEO, a head start on landing on page one in Google searches and will set the stage for them to be successful in attracting users to the website.
MCPT will have more than 75 workshops scheduled for fall 2025.
Twenty-five of these workshops will be at high schools and 50 at libraries in our major markets. We fully expect these workshops to collectively produce 1,000 or more attendees.
And you do not need to be a college planning or financial aid expert.
Our greatest asset is our team. Their bios and published articles in high profile and relevant publications draw the attention of families seeking assistance on their college journey. When a client has a need for college planning, you are able to connect them with a variety of experts, from financial aid to essay writing to test preparation to services for students with disabilities.
Our venue partners are also our marketing partners.
The libraries and high schools market the workshops, which can be in person or virtual. We empower them and have them send out email invitations, which will have a better open rate coming from them than from us.
Though it had its start in the Chicago area, MCPT’s market now also includes Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Through virtual workshops, we can do business elsewhere. If our new owner, for example, is based in Texas, we will help them establish a market in their area.
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Jack Schacht is the founder & CEO of My College Planning Team.
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Tags: college, Payroll, personal finances
