The Franchise: Los Angeles-based Mathnasium is a math-only learning center with more than 1,200 locations worldwide, including about 20 in Wisconsin. The company offers supplemental education services, including tutoring and enrichment, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

2013: Rohita Shah and her family moved to Milwaukee’s north shore suburbs from the Chicago area, where both of her children had been enrolled at Mathnasium to great academic success. At the time, Wisconsin had only one Mathnasium location, in Menomonee Falls, so Shah decided to look into opening one of her own.

“It’s a very rewarding business. You get to see the ‘aha!’ moments, similar to what we had seen with our children.”

2015: After signing a single-unit franchise agreement, Shah opened her first Mathnasium location on East Silver Spring Drive in Whitefish Bay.

“It was a very big learning curve for me because I came from a very different background, not an education background nor a business background. There are a lot of moving parts to the business.”

2016: Prompted by a successful first year in business, Shah purchased a second territory, Brookfield, and opened a new location there. She hired a center director to handle operations while she continued to run the Whitefish Bay location.

2020-2021: In order to step back from the daily grind and spend more time at home with her family, Shah sold the Brookfield center to local franchisee Derek Pipkorn and enlisted her center director to take the helm at Whitefish Bay. The business then moved into a larger space across the street.

“I knew that both centers had a lot of potential, but I wasn’t able to run one and support both and still be able to grow the centers. Now with the team that we have, we’ve been able to grow this center to a place that we didn’t even think we could take it, but we did.”

The franchise fee: $49,000