A Day in the Life of Entrepreneur, Danielle Rombough of Arnold Tutoring

Written By: Danielle Rombough, Co-founder & COO, Arnold Tutoring

My life as an entrepreneur isn’t always glamorous, but I have a lot of fun. I like that I’m on the go most of the day—I’m getting exercise and dealing with different situations as they come up, so it keeps me sharp and I’m always on my toes. Here is what a day-in-my-life as the Co-Founder and COO of Arnold Tutoring, a company that offers in-home tutoring and exam prep seminars for high school and university math courses in Toronto and Manitoba.

6:30 am: Wake up

Since becoming an entrepreneur I have read a lot about morning routines. For me, I find the most important thing is to leave enough time to get everything together, answer any pressing emails and review my schedule before I leave the house.

8:00 am: Grade 6 tutoring appointment

This student is preparing for the SSAT, a standardized entrance exam used by private schools, so we complete practice questions for fractions and multiplication while I share tips on how to successfully answer 25 multiple choice questions in 30 minutes.

9:00 am: Arrive at our midtown office

We just moved into this space at the start of the month so it’s still very exciting to walk in each morning! After working from home for most of the last three years, we thought it was finally time to have a space dedicated to our business and to create an inviting space for our clients to use when in-home isn’t the preferred option.

I’ll use the time in the office to follow-up on late payments, add our latest tutor bios to the website and prep for the coming week. Some of our clients have been asking us to teach ahead in the course, which requires a lot more preparation of materials, tip sheets and practice questions. Once I create these, I’ll share them with our tutors so they’re fully prepared for their sessions.

12:00 pm: Presentation practice

My co-founder (and brother) Mike Arnold, is doing a practice run of his upcoming presentation for Manitoba high school teachers on the topic of “Helping Students Ace Their Provincial Exam”. We’ve been teaching exam prep seminars for Manitoba grade 12 students since 2011 and this year we expanded our private tutoring business to Winnipeg, so it will be a good opportunity for Mike to check-in with our tutors, clients and contacts there.

Back on the move… heading to the subway. Walking is my main form of exercise most days and I use the time on the subway to catch up on my reading!

2:00 pm: Grade 3 tutoring appointment

I meet with this client several times a week in an effort to catch her up to her regular math class. Today we talked about the number 25 for “Number of the Day” and sorted and tallied coloured paper clips as part of her data management unit.

4:00 pm: Grade 4 tutoring appointment

We spend the first 5 minutes talking about my client’s day at school and her new kitten. While she used to be really shy and unsure of herself, she’s really come out of her shell with me. We work on division and multiplication and complete any homework she has, then if we have time we’ll play a multiplication card game.

I share an article about the education strikes in Ontario on social media, respond to a client’s reschedule request and walk about 10 minutes to my last clients of the day.

5:00 pm: Grade 3, 6, 8 tutoring appointments

This family was my first client in Toronto and after being at their home for several hours a week I feel like part of the family. The oldest is preparing for the upper-level SSAT so we do practice questions and review some new material in the hopes that she can score especially well on the math section. The grade 6 student is a big Jays fan so we catch up on their recent performance (I’m a fan too!) and calculate the ERA’s for 3 or 4 pitchers. It’s a great opportunity to use estimation and reasoning skills, then use math skills to actually calculate it.