Happy 25th Anniversary to the High Touch High Tech of Atlanta Franchise!

To celebrate this anniversary we sat down with Helene Nelms to ask her a few questions about her time with HTHT ATL and her advice to anyone looking to invest in a HTHT Franchise!

What made you want to buy a HTHT Franchise? 

I enjoyed teaching for the founder, Dan Shaw, in Coral Springs FL, for a year in the company’s early stages.  I loved how his idea of “edutainment” thrilled both the teachers and students. During that time Dan began to sell franchises and I convinced my parents to partner with me to buy the metro Atlanta franchise. As a young single professional, I was excited to move out of Coral Springs FL, into a bigger city. Dianne, Richard and I believed in Dan’s vision and agreed to “make it happen” as Dad would say, in Atlanta, GA.

What advice would you give to a person looking to buy a HTHT Franchise?

HTHT provides is a time-tested product/service so market it in your territory in as many ways as possible. I am trying to slowly change with the times of social media but here is an old timer marketing tip that brought us in a lot of business. Every time you finish a program at a school drop off what we call “dear grade chair letters,”.  These letters begin by saying “Dear grade chair,” “we just successfully completed a hands-on science program with the (insert grade completed that day) Please inquire with them about how much the students and teachers enjoyed the experience.” Then continue explaining about your company and attach a brochure to each letter. Make sure you express that each program meets current grade specific standards for your area and are hands on and participatory by each student.  Ask the front office lady to kindly put the letters with brochures attached in the grade chair mail boxes of all grades except the grade you just completed. Therefore, at your office, you would have 6 stacks of letters for elementary school prepared with brochures attached that say…” We just successfully completed K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th” so that every time you go to one of those grades you grab five letters for that grade and put in all mailboxes except the grade you just completed.

What great experiences/trials/errors have you had with HTHT over the last 25 years?

WOW.  Not sure I can sum that up in a few lines but if I had to try I would say the last 25 years has taken a lot of hard work and dedication by both owners and employees but if you are going to pour your heart into your career it is extremely rewarding to know how much you, your partners, your teachers and assistants are positively influencing and impacting the lives of today’s youth. I am most grateful for the time flexibility the business provides the owners now that we are past the early years and established in our roles as partners.  Thanks to our outstanding, dedicated and reliable managers, teachers, and administrative assistants we grew the company as a team and I was able to raise three beautiful children in that time span alongside my two partners, that happen to be their grandparents. 🙂 My kids literally grew up at the office and with our extended High Touch High Tech family. Thanks to Dan’s original brilliant idea, Dianne, Richard, and I along with our exceptional team have had had the pleasure of positively impacting what I am guesstimating to be approximately 1.5 million children.  As to be expected, some years were more challenging than others both financially and logistically but to still be going strong after 24 years incorporated, I would say we must be doing something right. 🙂 In addition to our HTHT family, I am also lucky enough to have a supportive husband at home to bounce ideas off of.

What are you passionate about, what are your hobbies? 

We are a very sports minded family so much of my free time revolves around travel ball for all three of my teenagers. I also try to keep myself physically active with recreational athletics. Going to movies and comedy clubs are my favorite pastimes and I hope we get to travel more in the future.

Congratulations again, to Helene Nelms and her wonderful staff at HTHT of Atlanta!

Here is to another FUN 25 years!

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