Next generation modernizes 40-year tutoring firm, driving rapid digital growth
Family-run Teachers on Call moved from in-person visits to a digital-first model after Rhona Sallay’s daughter Joanne modernized operations, expanding services across Canada.
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By Torontoer Staff
Teachers on Call, a Toronto-based tutoring company founded in 1984, has become a national, digital-first service after its second-generation leader shifted the business from a Rolodex and home visits to a platform that delivers two-thirds of sessions online. The change has multiplied the client base and extended services into Northern Ontario, remote parts of British Columbia and the territories.
The company’s growth reflects a deliberate strategy: preserve the founder’s matching-first philosophy while adopting technology that removes geographic limits and serves younger learners earlier.
From Rolodex and home visits to an online matching platform
Rhona Sallay started Teachers on Call as a side business while teaching high school, pairing Grades 7 to 10 students with certified teachers in their homes. Her focus was on individualized strategies to keep students motivated, and she refused to send an ill-fitting match. “I would rather not fill an assignment than send the wrong person,” she says. “You want success. Otherwise, you are wasting time, money and expectations.”
When Joanne Sallay joined the company in 2011 after a career at Royal Bank of Canada, she brought systems thinking and a growth orientation. Over five years she migrated administrative processes online, launched a website and modernized how matches were made. By 2016 she was president and CEO, with her husband Michael Handelsman as chief operating officer and Rhona remaining as an advisor.
Early bets on virtual tutoring paid off
Joanne began exploring virtual tutoring around 2018, anticipating that certified teachers would disperse from expensive urban centres to smaller communities. Online delivery made the firm’s core strength, finding the right teacher-student match, independent of physical proximity. “I thought [online learning] was the future, but I would have said it was 10 to 15 years away,” she says.
At the time, virtual sessions were a tiny share of revenue and technology was not seamless. The company had to secure a Zoom account through a U.S. account manager, because the service was not yet widely offered in Canada. Still, the move meant the best tutor no longer had to live in a student’s neighbourhood.
Pandemic survival and post-pandemic growth
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Teachers on Call stopped in-home visits within 10 days. Demand initially fell, as high schools cancelled exams and paused grading. New clients included parents seeking structure during erratic school delivery, and provincial recovery funding later created contracts with several school boards to support vulnerable students.
Two trends sustained growth after the crisis: steady demand among elementary students, which Joanne prioritised early on, and the scalability of virtual delivery. Elementary tutoring became the company’s foundation, and the online shift allowed Teachers on Call to work with thousands of children and several hundred instructors at any time.
A leadership transition built on trust and shared values
The company’s transformation required Rhona to cede control and to trust the next generation to reshape the business model. That willingness to hand over management, while keeping founding values intact, is a common trait of successful multigenerational businesses. “Successful families are usually the ones that remain entrepreneurial across the generations,” says David Simpson, program director and lecturer in entrepreneurship at Western University’s Ivey Business School.
Joanne credits her mother’s pedagogical instincts for the company’s culture. “I always say I went to the ‘Rhona Sallay school of education,’ but she really taught me the ropes,” she says. Rhona frames the lesson plainly: “You have to be able to trust the people you are working with and give up that control. If they understand the basis of the business and the values behind it, they can take it further than you ever could on your own.”
What changed, and what stayed the same
- Core principle: prioritizing the right tutor-student match to drive long-term learning gains.
- Service delivery: shifted from predominantly in-home to roughly two-thirds virtual sessions.
- Client mix: grew from mostly high-school students in the GTA to include a large base of elementary learners across Canada.
- Operations: moved from phone and paper to online forms, a website, and digital scheduling and matching systems.
- Geographic reach: expanded into Northern and remote regions by removing location constraints.
The changes allowed Teachers on Call to support more than 10,000 families since 1984, and to scale its certified-instructor model without sacrificing the personalised approach that built its reputation.
Outlook
Joanne says the company will continue prioritising early intervention and serving students who lack local supports. The next phase will likely involve refining online tools, expanding partnerships with school boards and continuing to recruit certified teachers who can deliver effective virtual instruction.
The Teachers on Call story illustrates a pragmatic path for family businesses adapting to technology: keep the founding mission, update the tools, and trust the generation that will carry the company forward.
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