Joseph wrote in to ask:
My major problem in starting my own school is FUNDS – INVESTMENT.
HOW CAN YOU HELP ?
What an excellent question!
If you were starting a business even 20 years ago this would be a huge hurdle to climb.
Luckily things have changed.
A lot.
So my simple answer is ….
it’s better to have no investment or any funds at all to get started! 🙂
Whooo, what did you say?
I always recommend “organic” growth for a school.
To start off with just one student, then another, then another.
All you need to start is a location for an hour (and there are many free locations around that you can borrow for one or two hours) and some simple word of mouth marketing via friends.
Once you have 2 or 3 students having *amazing* lessons (and they have to be truly amazing!) then word of mouth takes over from there.
As you increase the amount of students, you can pay to hire locations, and then when you reach a certain point, maybe 100 or 150 students, you could look at getting your own permanent location, but of course you don’t have to.
Boom and Bust…
The alternative is to get lots of outside investment, do a big marketing campaign, get a new building and lots of equipment.
But because you never started small, you don’t get the learning experience, and the safety net of being able to make mistakes, and very often things just crash. And if you do become successful, then someone else – your initial investors – own a large part of your company.
One at a time…
So I’d always take the organic route, one student, then another then another.
You really polish your teaching and business skills, never have the burden of debt and at the end of the day you own everything you have worked hard to build up.
Good luck!
Be genki,
Richard
P.S. This also applies to those of you thinking of setting up another branch of your school. Unless you have an ultra high (and hence ultra rare!) cash flow then don’t take out loans or investment to build your second branch. Instead save every penny you have an buy it outright, without outside help. Remember most business don’t go out of business through lack of customers, most of them go out of business because they didn’t keep a close enough eye on the cash flow.
P.P.S. This is also the reason I offer so much in the free email course, the idea is that even if you start with just one or two students, if you put the ideas in practice you’ll soon have so many new students that you’ll be able to invest in any teaching programme you wish. Which of course I hope ends up being the Genki English Teacher’s Set! 🙂
P.P.P.S. Ninja Tip: A good aim for most teachers teaching on their own is to get 120 students by your second year. It’s a just a rough aim, and depends on your local area etc. so some teachers only get 80 in a year, and some manage 150 in a few weeks (yep, we had this in a workshop last year – well done girls!), but 120 is a good rule of thumb. And remember it all comes to doing *amazing* lessons and making sure the parents know exactly what you are doing!
If you like these tips you’re going to LOVE my new
online Genki Business Course
Hello, I’m Richard & I start teaching when I was 16.
Although I now have millions of students around the world, I’m just like everyone else and started with just 1 student and built things up from there.
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In this new course I share with you *everything* I’ve learnt about starting a school, growing a school and making the business and lifestyle you want.
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Thanks for addressing this topic. I’d prefer the organic route rather than going into debt. My girlfriend always asks our bosses how they got into the school business, what they needed, etc, and they always say that at a bare minimum we need $75,000.
Of course, this is to lease a decent sized permanent space! However, to start organically, you only need a free area and maybe invest in speakers, a laptop, and a big screen tv (I already have two of those)…and you don’t even need those things IMMEDIATELY.
On a side note. My boss is buying a huge touch screen computer panel. I have no idea how it doesn’t cost $5000 + like the ones I search for on the internet. It will be super exciting to have the kids touching things on the screen as opposed to having to try to figure out how to manipulate the mouse….and the screen is far bigger than the 32″ tv setup we have in the classrooms.
I want to do this in kansai, but with tennis in english, any tips, thanks.
Great work too.
Sounds great, yes everything works exactly the same with tennis. Doing it in English does limit your potential target audience so do keep that in mind when setting prices. But I’ve certainly seen people do this before with other sports in English! And also make sure you do have Japanese language materials on your site etc. so people know there is local language follow up and support as well.
Thanks a lot. THis is really wonderful and helpful too!
Hi Richard,
Your blog is full of information and is very inspiring for people like me, I am planning to open a primary school in a remote place called Kaladhungi(Birth place of Jim corbett). This area lacks good school with quality education. I would require your assistance in starting my dream project. I have finalized the place where I will be setting up the infrastructure and have arranged for funds (investor). The aim is not to make money but to provide unique and high quality education to the children of this village where parents are land labourers or primarily from agriculture background. I would require your expertise and also genki english program for my school. The locality has around 5-6 schools and does not require more schools to cater to the needs of the children, but the quality education is missing.
Warm regards
Harish Joshi
9568112355
Hi Everyone.
I agree in theory and this is how I have setup my school.
However, there are many cases that you may need investment in some form or another.
If you are starting a business from scratch, how will you pay any existing bills/ commitments/ car loans/ mortgages etc?
I have been trying to save up enough to buy the Genki English packs but cannot because of finances.
Would I have been better off getting a loan to be able to buy it from day one? I would like to think so….
Anyway, it`s not always clear cut as saying “it`s better to have no investment at all”.
Hi Harish, have a look at this page – I think it might help!
http://genkienglish.net/teaching/genki-english-buy-one-give-one-free/
And thanks Ritz for your comments, I put in a bit of feedback below!
If you are starting a business from scratch, how will you pay any existing bills/ commitments/ car loans/ mortgages etc?
Those are separate personal items that you wouldn’t and shouldn’t take out investment for. Instead you should work on building cash flow to pay those off as soon as possible. Remember personal and business should be kept separate.
I have been trying to save up enough to buy the Genki English packs but cannot because of finances.
Would I have been better off getting a loan to be able to buy it from day one? I would like to think so….
First of all thank you for wanting to buy the set! Possibly. But, and you can imagine that my interest is to say the opposite, from your point of view it is better to start using the free ideas on the site, then quickly build up your cash flow as soon as possible to be able to purchase the set. Setting goals for what you wish to purchase is one of the strongest and most powerful fiscal disciplines to have!
Anyway, it`s not always clear cut as saying “it`s better to have no investment at all”.
Compared with any other business it is 100% hands down better to have no investment at all. Have a try at starting another type business and then I think you’ll see 🙂
Be genki,
Richard
Hi Richard,
You are so right about being very careful about starting your school with little or no debt. My wife and I have learned this lesson the hard way. We invested a large sum of money in a program that promised to show profit within a year, however, after just six months, we are in way over our heads debt wise. Now we are in a position of sink or swim which definitely takes the fun out of teaching and adds tons of stress. Therefore, I would recommend that anyone starting their own school follow Richard’s advice.
Thanks for addressing this topic. I’d prefer the organic route rather than going into debt. My girlfriend always asks our bosses how they got into the school business, what they needed, etc, and they always say that at a bare minimum we need $75,000.
Of course, this is to lease a decent sized permanent space! However, to start organically, you only need a free area and maybe invest in speakers, a laptop, and a big screen tv (I already have two of those)…and you don’t even need those things IMMEDIATELY.
On a side note. My boss is buying a huge touch screen computer panel. I have no idea how it doesn’t cost $5000 + like the ones I search for on the internet. It will be super exciting to have the kids touching things on the screen as opposed to having to try to figure out how to manipulate the mouse….and the screen is far bigger than the 32″ tv setup we have in the classrooms.
Your blog is full of information and is very inspiring for people like me, I am planning to open a primary school in a remote place called Allahabad (village). This area lacks good school with quality education. I would require your assistance in starting my dream project. I have finalized the place where I will be setting up the infrastructure and have arranged for funds (investor). The aim is not to make money but to provide unique and high quality education to the children of this village where parents are land labourers or primarily from agriculture background. I would require your expertise and also genki english program for my school. The locality has around 5-6 schools and does not require more schools to cater to the needs of the children, but the quality education is missing.
Warm regards
Sudhanshu Srivastava
Hi Sudhanshu,
Congratulations on your plan!
Do check out this page here!
http://genkienglish.net/teaching/genki-english-buy-one-give-one-free/
Sir I want to start school business starting from primary ,but I don’t have much money to buy land and construct building,
Hi Burhan, you don’t need either money, land or buildings yet. Follow the tips in the post above and you’ll soon have all 3!
Sir I already have school’s nearby my home,I’m very confused about where to open my school as I want to open my own school,what things are needed to take into consideration before selecting any location for new school,plz suggest
When Starbucks decide to open a new coffee shop, where do they open theirs? Right next to an existing Starbucks, because they know there are already customers there 🙂 And then you plan how to be so awesome that all the students come to you 🙂
I run a school and want some help to run that school on a big scale
you have motivated my spirit on the posibility of having my school grow. I have just started a school from primary level and would like to get more finances (angel investor) to boost on facilities development and to purchase equipment to set up a model school that can help in identifying talents and giftings in learners and develop them for there lifelyhood. I have already enrolled 20 children and laid the foudation for five stardard classrooms and the offices which are incomplete, have also set up the environment for various fileds of training. kindly help. i desire to develop it to meet international stardads .