As a great Genki English teacher you certainly deserve the freedom to teach whatever and however you like, financial freedom, and the freedom of not having a boss!
And the way to do that is of course to aim to set up your own school.
(You know you want to see your name in lights! 🙂 )
So today I’ve collected a few of the “top tips” that I recommend or used when I started my first “school” back when I was 16, I hope they help!
The first step is if you have no money, then ….
- Start your own School Tip 0: Where to get initial funds & investment?
- Start your own School Tip 1: Where to hold class?
- Start your own School Tip 2: Be unavailable!
- Start your own School Tip 3: How to price your lessons
- Start your own School Tip 4: Demo Lesson Endings
- Start your own School Tip 5: Stress Buster Bank Transfers
- Start your own School Tip 6: Get a contract!
- Start your own School Tip 7: How to get more students then you’ll ever need
- Start your own School Tip 8: Best small class size
- Start your own School Tip 9: Don’t make a website!
- Start your own School Tip 10: Block out your holidays first
- Start Your Own School Tip 11: How To Teach English To Adults
- Start Your Own School Tip 12: Getting Permission To Photograph Students & Why Parents Refuse
- Start Your Own School Tip 13: Teaching Babies and 2&3 year olds
- Start Your Own School Tip 14: How to name your school (check out the gold in the comments!)
- Start Your Own School Tip 15: How to get free advertising
- Start Your Own school Tip 16: Should I hire a teacher for my school?
- Start Your Own School Tip 17: How to hire *great* teachers
- Start Your Own School Tip 18: Who is your avatar? + How to crush the competition!
- How to advertise your school & get your first students?
- How to sell your lessons & get more students
- You’re not charging enough
- The No.1 Reason to Start your own school
- How to (nearly) double your amount of classes
- Is It OK For Parents To Watch The Class?
- Demo Lesson Ideas Learnt From My First Helicopter Pilot Lesson
- But I’m not a native speaker!
Enjoy and good luck!
Be genki,
Richard
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.
Want to know how I did it?
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.
Check it out below or have a look at www.GenkiBusiness.com
—> Check out the Genki Business Course <–
Richard,
this info has been a great help. If you have any other suggestions I’d be reaaaaaly grateful.
Genki English is a superb course but it’s difficult to start your own school as there are so many already.
Hi Richard,
I am a big fun of Genki English, using it for a few years now.Mostly for early age kids.
I would like to join to one of your workshop you mentioned here.
If there is any seminar or a class i can join?
please let me know.
Regards,
Yaniv
Hi Yaniv,
Yes indeed, you can check out the latest schedule at http://genkienglish.net/oxford.htm and I also put details up on the blog when we get them sorted out. Things are a little hectic this year (and next!), but hopefully we’ll be able to fit some more in!
Be genki,
Richard
Oh , I am so happy finding GenkiEnglish com. Have worked in a public school for many years , we have used so many methodics which must be approved by our goverment….. but never liked that methodologies as children are bored (I too :)) . They like actions, games and then learn and understand better…. Now am thinking about my private lessons and am happy that here so many interesting and useful information. Thank you.
Hi, I have been receiving your emails for quite awhile now, and I love the happy enthusiastic way that Genki English is taught. I am not a teacher, I am an English woman living in France. I was going to do this with a friend who is a teacher, I am not unfortunately and she is doing something else. Would I be able to teach this with out a qualification, I used to teach night school in England without any. Do you have any advice for me please.
Kind regards
angel x
Hi Angel,
Most teachers start schools without qualifications – in fact non-qualified people often make the best teachers, all you need is the passion to teach and learn!
Hello Richard!
I am really thanks for sharing very important information with me. I´d would love to continue reading them!
me i really like your style of teaching and i hv learnt alot from you.
Kayonde.A in china
I am studying currently in South Korea but I am from Kyrgyzstan. Thanks for sharing great lessons. Where I live very bad connection of INTERNET therefore its difficult even to check my e-mails. In my community the working language is Kyrgyz and Russian but English is also increasing, and diffciult to teach without books. We have very few books which are boring. Fortunately now where is Internet available i am getting your lessons and satisfied. Thanks I will try to get more during my stay here and back to my community with really good outcome.
Good evening, Richard! I am used to having your ‘Genki English’ in my class and it was stunner. Children haven’t found it boring. It really was amazing new and very interesting for them. I wish l had my own school but I have some difficulties. I can’ t nearly understand what are they.It’ s hard work to learn English to not English-speaking children. Thanks a lot. I am waiting for new ideas .
Hi, Richard,
It is occasion chance that I took my daughter for a english training course for free one year ago and they used the lessons from you. Then I searched it from internet and I think it is the best way for kids to learn english. Currently I am working for a international oilfield service company but will have not job at the end of this month due to the poor oil market. I am thinking about to teach my daughter at home with your Genki lessons by myself then start to built a school if it is possible. I have been worked with so many different people from all the world and most of them said I speak good english. I hope that I could do better with your Genki english lessons.
I’m sure you are going to love being a teacher, both to your daughter and everyone else! Good luck!
I want to manage my fathers school, which is so destroyed ! He started with 50 students and now after ten years he has only 30 and every day they just leave … I want to make it better but I’m scared and I don’t know what to do !!! Can you help me please ????
Hi Mahshiid,
Read through all the tips above and that should get you on the right track. Also try and talk to your father and ask him how he got those 50 students initially, and what he feels might have caused the problems. Very often just talking to someone about business problems can make the solutions seem as clear as day!
Thank you for your great ideas !
Emilia
I’m new in this area. Hope Genki will give bright ideas. Thanks
Aloha Richard,
Thank you for making all of this information available. From my research I’ve found that a bachelors degree is required to obtain the proper working visa and also to work for an already established company. Would it be legal for me to start my own school in Japan without these qualifications? I will be marrying into a Japanese family this summer and i may be end up moving to Japan. I will of course go about getting proper business and tax licenses but I’m not sure if I need specific qualifications to teach English.
Mahalo!
Michael
Hi Michael, obviously I’m not a lawyer and always take professional advice ….. Usually you only need the degree to get the visa. But if you’re married, you can get a spouse visa, so no worries there. You also don’t need a specific business or tax license. You can start trading, and again always get professional advice, as a sole trader (kojinkaisha) and just declare taxes as usual. And once you get settled you can move up to a real company, not expensive just a bit of paperwork than I’m sure the inlaws will help with, and get all the benefits that brings. Insurance however is one thing you do need to make sure you have.
Thank you so much for the information! I will be visiting the site again when the time comes!
Michael
Hello Richards,
First of all, a thank you for all the great material and info you provide! I started using Genki English 4 years ago as a private tutor. Both the students and parents love it… I need to turn down students every week because I simply don’t have the time to take on more. And it helped me overcome the ‘native speaker’ requirement…
That made me thinking about starting my own school. I live and work in China and I’ve heard that the paperwork can be quite overwhelming.
Does anyone have experience in starting a school in China?
Thanks in advance for your tips!
These tips are so great! Just what i needed, gave me some confidence. I’ve been teaching for over 6 years now in China, but I want to open my own school next year when I go back to my country. One thing I’m still worried about is the competition, I wanna start small and stay that way. But there are bunch of schools with good reputation and hundreds of students, although I know I’m great 😀 still the fact of going out there scares me. It’s my dream tho. Any advice on overcoming that fear and dealing with competition? Thank you, Genkienglish! This website rocks
Hi Kate, it’s the same advice as we give students!
http://genkienglish.net/teaching/the-opposite-of-shy-how-to-cure-it/