What exactly are your responsibilities? Perhaps you could put out an ad and interview candidates for a management position. If you can’t find a suitable candidate, all you’ve lost is just a little of your time.[/quote]
I guess you could say that my job is to make sure everything goes smoothly. I run detention classes, train teachers, make-up classes, etc…
What exactly are your responsibilities? Perhaps you could put out an ad and interview candidates for a management position. If you can’t find a suitable candidate, all you’ve lost is just a little of your time.[/quote]
I guess you could say that my job is to make sure everything goes smoothly. I run detention classes, train teachers, make-up classes, etc…[/quote]
That’s it! I’m moving to Kaoshiung. 
Shite, I am not from Mordor though. 
How about this? We pool or talents, open a huge school somewhere where students are plentiful and the competetion is nil, and one of us can run the school for say three months at a time while the others vacate, or examine our rectum, whatever floats your boat.
And while I’m wishing, can I have a pony? 
Seriously though, the ad for a professional manager seems plausable.
While I’m at it, may I ask where you guys are located?
[quote=“jdsmith”]How about this? We pool or talents, open a huge school somewhere where students are plentiful and the competetion is nil, and one of us can run the school for say three months at a time while the others vacate, or examine our rectum, whatever floats your boat.
And while I’m wishing, can I have a pony?
Seriously though, the ad for a professional manager seems plausable.[/quote]
Too many generals and not enough soldiers.
If I hire someone to manage, it would be from in-house.
My thinking exactly. Promote from within.
[quote=“Durins Bane”][quote=“jdsmith”]How about this? We pool or talents, open a huge school somewhere where students are plentiful and the competetion is nil, and one of us can run the school for say three months at a time while the others vacate, or examine our rectum, whatever floats your boat.
And while I’m wishing, can I have a pony?
Seriously though, the ad for a professional manager seems plausable.[/quote]
Too many generals and not enough soldiers.
If I hire someone to manage, it would be from in-house.[/quote]
So, I start in the kitchen, learn how to play RP games, drink long island ice teas, ride a scooter held together with wire, and then I should be ready to start at the bottom. 
Bassman,
My scooter has evolved into a higher life form…I now need to add air to the front tire every two or three days. :s
Some one mentioned above that maybe busy owner/teacher/managers/crazed husbands could put out an ad to find an experienced buxiban manager to assume some of the responsibilities. I said that I would prefer to promote from within.
Have any of you actually found this kind of replacement manager to cut you some slack? If so, where did he/she come from: within the organization or from outside? It’s too early for me to really even be thinking about this (wife just looked over my shoulder) but I am curious.
Is this a kind of thinking a pipedream I (we) keep telling ourselves until our hair falls out and we wake up in the loony bin?
Many schools equal being a good teacher to being a good manager. That is incorrect. Many school also promote teachers to manager positions because the teacher has been there the longest. That is also incorrect.
I’m looking for a manager who does one thing and one thing only…making me money. And that means keeping and increasing the student population. Very simple.
That is very true and maybe a separation of duties is necessary:
a curriculum manager who can be found within the organization, trained to keep things fresh, change when change is needed, handle hirings and firings of teachers and staff…
and a business manager, who handles marketing strategies, crunches numbers, plans promotions, demostrations, public service things, plans expansion and branches…
where can I find spare body parts and build me a couple of these??
DB,
Have you ever considered selling the management rights to your school to somebody? It would be a risky proposition, but if it worked out it would be a solution to finding somebody who would be more focused on making money and growing the business. There have been some schools in Taipei that have done this successfully. I think David Moore’s school is ran like this, or so I have heard.
I’m not certain what “selling the management rights” would entail. Do you mean they would essentially make a school into a franchise? Or just axpand the student base of the present school?
So, I’m curious how you guys got students when you were starting up.
I understand one of the most common ways for ex-teachers is to snag all their old schools students, but my schools have been good to me (always fair at any rate) so I couldn’t steal their students.
Flyers at schools?
Friends of the inlaws?
Brian
i’m curious how much is the capital in starting one? and how long is the ROI?
Thanks to jdsmith for starting this thread. I was going to start my own thread re. buxiban business partnerships but there’s already a lot of useful discussion here so hope nobody minds if I tag along.
I’ve been thinking for quite some time about opening my own school. I have a good idea about the academic aspects; the curriculum, the teaching methods, training etc. Marketing ideas are coming along. I need external help in two areas however.
I don’t have nearly enough capital so need some kind of business partner. One option could be to try to find a “sleeping partner” who wasn’t involved in the actual running of the business. But an actively involved partner could have two advantages;
a) He/she could be willing to wait longer before expecting returns on investment; before taking money out again
b) He/she could help with a lot of things such as local market research, regulations and the law, and the physical setting up of the school, which otherwise I’d have to start paying someone to do.
I don’t have anyone in mind for a business partner. There are one or two possibilities but very far from definite. How did you buxiban owners find your business partners? What things are to be careful about?
I don’t have any experience at setting up and running a business so this is all new to me. I apologise if my questions seem naive. I’m still not certain that I can do this but I want to give it my best shot. TIA.
We were always very good about not stealing students from schools we worked for. In Taichung, we opened a place with partners, it soured and I went to another school nearby. My old students followed me. That also didnt work out and they wanted to follow me again, so my wife and set up a room in our apparentment and ended up with about 50+ kids per week. Not a bad income.
When we moved to Ying Ge I was working for Caves and some people in town actually became in-laws relatives by marriage. Long story. Anyway, they first suggested to us that we start a school. So again, we did it on the second floor of our house. When we had 20+ kids, the housing market went in the crapper and we ended up be able to rent a 4 story house for 12K/month NT.
The money up front was minimal. People were willing to try because of what they heard. We were good. We had tables and chairs and whiteboards and some posters on the walls.
Don’t go and think it’s definately gonna work out. A hundred things can happen to spoil your fun. Do put in the work, the long hours, the teaching at 90% all the time. That is how to build the foundation of any new school: its reputation. My point here is, don’t put in 500K on a new school that is unproven. Our first school in Ying Ge, a rented 4 story house and materials, and some construction, ACs cost us under 200K, a risk we felt willing to take.
In Ying Ge, we did not do one single advertisement. None. And we got 120 kids after a year and a half. I don’t like the idea of stealing kids and several schools thought we were doing that, but honestly, we did nothing. The other foreign run competition previously worked at one larger kindy/cram school and they stood outside the old school handing out leaflets, which I thought was classless, but to each his own. I’m a believer of what goes around comes around.
It’s almost class time, need to go. But one more thought. When you begin, it really isn’t so much about the books and curriculum, it is more about your personal dedication. And being a great teacher helps. immensely. 
I’m not a born and bred business man, and my wife knew little about busines too. And I’m certain that every town has it’s own quirks when it comes to bisuness. You will learn what they are. As for the ROI, I wouldnt even know. A lot, for us in particular, but for the field of cram schooling…who knows?
The big thing at the beginning is being legal or not. If you’re unknown and unproven in the community then illegal may be preferrable. If you’re an unmarried foriegner with ARC worries, the stress doubles. We were reported eventually because of me, my exterior attracted attention and, so I hear, a competitor waited outside in his car and took pics of me helping kids get into cars.
Now, in the new school, we are legal, but ask any other legal cram school owner: It is a pain in the posterior. The “business” that needs to be done with fire dept, officials, political donations can stress out the Dalai Lama. At one point when the archetiect and the liscense broker were “arguing” over miniscule points in an effort to make it look like a bribe was necessary, I flipped out and puled a wad a cash out of my pocket and told my wife, “Ask them if this is enough!”
This is a very windy way of telling you that yes, a Taiwanese partner may be desirable. Not only for the money, but for the know-how.
This is all behind the curriculum. (As I write this, I’m glad the stress was so big at the time, because as I read my own words now, I wouldnt go through with it. sheesh!) You must have a stable set of books that you teach very very well. Change when you need to change, and always explain your thinking to the parents that matter. Be different. That helps a lot. We had a library on the second floor of our first school. Each Saturday we gave a free to the public story hour, then had classes. There were 50 kids crammed into that space at times. What a riot!
As for finding partners, I wouldnt know what to say. Finding a source of money. Gosh who wouldnt love a great rich mute partner who didnt want his money back fast, or at all. Our foreign competition here were four teachers from a local school, two foreigners and two Chinese teachers. I gather they pooled their money and set up the progam themselves. That sounds like a good idea. I hear they are legal now as well.
Put it this way. If you want to do it, really want to open your own place, you will. I never doubted myself, ever, at the beginning. I have had doubts about this new school, because it is truly enormous, 200+ pings and the rent is jaw-dropping. But it’s getting better, and I wouldn’t turn back if i could. My biggest fear is being old and thinking I haven’t done anything. lol
Lastly, I thank you all for responding so coherently and generously to my first post. I wondered before I did it, why would anyone want to know what we did? We made so many mistakes. But it is nice to hear your thoughts too.
Please excuse this lengthy rambling. I hope in some way, it helps.
john
Getting students was easy.
I set up two of the biggest kindergartens in town with a great English curriculum that rivaled the emersion English schools. I carried the same system over into the buxiban so the parents could continue something that had already proven successful. Made sure all the kindergarten kids would have a much higher level than any other buxiban beginner classes in town, so when the kids went to try other schools they said they were “boring and too easy”. Then we let all of that kindergartens previous students have the first three months free, and you know what, they’re still here today.
If you ask me, we’d be huge today, if only we could get our hands on enough local teachers.
Most of the kids in the local elementary schools know my face, so, when I go to hand out DM’s, well, my brochures are the only ones not lying on the ground.
I’ve got HUGE photos of the foreign teaching staff outside the building. More foreign teachers than any other buxiban in town and what is more, everyone knows that my teachers teach and are not just for show.
I put on demo nights for the parents and information evenings for them too. Soon I am going to do a couple of nights just for the parents and talk about how to help your children review and study English. Basically, how to be involved in your children’s studies without coming out with Taiwan Englisheee.
We put in service for the parents in more than one area. We translated some of our books for the parents because they were all in English. We made a “parent CD set” that had Chinese and English because they couldn’t understand the student CD. As a result we won over the most picky parents.
We have a good system for rewarding students for bringing a friend.
We work on keeping the students that we have. We keep over 95% of our students. Our teachers like their students and the students love their teachers.
We don’t pander to the parents. We do what we think is right. Keep the quality high and results evident for all to see.
Regrets, no An Qin ban as yet. Yes, I did listen to Durin’s Bane, but no one else listened to me about it, now everyone thinks it’s a good idea. I’m like “Hello, I told you this before. An Qin ban is the way to go.”
Location - Location - Location. I am smack in the middle of the two biggest elementary schools in town. Our signage can be seen from both main gates.
All the children have T-shirts and sweat shirts with our name and logo on them, and they love to wear them to school.
Have a sense of humour and don’t take yourself too seriously, but take your business seriously.
The sweet thing about An Ching and Kefu students is that each one pays an extra 12,000NT over and above the monthly tuition just to step into the schools.