Saw an ad ... is it bad?

I teach and live in Tainan, and having been unable to find a cram school I am satisfied with that I can buy into/take over here, was looking at other areas around Taiwan for similar opportunities. Then, lo and behold, I saw an ad in the Taipei Times for a school being sold for 250 000 and with 65 existing students in the Chiayi area. Is this for real? Just looking for comments.

Be very careful.

My girlfriend’s school was put up for sale for NT$2,000,000 , with the owners knowing full well that the lease of the building they rented would soon be up, and not open for renegotiation. The owner of the building was selling it to developers. The parents of the kids had all been informed of this and were going to move their kids to the owners new school for the beginning of the next semester. Obviously none of this was mentioned to the prospective owners.

So for 2 million NT all they were getting were 2 computers, and some desks and chairs. The owner made no attempt to even hide her shady plans and was quite open with my girlfriend about her intentions. Apparently this is all totally normal in the buxiban business.

Why not open up your own place freshfrom the start? And, stay away from people wanting to franchise schools.

This is the best way, but make sure that you have it planned out well from the start. I think that it used to work quite well in the past for those just starting out, it didn’t matter if you were well organised or not. However, these days you should be right on top of everything from the beginning. I thought that I was when I started out, but it turns out that there were many things that I hadn’t planned for, almost a year later and things are looking very polished, er, well, starting to look a little more polished. I am up against the biggest Joy in Taiwan and a Hess run by the main Hess office, these guys are on the ball and to get new students and keep the students I have I need to be on the ball too.

Look before you leap into anything.

How much(money) do you need to open a school?

Well rassie,

A good question. But first you have to make quite a few decisions before you get going.For starters , is it just you teaching or are you going to hire one of those damn expensive foreign teachers? How many classes are you going to open? ( As you need to put a deposit down ) Are you going the whole hog with new desks, computers, and other materials? What about a sign? In fact the list is pretty long. For the basic three man show I would look between 500,000 and 1,000,000 but then I am in Tainan with cheaper rent. Also are you starting with a student base? If not don’t forget you have to cover your self until you turn a profit.

Yes this is for real, I know the British owner, who is moving back to the UK…

[quote=“bigal”]Well rassie,

A good question. But first you have to make quite a few decisions before you get going.For starters , is it just you teaching or are you going to hire one of those damn expensive foreign teachers? How many classes are you going to open? ( As you need to put a deposit down ) Are you going the whole hog with new desks, computers, and other materials? What about a sign? In fact the list is pretty long. For the basic three man show I would look between 500,000 and 1,000,000 but then I am in Tainan with cheaper rent. Also are you starting with a student base? If not don’t forget you have to cover your self until you turn a profit.[/quote]

We spent 4,000,000NT to start up.

4,ooo,ooo Nt !!!

I tooooold you not to use a merc benz as a school bus. And why did you have to have LV school bags let alone Mont Blanc pens?

I went up and saw it today, and it looks fabulous. The owner’s a good fellow, and if things go well, I’ll be adding the school to my list of assets very soon. :slight_smile:

[quote=“bigal”]4,ooo,ooo Nt !!!

I tooooold you not to use a merc benz as a school bus. And why did you have to have LV school bags let alone Mont Blanc pens?[/quote]

Hey, the elevator alone was close to $1,000,000NT. For that kind of money, I’m never using the stairs at the school again. :happybiker: