SB needs help

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
21

[quote=“stragbasher”]I agree with DB about the importance of EVERY student. There’s an anecdote in business called variously the 70-30 rule, or the 90-10 rule. I prefer 70-30.

The theory is that 70% of your profit comes from 30% of your customers. The other 70% are so demanding that they only contribute 30% of your profits. There is therefore a strong argument in favour of doing away with the troublesome 70% and accepting a 30% reduction in profits as a fair trade for a much easier life.

The trouble is that the rule applies to your remaining customer base. 70% of your remaining customers are still far less profitable per head than the other 30%, and so on. Eventually you whittle away all the most problematic customers until you are left with just one ‘prize customer’.

70% of the time this one customer will be more trouble than he is worth!

My mantra when I was a salesman was ‘every door, every floor’. You never say to yourself that any business is even potentially not worth pursuing. Every customer has to be the most important and most valuable in your mind whenever you are dealing with them. Otherwise one day you won’t have any customers.

All the same, you’re only a customer if you’re paying to be there. If you’re not paying, and you are being provided with activities, space, and supervision, then you’re a bloody freeloader. Businesses exist to make money, not to sponsor childcare for parents who don’t want to look after their own kids properly.

Where to find the balance?[/quote]

If you go to the Grand Hyatt, pay for a room, and start swimming in the fountain, you will be politely asked to leave. You will have to go to a worse hotel where that is acceptable.

You really just have to make a choice. You can accept the behavior, in which case you just deal with it. Or the behavior is incompatible with what you as a school are doing, in which case you correct it. It really depends on how you see your school. No one can help you with that. If you have such a vision, accept no compromises. If it doesn’t matter, then as you say it’s just a question of if the money is worth it or not. Again, only you have the answer to this.

22

[quote=“Durins Bane”][quote=“daltongang”][quote=“Durins Bane”]

Every student counts, every student counts, every student counts…[/quote]

If you don’t get rid of the weeds, the garden will not grow.[/quote]

Sorry daltongang…too simplified. Check out the “Shortage of students” thread.[/quote]

What shortage? There are thousands and thousand of students out there either way. A mainstream buxiban with nothing special to offer might have to worry. Precisely the situation to avoid!

23

I agree. You don’t want to get rid of decent students. But if selfish, dishonest parents leave kids there from 1 to 8 when the class is 2 to 4, you need to find a way to charge for those extra hours. Maybe the best method would be to require payment in advance and to hand the parents your fee schedule that shows the charge for class time and charge for babysitting time. If a parent regularly leaves the kid there for excess hours, deduct for babysitting time, and provide parents with invoices at the end of the month showing how the payments were applied.

Burdensome, maybe, but at least the parents are no longer stealing free services from you.

Hell, even if you don’t charge in advance for it, you ought to advise parents in advance in writing that you will bill for loitering time at 2/3 or 1/2 of the rate for class time, or whatever, and then charge them for it afterwards. If you make your policy clear and in advance there can’t be any legitimate objections.

24

In this case it worked out OK, and I think we’re on top of the situation enough that it’s not such a big deal. There has to be a fair bit of give and take, and if you’re too strict with your rules and regs then people go away.

I think the big question is not how to make money out of kids who stay all afternoon, but what to do with the one or two that turn up at odd times. If they are there erratically, and alone, then you don’t have a ‘class’.

DB, you will be glad to hear that the idea factory is crunching away at this one. Don’t spoil it just yet. I’m having too much fun.

25

SB, make the kids sweep and mop the place if they are just loitering as the new rule!

26

[quote=“stragbasher”]In this case it worked out OK, and I think we’re on top of the situation enough that it’s not such a big deal. There has to be a fair bit of give and take, and if you’re too strict with your rules and regs then people go away.

I think the big question is not how to make money out of kids who stay all afternoon, but what to do with the one or two that turn up at odd times. If they are there erratically, and alone, then you don’t have a ‘class’.

DB, you will be glad to hear that the idea factory is crunching away at this one. Don’t spoil it just yet. I’m having too much fun.[/quote]

Glad to hear that it is working out. Don’t think as asking them to pay as a punitive action…set it up so that the all the parents want their kids to stay all afternoon. It can be done and if it is well done, you just might even have people signing up six months in advance. :wink:

27

Or in my school’s case, half-day children coming back after the full-day program ends to spend time with a few of their friends and do crafts…

28

SB-When I have this problem, I always solve it by singing a Leonard Cohen song to myself.

“Everybody Knows”

I just change the words to “Everybody Pays”

“Everybody Pays, Everybody Pays, That’s how it goes. Everybody Pays. Everybody Pays. Everybody Pays. That’s how it goes. Eveybody Pays.”

29

SB,

The situation sounds frightful. My advice: Give up. Put a tie on. Come see me.

30

[quote=“Stewart Pendous”]SB,

The situation sounds frightful. My advice: Give up. Put a tie on. Come see me.[/quote]

SB,

The situation sounds like a normal day at work. My advice: Keep going. Put a pair of shorts on. Keep raking in the loot. :smiley:

31

I’ve met DB and can vouch for this. As I explained to Bassman, to picture DB, imagine a tall, heavy build American who dresses like a Taiwanese laoban that thinks a collared shirt, shorts and “nice” leather sandals are appropriate business attire.

Of course considering his success we should all be :smiley: for him, but not :notworthy: as we are all trying/aspiring to get to the same level or higher hopefully

CYA
Okami

32

Come on Okami, don’t beat around the bush…I look like a dorked up version of Lurch. :laughing: