I’m still considering buxiban ownership/partnership.
A question for buxiban bosses; how much time can you take off without jeopardizing the business? I will need to spend a month or longer in my “home country” every two years, for various reasons.
Is this feasible? Of course I’d remain in close contact. Hopefully at some point there’d be another foreign teacher working with me who could take some extra work for a while. Other thoughts – get local teachers to do more (with reduced tuition fees?) Recommend an English summer camp to students. Or simply say “Come back in 6 weeks!” How realistic is this? Would they all go away, never to return?
I would not consider taking extended vacations other than CNY for at least the first 5 years, especially not in the summer. IMHO. If you did however, it would be unwise to send them somewhere else, you are better off doing your best to stabilize your operation and act as though this kind of thing is no big deal, everything is under control, meanwhile you are behind the scenes shitting bricks, hoping everything will work out.
actually, summer months aren’t so bad. Last summer, we wished we had closed for a month, because so many students were absent in July. It was too much trouble for us. But I wouldn’t recommend being closed for much longer.
There’s a local math school that closes every summer for one month. They do okay business…
If your reputation is good, and your business model allows you to make most of your money during semester time, then I’d say : Yes, it is possible.
And much easier if you don’t hire any staff, because while you are closed you just have to pay the rent for the building for one month. If you hire staff, and you’re closed, that month’s costs rise considerably…
For the first few years I’ll be able to keep the time spent on these breaks down. In the future, however, it would be important to be able to spend more time away – say perhaps a two month block every two to three years.
So while I’m very interested to hear more thoughts on the viability of closing the school altogether for 3 weeks or a month, I’m also interested as to the longer-term possibility of leaving people running things here for some time. Does anybody feel they would be able to do that? Or are most bosses still pretty much indispensable in the day-to-day running of their businesses?
I know this is all very dependent on the particular place and it’s a bit like asking how long a piece of string is. Personal reactions and thoughts are all I’m looking for.
[quote=“Dottie”]Thanks for the replies! Very useful info.
For the first few years I’ll be able to keep the time spent on these breaks down. In the future, however, it would be important to be able to spend more time away – say perhaps a two month block every two to three years.
So while I’m very interested to hear more thoughts on the viability of closing the school altogether for 3 weeks or a month, I’m also interested as to the longer-term possibility of leaving people running things here for some time. Does anybody feel they would be able to do that? Or are most bosses still pretty much indispensable in the day-to-day running of their businesses?
I know this is all very dependent on the particular place and it’s a bit like asking how long a piece of string is. Personal reactions and thoughts are all I’m looking for.[/quote]
A lot depends on how organized the school is. If it is a Gong Show then the boss won’t be able to leave for long stretches of time. If you are organized and have a viable system in place you should only have to be in the school a few hours every day (this also means a longer vacation time). Do you also plan on teaching?
Many schools hire a teacher to manage the place purely on the basis that that teacher has been there the longest. Using that criteria is a mistake. Hire someone looking after your interests based on ability. I have lots of good teachers working for me…good, honest people who do an outstanding job at what they do. But are they qualified to run the place? My answer to that is that I’m still here at the schools taking care of stuff.
Don’t you think it is a bit premature to be already talking about how much vacation you are going to get when you haven’t even opened the school yet? I am not in any way harshing on you but I just want to make it very clear that one just doesn’t open a school and then magically have it succeed so that you can sit around and drink wine and have grapes fed to you while someone else does all the work. It is a lot of hard work, especially at the beginning. And I think it is tougher these days to get started .
I would suggest getting the school in good order first and then worrying about the good stuff.
[quote=“Durins Bane”]
Don’t you think it is a bit premature to be already talking about how much vacation you are going to get when you haven’t even opened the school yet? [/quote]
I believe that it’s only because of visa regulations that Dottie needs to return to the country that issued the passport. It’s not for some desire to take an extended vacation.
Internet calling is so cheap nowadays, and you can even get webcams to oversee the day to day operations of your school from abroad. It would be possible to still see everything going on in the school while you’re away.
I believe that it’s only because of visa regulations that Dottie needs to return to the country that issued the passport. It’s not for some desire to take an extended vacation.[/quote]
Ah, okay. That explains a lot.
[quote=“twocs”]
Internet calling is so cheap nowadays, and you can even get webcams to oversee the day to day operations of your school from abroad. It would be possible to still see everything going on in the school while you’re away.[/quote]
Well, those things can help but they cannot replace an on-site person taking care of problems as they arise. Filling in for a sick teacher or employee. Trying to explain to mom why her son is not allowed to watch TV at the school. (I lost a student yesterday because we would not allow little Kevin watch TV instead of doing work. Mom doesn’t have cable TV at home and so she wanted him to watch TV at school. Yeah, I don’t understand either.) Doing make-up classes or extra help classes.