How to start an English language school
Is this shocking method really the most effective way on how to start an English language school? Before you even have a big budget to spend on fancy classrooms after you found a suitable location to attract there is this one thing that you must do.
Lots of language schools open and close within a short time frame – why? According to latest statistical findings (europa.eu), around two-thirds of working-age adults in the EU knew at least one foreign language – translating this into the most interesting fact that just over one third (34.3%) do know any foreign language at all. The need to learn languages is clearly present. No wonder that what it seems to be that too many startups wondering how to start an English school, too.
The most difficult task that many business founders seem to avoid is to do proper market research for their target market. Just because there are many English language schools in your town means those students are waiting just to have another one me-too language school opened. On the other hand: if your area has no English language schools around – how can you be sure you be the first one to open one is what the customers want?
The question for how to start an English language school needs to be answered in cost-effective market research that will enable you to present your ideal language school exactly in a way real customers ready to buy your services.
The only way to do this is to create a representative fully functional website that reflects all you like to offer to the market and to enable potential customers to react to you and provide their feedback and what they want from you as an English language school.
This does not mean that you pretend to be something that you are not. There is nothing worse than if potential students are ready to come over to your language school and it does not actually exist. But you do not have to be in a really big building and need to have big classrooms just yet. You can start with a location where you can rent classrooms and conference rooms such as a coworking location – on demand.
What you need to have is a website that represents what you have to offer – online or offline language courses, language training activities – what about offering tours in your local city as museum tour guide that will serve as a way to teach students introduction lessons to get started with the English language?
Before you think about how to start an English language school you actually need to start building an email marketing list with potential customers to see if there is actually a real interest and do some real marketing research with a real language school business model where you then start to offer your classes on-a-demand-base until you see such a big demand (including people pre-paying for their classes) that it then becomes now clear that you can afford to go full time with your own independent location for it.
The success of your language school does certainly not come with fancy rooms in the first place. Your success lies in being uniquely positioned for students who want to experience a culturally rich and exciting environment to learn and apply a new language. This can be done easily once you get the real feedback of real students using your website that you will use and adapt based on your potential student input until it is proof-of-concept business and the English language school you were hoping. This is a much different concept than most of the wishful-thinking-business-ideas that eat up resources, time, people and money without resulting in any real business success.
Where to get such a functional language school website? It is highly recommended that you work together who has deep insights in the language training industry such as languageschoolsuccess.com because a regular provider that just offers you to create a business website for you will be very likely clueless what language students look for.