What it do, boo.
I doubt many remember but about 3 years ago,I decided to open up my own school and set an open date for 02/2022. In 2021, I made several posts here asking for advice and sent some DMs. I’d like to start by thanking all those that helped me out, especially sendaiben and i_need_a_wee_wee. Y’all really helped me out big time.
I’ve gotten several DMs asking how it’s been going and have been meaning to get back to everyone. Since the fam is at the in-laws and I’ve got a few days off, I’ve decided to post here. I was out drinking with friends earlier so ‘scuse any mistakes. I’ll fix it up in the morning.
I’m going to give some advice here and there. Please remember that I’m not saying you have to do exactly what I say/did, this is just what worked for me; what flopped and what I wish I had known. Most of the stuff is just common sense or what’s been repeated by the more successful owners here (with my flair). Before I get to it, a little background on me.
1. Background
Came to Japan about 10 years ago. Did a year as an ALT and 2 at a McEikaiwa. Loved teaching and interacting with students, but management, school policies and low pay had me seeking greener pastures. Got a job at a large Japanese company and did that for a couple years. Got married and made the decision to move into freelance digital marketing and translating (full time), which I had been doing on the side for a while. I also had a couple private students who I taught a few hours a week. Made the decision to start my own school and went ahead with it.
2. So, how’s it going?
Good. Pretty damn good if I’m honest. My school has significantly exceeded what I thought it would do in a year. I have a lot of students and earn enough to provide for my family and then some. For those thinking of opening their own school, here are some of the things I think you should consider.
3. If you hate teaching, don’t do it
Really. There are so many other (easier) ways to make money. If your heart is not in it and you’re only doing it because you think it’s the only option you have available to you, don’t…(1/4)
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4. Don’t quit your day job
Are you thinking of starting your own school? Start looking for students NOW. Thinking of opening in 2 years? Start looking NOW. Risk management is very important so I don’t recommend quitting your main job and diving head first into your own school. You wanna always have a steady income so on one weekend day (or day off), open up your schedule for teaching. Once you max out a day, open up another. If your main job allows you to gradually decrease your schedule, perfect. Otherwise, I wouldn’t quit your main job unless you have an extra 1.5-2years living expenses covered (not savings, an EXTRA 1.5-2years).
5. You will work A LOT
Following on from the above point, you’re going to have to put in the time. This is your business and you’ll probably be working more than a regular employee. But I’m sure you know that.
6. It’s good to have someone you can rely on, but try to be able to do everything by yourself.
I see a lot of people get their spouse to handle the operations/Japanese side of things. That was also my original plan…until I realized this is something that I want to do, not my wife. She also has her own small e-commerce business and I want her to focus on that. I do everything by myself.
And one of the things I most disliked when I was at an eikaiwa was how students would go to the staff, then the staff would relay it to me and vice versa. I get the cultural aspect of this, but I don’t like it. Therefore, I won’t do it. Everything is handled directly at my school.
7. Look for office spaces provided by your city/town
The biggest expensive is of course, rent. Most cities provide some offices that can be rented by the hour. My city has some very nice and modern ones available for about 100-200yen per hour. Everyone in my city and surrounding cities knows where it is and since it also contains restaurants, shops, activity halls etc., it sees a lot of traffic. They also have a bulletin board which you can put an A4 size poster up for free. Make use of it.
8. Keep expenses DOWN
Starting a new business can be a very exciting thing and we want everything to be top quality and perfect. Do what you can to get a grip on expenditure early on. It’s a good habit to learn and will pay dividends in the future… (2/4)
9. Advertising
In line with the above point, be reasonable with how much you spend. Set a budget and try not to go over it. Google ads work big time and a lot of my initial students came from it. I didn’t see much success with Instagram and Facebook ads. Use websites such as eigohiroba, lessonnavi, jmty, Craigslist’s and whatever else you can find. Be careful of sites like hello sensei and enjoy lesson as they are mostly for individual teachers and ban schools (unless you pay em and are looking for teachers). Anyway, I’ve gotten students from all the above sites.
Prowl your town and make use of places you can put up posters. If you have any business owner friends, see if you can work something out where you can leave some leaflets somewhere.
I did hand out flyers near my local station but after a very, very weird incident (which you can find in my post history), I stopped. I also think it’s not the best time to do it what with corona.
Oh and if you’re a Costco member, put a poster up there (you have to offer Costco members some sort of exclusive discount). I’ve gotten a couple of students from Costco!
10. Don’t try to do too much early on
I was doing this that and the third when I opened my school, especially when it came to social media. YouTube videos, Instagram posts/shorts, blog on my website. Ran myself ragged. Start simple and build up.
11. Identify your businesses core values and try not to sway from them too far
Don’t do something you don’t want to do. It took me 10 months to realize that this is my business. I still had some bad tendencies I picked up from my short eikaiwa stint back in the day and thought I ‘had’ to do them. This is your business. If you don’t like it, don’t do it.
I teach kids, but I really disliked teaching group lessons. So I don’t. As a parent, I wouldn’t want someone teaching my daughter that hates their job, so I won’t do it to other parents. Sure, the money is much more stable and as Sendaiben put it to me, getting a first grader could be over a million yen over the course of their school time. It’s just not for me. But I am considering hiring a kids teacher at some point.
12. At the same time, be flexible
I give my students a lot of flexibility in what they want to study. I’ve noticed that the ones that come from the top 5 eikaiwas act so scared in making a request, as if they’ve been abused. I had one student who usually looks at news articles with me. She had a trip to Europe coming up and asked me if we could do a few ‘travel English’ lessons. When I said yes, she took out her wallet to make a payment, which left me puzzled as she had plenty of lesson points remaining. She then told me at the old McEikaiwa she used to be at, they’d charge her for EVERYTHING. A slight deviation from the course she signed up for and she’d have to shell out to learn that. She was so delighted and is still with me.
13. But don’t be afraid to charge more
I had a student who was planning to study at the University of Peace in Costa Rica. He wanted a rigorous IELTS course with an official signed letter of English proficiency from my school. I gave him an invoice and he happily paid. He’s now in Costa Rica.
14. Don’t see it as a loss, see it as a success story
Like the above student, if a student comes to you with a specific goal they want to achieve, and you help them get there, celebrate if they quit. I know it’s hard in the early days as it’ll come across as a financial loss but, you did it. Good job… (3/4)
15. Calm down on the campaigns/discounts
I went wild in the early days and had so many concurrent campaigns that even I was getting lost. Try to keep them seasonal and try not to always be on ‘sale’. Make sure you state the end of campaigns clearly.
16. Once again, don’t be afraid to charge more
I’ll give two examples here which surprisingly happened back to back. Last August I had a student join my school. A middle aged lady who wanted to study together with her proficient high school daughter as she was on summer vacation. Her daughter would study with her for the whole of August, and then it would be just the mother from then on. She asked how much extra it’d cost. I said it would cost the same (the price listed). She was happy and we had a great month studying together. The following month, she asked how much cheaper her lessons would get since it was just her now. I told her it would stay the same. It got a little awkward but she understood and is still with me.
A month later I had the exact same situation, but with a father and his son who wanted to study together and then alone after. This time I said it’d be an extra 1,000yen. He gladly accepted and then the following month it went back down.
17. “You should open a school. I want to take your English lessons!”
Yeah….they ain’t coming lol. I had a lot of people who wanted me to teach them before I opened my school and once I did, they all vanished haha. The only one that did come in was shocked at how expensive it was (despite me offering her a 40% discount). Could be different for you. Just don’t rely on these people to actually show up.
18. Man….managing people is tough…
Now I know why everyone said it’s best to be single owner-operator. I was extremely overwhelmed last year so brought on a friend who asked if I could send some work his way, which I did. It’s mostly going okay, but he’s been late a few times and it’s been a hassle. Remember. This is your business. Don’t expect an employee to see your business the same way you do.
The second one, however takes the cake. I had a friend who I’ve known for about 7 years. He works at another school and like a lot of people, hadn’t been paying his pension and what not for years. Knock knock. They took a peek into his bank account and drained it. He came to me in tears asking for work and I set him up with a student I had just got. A gym connect who is VERY wealthy. She wanted a teacher to go to her house once a week and teach her kid English for an hour. She offered 7,000yen.
Since this was a good friend and he was in a bad situation, I asked him if he’d like to teach her. He’s a good teacher, fun and great with kids. I offered him 5,000yen an hour and it was done through my company. She paid me, then I paid him. Things were going well….for two weeks.
The mother messages me apologizing saying she’s not going to be using my school anymore. I asked her if he did anything wrong and she says he’s been great. I thank her and move on.
I find out later that he negotiated to cut me out and give her lessons directly for 6,000yen. So, he through a 7 year friendship away for 1,000yen…
2 weeks on from that, she calls me out of the blue one day asking if I knew where he was. I told her that he doesn’t work for me anymore. She says that he hadn’t shown up and her kids was upset. I tell her that’s unfortunate and repeat he doesn’t work for me.
Not only did he he sabotage our friendship and my income, he did it to himself too. Suffice to say, we’re done. I doubt something this extreme will happen to you but…..yeah, some people just don’t care.
19. BUILD TIES TO YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY
Word of mouth. If there’s one thing I want y’all to take away from this, it’s this. This is probably what elevated my school to the next level. START NOW. But how? Just be friendly and talk to people. Greet people you see in your neighborhood, smile to cashiers, do volunteer work, all that. The majority of my students now come from this. Usually not the person I’m speaking to directly per say, but they’ll tell someone about my school and they’ll come. Japanese people LOVE being connectors so if you tell them they’re friend can get a slight discount if they come, they’ll be more than happy to do the advertising for you. It’s gotten to the point where traffic from this has increased so much I’ve had to pause google ads.
But don’t do it in a way that seems that you’re advertising your school. It’s a lot easier if you’re naturally a friendly and cheerful person. I’ve gotten so many students from connects at the gym it’s funny. Usually the grandmas I greet once will quickly run up to me and start chatting, and then tell me about her granddaughter that really wants to learn English. Boom.
20.If you’re a minority…
This is the final thing I wanna touch on here as it’s dear to me. A lot of the discourse about teaching (here and pretty much anywhere else) seems to discourage non-white minorities from going in on this. I’m a black man and I say if you really want to do it, go ahead. Don’t let that “they only want white people” bs get you down.
I have a lot more to say but this is stupidly long so I’ll leave it here. I’ll probably fix this post up tomorrow and answer questions any of y’all have! …(4/4)
Good on you man!! Glad to hear you had success.
#21. Make sure to put all employees on 29.5 hour contracts
Really, really appreciate your post so thank you for the info and advice. I have a question for you – do you think this would be viable with two co-owners? Not currently in Japan but have long wanted to go back (COVID threw a wrench in those plans), anyways I have a friend who has worked for ECC for like 20 years (currently the 3rd longest tenured employee lol) who suggested that the two of us open a school. Do you think that’s realistic or do you need to be a sole owner / proprietor to make it work? Also, if you don’t mind me asking, approximately how much does one need to open their own school?
Brilliant! Thanks for writing this
Congratulations.
It’s great to hear about a success story like this, when all you hear nowadays is how English teaching is D.E.A.D. I used to work for a very small privately owned eikaiwa, and always considered opening my own someday. I genuinely loved the work, but after seeing how much crap the owner had to go through all the time just put me off. This season in particular was always pretty stressful with the annual migration of students. You are not wrong when you say it is a lot of work.
Love this, thanks for sharing and congratulations on the school working out.
Re #12, I’m curious if your learnings from McEikaiwa survivors would inform language lessons from abroad. I’m thinking about doing iTalki and marketing myself towards Japanese speakers who are studying English. I know it’s a different medium but I’m wondering if this hesitance or other effects might show up or not from students who maybe tried eikaiwa and decided to go another way.
Thank you for taking the time to post your experiences on here. This is something I am personally thinking about doing myself in the long term, but for me the most intimidating thing is the sheer amount of paperwork involved and expenses. If you don’t mind answering, how much roughly would you say are your total expenses to run your school (rent, utilities etc.)?
Interesting read, man. To your success now, and many more years of it
Really glad to hear it is going well. Nice one!
It’s not easy, and you must have worked very hard.
Glad to hear you’re doing well. Do you let yourself have vacation time or is it pretty much all go?
Hello!
Thanks for the post, very informative, might I DM you to ask you some questions on how you started your business and some advice for people starting out.
Hi.
Thanks a lot for this post.
I am brand new here and am not too sure this is the right place to post a comment.
I was searching the ‘net for advice on teaching for the eiken test and that brought me here.
How can I see the post in full?
It seems to be split by comments and sections. I am not new to either Japan or teaching English, but I am brand new to sites like this.
Thanks a lot.
(I am currently trying to have a house with a classroom built on my wife’s late father’s land so that she and I can eventually have home-business.)