Owning A School

[sobek]

Today I was given an interesting business proposition today from a friend I used to work with.

She wants to open up a bilingual kindergarten here in China, with the second language being, of course, English.

Of course, ive had the idea of owning my own school for a while but always thought it was a wild idea. But now ive been given an opportunity to open a school.

It will cost around 30,000 RMB to open and i can imgine..it will take a long time to get it anywhere near the other kindergartens i have worked in.

As of now...im 80% positive with this idea and will have a better idea after monday when i go to talk to her in person.

Has anyone else ever started a business or anything similar and can give me any pointers or words of advice.

[G-baby158]

Hope it all works out mate.

[UrbanPoet]

Today I was given an interesting business proposition today from a friend I used to work with.

She wants to open up a bilingual kindergarten here in China, with the second language being, of course, English.

Of course, ive had the idea of owning my own school for a while but always thought it was a wild idea. But now ive been given an opportunity to open a school.

It will cost around 30,000 RMB to open and i can imgine..it will take a long time to get it anywhere near the other kindergartens i have worked in.

As of now...im 80% positive with this idea and will have a better idea after monday when i go to talk to her in person.

Has anyone else ever started a business or anything similar and can give me any pointers or words of advice.

The two most important words for you are: due diligence. A business plan is a must, and you need to go about it objectively and in as much detail as possible. Financial plans, market research and everything that goes with it must be done with an open mind, as you need to evaluate the opportunity before you put a Penny in or get too close to it.

Head over to UK Business Forums and have a read around, there's some invaluble business advice on there that will be relevent globally.

[JD™]

My advice would be to try to get the fact that you want to do it out of your head. Try to think from the point of view of just someone who has some money and hates kids, education, everything else rather than it being something you want to do. As UrbanPoet says, you need to do research until you've done all the possible research, and then bleedin' do some more. You can never have too much information when going into a business venture.

Also, don't let her sell the idea to you. She obviously wants a business partner, and will try to quash any doubts you have as soon as possible. Keep a clear head and use it, not your heart. That would be a good start

[sobek]

Yes i can see what you mean. of course she only gave me the idea today and we will talk alot more about this next week. then i will try to come up with a list of things that might go wrong and then think real hard as if i want to BEGIN to commit myself to this.

i have worked in other kindergartens before and know some bosses...i think best thing to do for now would be to ask them for advice as im sure they all went through the same.

of course there is a big demand for parents wanting to have their kids learn english...some parents even push their 5 year old kids EXTREMELY hard in learning english (have witnessed it on many occasion) so i also see this as a good opportunity to make money.

but thanks for all your help..its valuable and please keep it coming

Edited August 1, 2008 by sobek

[Smo™]

Do it. This could be the start of the most rewarding thing in your life.

[ti-mig-guy]

I would start by looking in the area at other schools. If there are not too many, and not too few, then it may be a good thing. Too few would mean there is no profit in it, too many may mean the theres no room for you.

Would it be 100% private money, or does the government get involved?

The cost of insurance, I expect, will be high.

And how do you get it accredited so that students can get credits transfered to a grade school.

My brother runs a school, k-7, in Fiji, and it has been an uphill battle to get accredited. Some of his students have had issues transferring to other schools.

There is an opportunity to do something great here, I would say it could be very rewarding emotionally, even if you don't get rich.