Starting English SchoolThe Challenges of Starting an English School in Japan
Starting English School I told my friends and family in Canada that if I stayed in Japan I would open my own school. They laughed. My father asked: "Are you crazy?" Everyone was very supportive. My father did his best to show me articles about the Yakuza attacking Canadians in Osaka and anything with the word earthquake or volcano in it. Once it became evident I was serious though, my father would come home with guidebooks on Japan and even co-signed my loan. He was a great Dad and I miss him terribly! He and my mother have passed away in the past two years. I miss them both.
Now we have three schools in Odawara and Minamiashigara City in Kanagawa. I knew nothing about starting an English school. But I have always been a dreamer, and I have always dreamed of different businesses I could start and run. I didn`t know anyone who had started an English school in Japan,so I talked with friends and got ideas from them. In my first two years in Japan I taught for four different schools and at even more branches of those schools. I got to know owners, managers and teachers. I kept my ears and eyes open and tried to glean what I could about what I felt was positive about each school and what wasn`t. I planned on taking the good and using it at Kevin`s English Schools, onceI started them. ECC had us stamp a time card at that time 1989-90. I thought this was bad for the atmosphere. Supposedly we were professionals and could be trusted to show up on time. If not I felt those tardy teachers should be fired after two instances of being late. To me it is basic that you show up on time ready to teach. If the teachers need a time clock then perhaps you really need new teachers. The atmosphere of the Tokyo YMCA was much more relaxed and friendly. No time cards, and a great family environment. The secretaries would greet you warmly, and I got along well with the teachers and students. It was a small branch run by a great manager, a man named Minamida. He was warm, friendly and cared about the school. I wanted to emulate him and the`Y` one day with my own business venture. A year before my Japanese wife and I got married, I started to teach English in her apartment (owned by her father). The building is cute. It looks like a house on the first floor,with the apartment on the second floor. At the start we sat on cushions around a low table.
I read a lot of positive thinking (I think I can, I think I can) type books to keep me going. Starting your own business can be depressing as things go slowly at first. I found myself questioning if this was really going to work, as we weren`t in a large city and near a minor train station. But I kept going and my wife kept encouraging me. I put pamphlets in mail boxes. I put posters up wherever I could get away with it. Which frankly now, being older and hopefully wiser, I don`t recommend. I Recommend: Reading the Guerilla marketing books and other books on marketing. They are a big help. The books on managing an English school are good too. There is a good one by Heinemann publishing called the ELT Manager. My wife plugged the school with her customers and this was probably the best advertising. She was well respected in the community, and I was a harmless and gentle looking young man, so people were willing to give our school a try. Plus at the time, 1991, there wasn`t much competition in the area.
David Harrington Gave me Good Advice I started to order books from a store called the English Resource, which was owned by David Harrington. I bought books from him--all our books, and he taught me what he knew about starting an English school and getting it going. He was a big help, and we became a great customer. I think finding these kinds of relationships when you are starting a new business venture is really important. Getting the right help at the right time is instrumental in getting aschool going. It was near the tail end of the bubble economy. The school chugged along slowly ten students for 6 months, then 20 students finally at about 8 months we were up to 50, then 80, then I hired a couple of part-time teachers to help me as we peaked at 125 students within a year! Things really took off after I decided to teach children as well as adults. Don`t limit your school to only one kind of student. If you don`t want to teach junior high students or children, then hire a good teacher who does, but don`t limit who can come and study.Once I stopped limiting the school to adults, the school went from 20 students to 125. Also don`t limit which days you offer classes at first, you may even want to offer them seven days a week and see how many students come in for which days. You can always hire someone to work on Sundays if you don`t want to. Go to city hall and find out the demographics of each area of the city. Which is growing? Which has many young families with children? Which is the highest crime area? It can be deceiving. I think giving students a pleasant experience of enjoying English is the main thing. I try to be funny and a cross between Conan O`brien, Letterman, Larry King and your mother!I think humor is a great gift and Japanese love humor. Many students unfortunately have had some pretty scary teachers over the years, and I don`t just mean for English. Japanese from coaches, parents down to teachers can be very, very strict withthe children. So just stepping into a classroom with a teacheris a huge forbidding step for many Japanese with study anxiety. Surprise them by being warm, gentle and friendly. They may wonder where that nice breeze just came from! If you treat them well the students will come. Plus luckily for you, there are many teachers with Phds on down who should never have stepped into the classroom. Some are lousy teachers and some are even arrogant to boot. This will help you. The more I see hundreds of teachers every year in all types of work situations, the more I believe good teachers are born, not made. The Bubble Bursts After the bubble burst it was not as easy to get students, plus more schools opened in our city. So more competition for fewer students. Student totals went down, and then it was a struggle to keep things going at a reasonable rate. We started a website in about 1995 or so. It didn`t bring inso many students, but occasionally it would bring in a big contract. We got a company contract through our website andthat lasted for about 10 years, until the company moved toKyoto. Fuji Film is the main employer in our area, and they have beenhaving a tough time for the past 15 years or so. So it hasimpacted on our business too. But our schools continue to go along. We are no longer going great guns as in the bubble years, but we pay the bills, and even have a full-time teacher, a part-time teacher and myself teaching classes. Starting English School: How did I do it?Luck and a little help from my friendsIn my case I got lucky. I was in the right place at the right time. The bubble economy was still ongoing for about a year after I started the school. I married a great lady who really did so much to get the school going. And by shear guts and determination. I was committed to making it work. Failure was just not something I wanted to entertain, I didn`t want to go back to Canada and have to tell my parents I failed at getting the school going. As well of course, as finding people who wereable to give me bits of knowledge that could help me ie) David Harrington and others.Starting English SchoolSean of Choice English.com, talks about starting his SchoolThe Challenges of Starting an English School
Starting English School: learn about life in Japan
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