Dear great business minds, turn my co. around (Long)

[theclock]

I’ve written this expecting to receive negative posts of how I should’ve done this or shouldn’t have done this …………. It’s OK, if I even find a couple nuggets it’ll be worth it. I know this is a poker forum, sorry but my circle is very small and I’ve learned a lot from a few of the intelligent posters here. I’ve visited a few business forums but somehow I feel that great poker brains also have a great mind for business. (Selected few)

Sorry if this is an inappropriate place to ask for advice, but I need to really “do something” to get my company and career back on track.

I know there are a lot of details that I have left out. Please ask me for what other information that is needed.

Setup:

I now own a small business (school tutoring English) in a foreign country (Korea) I’m not Korean and barely speak the language. The city I now live in is very small with a population of about 100,000. The nearest big city is Pusan which is about 3hrs away.

How did I end up owning a business? I came to this school just working as a regular teacher. One day the manager asked me if I was interested in becoming partners. I obliged, and bought the school that we were working at. The owner of that school was never there and he had other bigger business to deal with. We agreed on a number and the contract was signed. It took us two years to fully pay for the school and now the school is debt free. My partner and I earned very little salary at that time. Now four years have past, last year my partner decided to leave because the company didn’t make enough money for him to live on. We both can see the future of the company wasn’t very bright. I on the other hand, was stubborn and hung on. It has been a year on my own now; I feel that I am going through a slow death.

I need to know how I can turn my company around; there are only a few competitors in this city. I know for a fact that two of them are profitable and prospering. It can be done; and right now I’m just not getting it done. Quite simple, I don’t want to make any excuses for myself. Most businesses fail due to poor management. I have a staff of 8. (From 12) There is no more room to cut. I need teachers to teach. Throughout the past six months, I have thought about almost every scenario on how to get my company back into the black. Embarrassing writing out to strangers but when the going gets tough a man has to try every desperate move. Yes, I am not willing to throw in the towel yet. I do not have many friends here and I know zero business minded savvy people here. There might be things I haven’t thought of. Advice, suggestions, anything that will help is positive.

There is not enough information to go on here, I’ll provide all details if need be. Thank you for reading.

I need intelligent advice; please don’t cram up the thread with junk. PLEASE! Just save the flames for another thread.

[KidLifeCrisis]

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There is not enough information to go on here, I’ll provide all details if need be.

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Yeah, I don't think anyone can really say what can be done given the description here. The post is mostly about the fact that you are having problems, but you don't go into why.

- What are the problems you're facing that are preventing you from being successful?

- What is the local competition doing that is allowing them to succeed?

[theclock]

Sorry Kidlife,

You are absolutely correct.

I was so caught up in writing I forgot to completely say what is causing the failure.

"- What are the problems you're facing that are preventing you from being successful?

- What is the local competition doing that is allowing them to succeed?"

As dumb as it sounds, I don't know where the leaks are. At least in poker I can see where I am messing up but with the company I'll have to suggest a few broad things.

Marketing-I do very little of it, I don't have the money at this time to very much, prints ads and media are very expensive.

I guess I've been kidding myself on a few things. Rent and payroll take up about 75% of the sales revenue. After paying staff, I have very little to work with. I just can't cut any more teachers at this time. My other problems are student numbers are low and each class has very few students. You might be saying, well I just answered my own questions but it is not that easy. I can't just move students around to any time I want. They have commitments and other classes. In Asia, they do lots after school. I am competing against music, swimming, math, ballet, and all sorts of other specialty schools.

The biggest winner amongst all the tutoring school is one big one that is popular nation wide. They have strong brand image, marketing is very strong, celebrities, media, TV, you can always see them. They are the first school when people think of studying English. They have first shots at potential clients.

My location is fine, I am in the heart of the city near all bus/train stations. Currently, I am really suffering from a lack of new students. How to recruit and launch a good campaign will help. I need to think of an inexpensive effective one.

Very difficult task.

[dc_publius]

Most small businesses go through cycles of hard times where they may have to adapt to survive and thrive.

IMO, the easiest way for you to do this is mimic your competitors (for now). It's the same business and they have the same business model. You are probably failing at one or two aspects of that business model. It sounds like new student acquisition is one of them. How do your competitors acquire students? My guess is that they have alot of referral and repeat business. Your current students are your best recruiting tool. Where do your students mostly live/work? Go to that area and get your name out via fliers. I would cover one big building at a time offering some sort of 'deal' and see what works and what doesn't.

[Frinkenstein]

Just out of curiosity, what are you charging your students? How does it compare to your competitors?

[Frinkenstein]

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My guess is that they have alot of referral and repeat business. Your current students are your best recruiting tool. Where do your students mostly live/work? Go to that area and get your name out via fliers. I would cover one big building at a time offering some sort of 'deal' and see what works and what doesn't.

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I agree with this guy. Also, you could consider offering some sort of referral program. i.e. if one student refers a friend that does a month worth of classes, the referrer gets some sort of discount.

[theclock]

My rate is about the same as the competitors.
I charge $70-$200usd per month, depending on which program the customer chooses.

The biggest school in town charges about double what the other schools charge. They can get away with that because of the school name. It is recognized nationwide. They have their own sets of CD’s, textbooks, DVD’s, workbooks etc… These products make them a lot of money. The upfront costs of developing these products are too much for a small business such as mine.

I on the other hand have to order through publishing companies and charge very little mark up.

I like the ideas of approaching potential clients and try to capture market share the old fashion way of flyers, door to door. The only downfall to that approach is that my town is very small and they’re not many buildings. 70% of my students are elementary school kids, 20% are adults, and the rest are seniors, high school, and kindergarten kids.

I've implemented the referral program 4 years ago. It works, but not so effective. My system is similar to poker referrals, introduce someone and I'll give you 50% discount on next month's tuition.

[Freakin]

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Just out of curiosity, what are you charging your students? How does it compare to your competitors?

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this is what i'm curious about as well.

if you can get the inflow the same then you can look at taking care of the rest of the operations.

have you considered hiring a consultant?

[theclock]

[quote
if you can get the inflow the same then you can look at taking care of the rest of the operations.

have you considered hiring a consultant?

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Yes, I have but unfortunately there aren't any here cause most live in bigger cities. At this time, I am open to anything.

[elus2]

Have you created budgets and sales forecasts? Look to see where you can save money and set some goals.

How many students does your school enroll concurrently and how many do they go through per month/quarter/year. What about your competitors, what are their numbers for those statistics. How does your pricing compare to theirs.

Is their something about your school's location that might be turning off potential customers. Does the building look like a death trap.