The proliferation of the school business has cause educational professionals and non- professionals alike to jump into the ownership of schools in every street corner thereby causing a saturated and competitive schools business environment.

On the same hand, people are thirsty for knowledge, promotion, financial empowerment, and many other personal desires too numerable to mention, hence every school business is very profitable, the competition notwithstanding.

By school business, I am not just referring to the conventional primary and secondary schools, but also referring to vocational schools, hairdressing/ tailoring academy, bible institutions, music/dancing academy, computer schools and any other organized system for learning. For anyone involved in the art of the school business, you are the Edu-preneur As I pivot the name of the edupreneur, I do not wish to own a school, because my vision is ‘‘ to provide all the tools, skills and materials needed for the growth and development of all business and educational institutions’’

I have seen that the school business is one of those businesses that can be started so low (with little financial resources) and can grow steadily over time as long as you are consistent with your services.

But as the principal consultant of the GENIUSKROOL, I have come to a conclusion that in the midst of this competition among the schools because of the saturation, the winning strategy will be beyond just consistent services but school owners but strive to adopt
1. THE METHOD APPROACH.
The method approach involves the use of materials and methods, Which includes but not limited to introduction of:
- Exceptional pedagogical teaching aid tools.
-Innovative teaching methods.
-Modern technology into the classroom, school management and administration.
-E-learning programmes for students to meet global standards
-Multi-functional diagnoses to meet the specific need of learners
2. OUT-SOURCING STRATEGY
This involves the use of external consultant(this is where we come in) who will not empathize like the school owners, because the hustle of running a school is time consuming with maintaining order among staff, students and parents, stationary suppliers etc. the truth is, proprietors are busy .Hence they should engage the services of school consultants and not educationist...
For every school owner or anyone who knows someone who owns a school. Lets meet here and share thought…as I shall be helping proprietors unlock the potentials in their school business.

COMMON MISTAKES WHICH SCHOOL OWNERS MAKE WHEN STARTING THEIR SCHOOLS
The proprietors of schools make certain mistakes from their start up point, which makes it seem they are ill-prepared for the task of owning a school. These edupreneurs as I call V them do not make certain to establish the basic principles that make running a school simple. And because they have failed in this aspect, it becomes mistakes! The essence of this is to identify the mistakes and find solutions to them. For many proprietors, the first start up mistake they make is in their:
1. School names and motto.
Like every business venture, the name a school adopts is extremely vital but far more important is the school motto and or slogan. Over time, what you see edupreneurs adopt as school motto is the Francis Baron adage that ‘’knowledge is power’’ and other conventional quotes like ‘’knowledge is light’’ and ‘’education is the best legacy’’ to me, those kind of names does not mean well for a schools that has foresight. Your school motto must tell something about your ideal, zeal and the vacuum you wish to fill.
2. Vicious cycle mentality.
This might surprise many of the edupreneurs but it’s a simple truth. Most of the primary and secondary school owners today, are/were school teachers, having taught in one government/private school or the other. This means that most of the schools in existence are based on teaching methods as evident in their names like montessori’s method boldly written on their signboards when these proprietors know fully, that the Montessori method is mainly applicable to only toddlers in the pre-nursery or nursery schools. The academic history of these proprietors and their teachers, have always shown that most of them went to colleges of educations and universities to obtain educational qualifications. This means they are trained to teach and not to own schools, just as many Nigerian graduates are trained to be job seekers and not job creators. As it were, most of them are trained to be teachers and not business managers. Hence, do not have the capacity to manage the man, methods, materials and money of the school. Because most proprietors come into the school business with just teaching methods, they have nothing different to offer… no innovation, no new thoughts as they remain in the same vicious cycle. I can therefore boldly say, most of the small schools in existence are built on teaching methods.
3. Meet The wrong man approach
Another actual mistake which proprietors make is going to meet a proprietor to educate them on how they started the same kind of business that they are about to go into. The truth is, no matter how sincere a proprietor is, he /she will never tell you his secret of making more money or increasing population, rather they will just tell you what you need to know and not what you need to break even or stand out.
4. Low price mistake
Just like most start up problems, most proprietors start their schools with ridiculously low school fees because they want to get many students enrolled. When they eventually get the students, they try increasing the school fees and end up losing the students. But by then, they would have got teacher’s salaries to pay, government tax, union levies and other sundry running cost to deal with. This in the end make them constantly struggling. If you must start a school, start with the right price that should not be change until three or four years after existence.
5. The only one wow.
In cracking the millionaires code, the author created an acronym for WOW, which means wheels of wealth. To the proprietors, many start schools and depend 100% on the school for survival instead of creating other sources of revenue either within the school or outside the school.
6. Aristotle,
…and though it does not end then…

There are so many other mistakes or in this case factors to consider before starting a school. All these suppose mistakes stated here are first hand information garnered from on the field work, working with proprietors of schools of various levels. And over the years, we(GENIUSKROOL) have been able to create innovative solutions to help proprietors over-come these challenges.
Synopsis
A mistake is not a mistake until you refuse to learn from it, improve on your short comings and make amends. It’s not a crime to make mistakes, but it is a crime not to learn from.
There are people whose business is to see to the need of your business and that is what GENIUSKROOL stand for…seeing to the need of your school business, I mean, any school business. If you have made any mistakes in your school or you are facing any management challenge in your school. We are just here for you.

Nice article. Thanks

Get your very own business plan and feasibility study on starting a nursery and primary school in Nigeria

Very well thought out and written article. As it's 2020, what would you say are a good few ways to reach parents for a new school??

My school is the Segilola Salami Preparatory School, a skills acquisition business school for children aged 6 to 14 in Abuja. Enrollment for September 2020 is open.

iebelieve:

COMMON MISTAKES WHICH SCHOOL OWNERS MAKE WHEN STARTING THEIR SCHOOLS
The proprietors of schools make certain mistakes from their start up point, which makes it seem they are ill-prepared for the task of owning a school. These edupreneurs as I call V them do not make certain to establish the basic principles that make running a school simple. And because they have failed in this aspect, it becomes mistakes! The essence of this is to identify the mistakes and find solutions to them. For many proprietors, the first start up mistake they make is in their:
1. School names and motto.
Like every business venture, the name a school adopts is extremely vital but far more important is the school motto and or slogan. Over time, what you see edupreneurs adopt as school motto is the Francis Baron adage that ‘’knowledge is power’’ and other conventional quotes like ‘’knowledge is light’’ and ‘’education is the best legacy’’ to me, those kind of names does not mean well for a schools that has foresight. Your school motto must tell something about your ideal, zeal and the vacuum you wish to fill.
2. Vicious cycle mentality.
This might surprise many of the edupreneurs but it’s a simple truth. Most of the primary and secondary school owners today, are/were school teachers, having taught in one government/private school or the other. This means that most of the schools in existence are based on teaching methods as evident in their names like montessori’s method boldly written on their signboards when these proprietors know fully, that the Montessori method is mainly applicable to only toddlers in the pre-nursery or nursery schools. The academic history of these proprietors and their teachers, have always shown that most of them went to colleges of educations and universities to obtain educational qualifications. This means they are trained to teach and not to own schools, just as many Nigerian graduates are trained to be job seekers and not job creators. As it were, most of them are trained to be teachers and not business managers. Hence, do not have the capacity to manage the man, methods, materials and money of the school. Because most proprietors come into the school business with just teaching methods, they have nothing different to offer… no innovation, no new thoughts as they remain in the same vicious cycle. I can therefore boldly say, most of the small schools in existence are built on teaching methods.
3. Meet The wrong man approach
Another actual mistake which proprietors make is going to meet a proprietor to educate them on how they started the same kind of business that they are about to go into. The truth is, no matter how sincere a proprietor is, he /she will never tell you his secret of making more money or increasing population, rather they will just tell you what you need to know and not what you need to break even or stand out.
4. Low price mistake
Just like most start up problems, most proprietors start their schools with ridiculously low school fees because they want to get many students enrolled. When they eventually get the students, they try increasing the school fees and end up losing the students. But by then, they would have got teacher’s salaries to pay, government tax, union levies and other sundry running cost to deal with. This in the end make them constantly struggling. If you must start a school, start with the right price that should not be change until three or four years after existence.
5. The only one wow.
In cracking the millionaires code, the author created an acronym for WOW, which means wheels of wealth. To the proprietors, many start schools and depend 100% on the school for survival instead of creating other sources of revenue either within the school or outside the school.
6. Aristotle,
…and though it does not end then…

There are so many other mistakes or in this case factors to consider before starting a school. All these suppose mistakes stated here are first hand information garnered from on the field work, working with proprietors of schools of various levels. And over the years, we(GENIUSKROOL) have been able to create innovative solutions to help proprietors over-come these challenges.
Synopsis
A mistake is not a mistake until you refuse to learn from it, improve on your short comings and make amends. It’s not a crime to make mistakes, but it is a crime not to learn from.
There are people whose business is to see to the need of your business and that is what GENIUSKROOL stand for…seeing to the need of your school business, I mean, any school business. If you have made any mistakes in your school or you are facing any management challenge in your school. We are just here for you.

SegilolaSalami:
Very well thought out and written article. As it's 2020, what would you say are a good few ways to reach parents for a new school??

My school is the Segilola Salami Preparatory School, a skills acquisition business school for children aged 6 to 14 in Abuja. Enrollment for September 2020 is open.

We have a package for your kind of schools.

To reach out to parents you need to focus beyond just teaching the kids conventional skills but rather focus also on teaching them the business of the skills

Today, there are lot of people with conventional skills but don't know how to turn these skills into business.

Do you teach them about business model canvas, sales strategy, business leadership etc

Give the parents content that wow them and they will refer others to you.

This doesn't mean you won't plan a marketing strategy to help you grow your business.

I'm an Edupreneur ( EdupreneurNg) and I will be glad to work with your school as your consultant.