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  1. #11

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    I think you have to look at what you want to get out of it as well. From most accounts running a language centre is A LOT of work.

    For me, to put in that much cash, time and effort I would want a sizeable return and a good chance to gain a source of passive income in the future. In other words that means getting a centre up and running and eventually stepping away and letting others handle the day-to-day stuff. But from the centre owners that I have talked with, that rarely (if ever) seems to happen. They seem to be forever connected with the running of the centre, if they are not there hands on most of the time, things quickly go to pot. That's a big turn off for me.

    Your needs / requirements might be different however. For example, I could certainly see that for someone slaving away at a language centre, working long hours and earning 20-30K, the idea of running their own centre, being their own boss and improving their income could be quite attractive.


  2. #12

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    I think you have to look at what you want to get out of it as well. From most accounts running a language centre is A LOT of work.
    With respect, I think you work a lot harder than me for about the same money...in my view, getting my own centre was a step up from private tutoring...why teach 1-1 when you can have 7 students in one class?

    Because I can do maths I opened my centre in Tuen Mun...I charge about 20% less per hour than Kowloon/Island while paying a fraction of the rent.

    For me, to put in that much cash, time and effort I would want a sizeable return and a good chance to gain a source of passive income in the future.
    I opened my centre with about 30k.

    How are you going to get a passive income from private tutoring?

    They seem to be forever connected with the running of the centre, if they are not there hands on most of the time, things quickly go to pot. That's a big turn off for me.
    So what happens if you're not there for your private lessons?

    Running a centre is hard work and time consuming but...

    I work about 16 hours per week in my centre and teach at a local kindergarten 28 hours per week...I also have two special interest courses in a school (16 students in each) for 1 hour each...so my working week is 46 hours and I plan to cull it even more...

    I live 10 minutes from my centre and the kindergarten and school are on the next estate...5 minute walk...I also have an extra 700 square feet of space to store my stuff!!

    Nowadays when people call us for 1-1s we say we don't do them, simple as that...

    I enjoyed 1-1s sometimes and a few times we've done the sums...it doesn't add up...

    You can make a good living doing 1-1s...personally, I think if you don't want a centre, the best model is p/t in a school and pick up a load of 1-1s through that.

    "Don't be a barber!"...a very rich woman in HK told me that years ago...what she meant was, nobody got rich doing 1-1 services...I'm sure there are exceptions...
    TheBrit and Claire ex-ax like this.

  3. #13

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    Thank you for the much needed information LORD DASHWOOD and JMBF...

    LORD DASHWOOD...some questions to ask you since your already in this field...do you think I could make over 25,000$ per month excluding all expenses....if so then im willing to plunge into this...
    also when I look into the location part...its so confuing to find a proper location...
    but each time i get caught up with the confusion between your own center or franchise one.. at myself

    thank you

    also would like to know...is there a specific size or any requirement for opening a learning center?


  4. #14

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    Excuse me Kommal while I get caught up in a debate with LD here. I'm sure we will return to answering your questions as best we can shortly!

    @Lord Dashwood. Before I reply to your post in detail, I would like to say that some of your comments have merit. For those tutors still traveling out to teach, pursuing ever more 1-to-1 lessons doesn't make much sense. Tutoring all over the territory, teaching in living rooms (often with parents hovering nearby) and in coffee shops and so on quickly becomes tiring. Even worse it's an inefficient means of earning an income. However, there are tutors who have overcome a lot of these drawbacks by having students come to them. Some of the tutors with the best setups that I have seen, teach from their own homes and teach not only 1-to-1's but also small groups. This provides many of the benefits of a centre (i.e. no travel time, increased income from teaching groups) but with less of the downsides (i.e. less of the normal overhead costs and admin that comes with running a centre). From my point of view this is the optimal setup IF you can do it well.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    With respect, I think you work a lot harder than me for about the same money...in my view, getting my own centre was a step up from private tutoring...why teach 1-1 when you can have 7 students in one class?
    I work approx 50 hours a week - with a very small amount of commuting time. So effectively not that much more than yourself. For that I currently earn approx 100K / month.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    Because I can do maths I opened my centre in Tuen Mun...I charge about 20% less per hour than Kowloon/Island while paying a fraction of the rent.
    Why pay rent for your home plus all the costs associated with a centre when you can consolidate and do it all from home?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    I opened my centre with about 30k.
    Kudos. But that was a while ago right? Are you seriously suggesting someone can open a centre nowadays on such a low budget?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    How are you going to get a passive income from private tutoring?
    I can't. But if I can't get a passive income from a centre either then why should I change what I'm doing? Why sacrifice time away from home and family for something which does not add much (if any) benefit?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    So what happens if you're not there for your private lessons?
    No income. So the same for a centre. Again, why should I change?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    You can make a good living doing 1-1s...personally, I think if you don't want a centre, the best model is p/t in a school and pick up a load of 1-1s through that.
    As I mentioned before, I personally think the best model is to tutor from home (in effect running your own unregistered centre), perhaps with a part-time job at a school on the side.

    In any case, these are my thoughts based mostly on my own situation and what I consider to be optimal. With tutoring being such a diverse field, there will certainly be tutors who would benefit from opening a centre IF they can run it successfully.
    Last edited by jmbf; 08-04-2016 at 07:26 PM.
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  5. #15

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    I work approx 50 hours a week - with a very small amount of commuting time. So effectively not that much more than yourself. For that I currently earn approx 100K / month.
    You've told me how much you earn before mate...I was on your WhatsApp group for a while.

    50 hours of 1-1s is mind-bogglingly intensive to most humans and you know it. Take my hours at the school...I get an hour for lunch and two twenty minute breaks, am and pm. On Saturday we take half an hour for lunch...so if you want to be technical I work less than 40 hours per week!

    Why pay rent for your home plus all the costs associated with a centre when you can consolidate and do it all from home?
    I could do that now, but I don't want to work in my house or live at my work. We tried it already and didn't like it. My rent at home is 9k and my rent at work is 8k...it works for us.

    Kudos. But that was a while ago right? Are you seriously suggesting someone can open a centre nowadays on such a low budget?
    You're right! Six years ago our rent was $6800, now it's $8000...so maybe 35-40k now. Further, I don't think it was a low budget, I think it was a sensible budget...I gradually bought fixtures and fittings as my students paid for them.

    I can't. But if I can't get a passive income from a centre either then why should I change what I'm doing? Why sacrifice time away from home and family for something which does not add much (if any) benefit?
    You can do what you like. I simply think you need to accept that 50 hours per week of 1-1s is simply impossible for most people to imagine....

    No income. So the same for a centre. Again, why should I change?
    Why would it be no income for me?

    As I mentioned before, I personally think the best model is to tutor from home (in effect running your own unregistered centre), perhaps with a part-time job at a school on the side.
    If you like working from home...in a centre you have proper classrooms...if you're serious about teaching, nothing beats that...in fact, having my own classroom was the main driver behind my centre, not money...maybe that's the difference.

    In any case, these are my thoughts based mostly on my own situation and what I consider to be optimal. With tutoring being such a diverse field, there will certainly be tutors who would benefit from opening a centre IF they can run it successfully.
    Yes. Well as I've said, I wouldn't dream of opening an independent tutorial centre anywhere in HK if I didn't have some community connection...it would be chucking money down the drain.
    TheBrit likes this.

  6. #16

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    play school/learning center

    Slightly off topic, but intrigued by the local lady who's business has failed: why not give free "lessons" (coupons, giveaway, prize, etc) at the play center, until business picks up? I guess no difference if you have 1 student or 7, you have to be there, right?

    Not that this would fix a broken business plan, but it's some sort of "free" marketing and gets potential customers in the door...

    Last edited by 100LL; 08-04-2016 at 09:06 PM.

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by 100LL:
    Slightly off topic, but intrigued by the local lady who's business has failed: why not give free "lessons" (coupons, giveaway, prize, etc) at the play center, until business picks up? I guess no difference if you have 1 student or 7, you have to be there, right?

    Not that this would fix a broken business plan, but it's some sort of "free" marketing and gets potential customers in the door...
    Well she's the one I know personally...many others have come and gone too...this can't just be in my area!

    Here's the rub...there is no shortage of spaces in learning centres...you can find a spot for your kid....what that means is that if you open a new centre you probably need to be drawing customers away from the competition....how are you going to do that? It's not easy...you have to have goodwill to start with...where she fucked up...she had goodwill from the school she'd taught at but she aimed her biz at nursery age kids...it made no sense..

    Also, in my experience, people don't turn up for free stuff...we charge full rate for trial lessons as do most...

  8. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Dashwood:
    50 hours of 1-1s is mind-bogglingly intensive to most humans and you know it.
    I'll repeat, 50 hours of 1-1's per week is hard work but NOT 'mind-bogglingly intensive'. You have to factor in several other considerations, otherwise it's not an apples to apples comparison. Let me try to break this down a bit. I'm not some super-high endurance teaching machine. I'm just a regular guy with a teaching setup that works for me. I remember you warning me back in 2014 about burnout and health considerations - well I'm still here! In fact, I've been working at this level for a good 5 years now and still going strong. I'm convinced many people could do a similar amount if they had a setup that worked for them. Consider the following:

    If 50 hours was so batshit crazy intensive I would have gone insane years ago (cue the psychologists - lol)

    Of the (admittedly few) teachers who I've spoke with that have taught both at home and outside, they have consistently acknowledged that teaching from home is significantly easier than going out to teach.

    That last point is born out by my own experience. At the peak of my time when I was still travelling out, I was averaging a bit over 30 hours a week and it was frigging exhausting, to the point when I seriously considering packing it all in. If you had talked to me at that point and told me that in a few years I would be doing 50 hours a week I would have had some choice words to say on the matter!

    So you can't just look at the hours worked without considering the teaching environment, commuting time (or lack thereof) and other factors. I consider my current workload to be approximately the same as for a normal full-time office job with all factors weighed in.
    Last edited by jmbf; 09-04-2016 at 12:58 PM.

  9. #19

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    Dont you get cabin fever? Last week I spent one day working from home, I much prefer the office where there are social elements and interaction with colleagues.


  10. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by WMDS:
    Dont you get cabin fever? Last week I spent one day working from home, I much prefer the office where there are social elements and interaction with colleagues.
    No, but that's because in a typical day I'm in and out of the house quite often, just not due to work! For example, I might go and pick up my daughter from school, pop out for lunch, run down to the shops, go down to the gym etc etc. Also, it's not like I'm sat in front of the computer alone working on emails all day, I have students of all ages coming and going, different people to talk to and so on.