Private language School

Business development & management

HOW I CREATEd A SUCCESS STORY

We Transformed an Unprofitable ESL School in Vancouver to a State of Breakeven Point within 15 Months.

How to create an ESL school in an oversaturated market? How to build a prestigious language school? How to deliver a quality curriculum? How to meet the investors’ expectations? How to meet industry quality standards? How to recruit qualified staff? How to recruit students? How to breakeven in the short term? How to survive fierce competition based on discounts and high commissions?

Central challenge

My main goal was to create a successful language school capable of meeting industry standards in a short period of time.

ChallengeS

Meeting high competition of language school programs in local, national and international markets.

Accomplishing branding differentiation in a highly competitive and saturated market.

Defying severe pricing competition based on deep discounts, promotions and performance volume bonuses.

Creating a quality curriculum and distinctive branding.

Recruiting operational, teaching and/or support staff.

Solutions

I and my team developed the project around the concept of a “boutique language school”.

We offered customized services by outsourcing continuing education programs to complement English lessons.

Together we built the school enrolment by complying with the necessary accreditations linked to study permits and reputation.

We managed to drastically reduce the deficit by discontinuing unnecessary expenses.

Accreditations

2

FT Students

120

Satisfaction rate

9.7/10

Breakeven Point

15 mo.

APPLIED STRATEGIES

How I steered the whole team to accomplished it

01. Audience, Markets & goals

As a first step we had to clearly understand the school’s audience, strengths and competitive environment to outline attainable goals, plans and actions, in order to successfully compete in global markets.

02. Strategic Planning

Based on the opportunities that a boutique language school would imply, we established strategic priorities, key strategies, desired outcomes and actions for a five year period.

03. team development

We developed a strong and solid teaching and support team based on: in-depth knowledge, positive work environment where we all contribute with ideas and initiatives to achieve the set goals.

04. Performance

We constantly evaluated performance to assess the strategy’s effectiveness and make changes to the plan as necessary, especially in a highly price competitive and saturated environment.

The extra mile

INITIATIVES IMPLEMENTED

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Partnerships

We established articulation pathways with post-secondary institutions such as LCI and the Art Institute of Vancouver. We also outsourced programs with local education providers to offer a variety of after-class programs.

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Global Recruitment

We based our recruitment strategy through a huge network of global representatives (B2B), and we joined efforts with CETUSA. We also participated in global networking events ICEF & WYSTC.

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ACcreditations

We prepared and submitted the documentation for the Languages Canada (LC) and Education Quality Assurance (EQA) accreditations. Additionally we obtained a Designated Learning Institution (DLI) registration number for the study permit.

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Branding

The content and design of the marketing material and website were developed to reflect the boutique style, personalized service, and high quality standards, to distance our branding from competitors.