Starting an English School in China

[pingpangqiu]

Hi all,

Particularly old China hands like Imron, Roddy etc who really know the score.

Do you know any westerns that have actually set up English schools in China in the last few years? any idea of the success/failure rate?

Clearly competition is extremely intense in SH, Beijing etc but in 2nd, 3rd or 4th tier cities that are attracting an increasing amount of FDI and have a number of Universities do you not think that there is a large market for English language schools with slightly less competition that in the larger cities?

On Daves esl cafe etc you see a number of ads. asking for teachers at foreign owned schools. There should be way to open a school in some cities with decent guanxi.

Chinese seem to be prepared to pay decent amounts of money to improve their English level especially given the importance of education in China and the increasing importance of English given the growing number of Chinese companies doing business overseas and foreign companies based in China.

Anyway, I've got the same idea as Mr Yao Luck am a native English speaker with reasonably fluent Chinese and 2 years of teaching experience in China, decent Marketing/sales skills and experience, reasonable guanxi in a few different cities in China and a Chinese gf that can help out! I'm not looking at doing this immediately but in the next year or two. Do you think it is foolhardy? or do you think that the Chinese saying " where there is a will there is a way " applies?!!

Thanks for your time and constructive criticism/thoughts,

Ping pang qiu

[imron]

I have no idea.

[simonlaing]

I think it is significantly more difficult than the OP thinks .

part of the reason is the Chinese government's wish to protect and strongly control education.

Some people said the start-up cost is 100,000. In Jiangsu Nanjing it is 500,000 yuan. Also for most schools the government won't let a school provide visas for foriegn teachers for the first 12 months. (Being the owner of a start up you get another kind of visa.)

There are gray work arounds where you are a placement or consulting agency that also provides training (with a lower investment) but then your size is limited and if found out you could be shutdown or strong armed for hush money.

You can try to operate illegally without any license but then you operate until they feel like shuting you down.

There are large chains of English schools. Usually they have something else. New Oriental minmizes costs by often teaching large classes 20-60 students. It also had good results by using the actual Toefl/ SAT tests as teaching material. They were sued by ETS lost and had to pay millions of dollars .

The GRE is now given in computer format over the internet to prevent cheating in China.

I have a friend who has started a fairly successful school who also produces and sells teaching material to other high schools. His company almost broke even with costs in his first year.

I know of a woman in Wuxi that opened a chain of Kindergarten schools. She had issues with her chinese partner though after a while.

Canilx is a well known chain brand in Nanjing and other cities which used a software that analyzes students speech to help them correct themselves. It also has small classes 4-8 students. The original school in Shanghai the owners got over their heads on overspending on marketing and after 3 or 4 years took the students money about 1 million yuan and left the country for Taiwan I think leaving the students high and dry. The other franchises are still around working independently.

Web English also has relatively small classes 4-10 students. They also have options for students to take some of their classes over skype if the students are too busy to come to the center.

EF is another big school that focuses on elementary and high school students. They sometimes have western head teachers which helps as many Chinese bosses have difficulty with the direct honest management style.

The market for Adult teaching is still strong but was much stronger around 2002-2006 Post WTO and with lots of Exporting. THe level of english of College graduates has improved a little and many adults realise they can just type or use MSN to communicate with western clients.

If you open a school go for a niche market or a niche way of selling. Also don't skimp on marketing. The buzz around a school is almost as important as the school's quality.

Good luck.

Simon:)

[taylor04]

I was an English teacher in one of those "second" tier cities. I taught English at a school in Hangzhou for about 3-4 months. I think they were open for three or four years but could never get it to really work so they closed down. Try and find a niche, maybe it will be a kindergarten, or a business English teacher delivered right to their door. Start by just gathering students and building from there, the "long-term" students are hard to come by.

[affix]

Running a business involves significant risks. Plus you barely have any experience in operating a school. Not to mention in an foreign location with unfamiliar legal and customary settings.

:nono Do not dance two steps at a time."Go to China" and "Starting a language school" should be two seperate decisions with an interval of at least half a year.

Maybe by the time you have settled in, you may have found more lucrative business opportunities, or a secure job that allows you to really travel in China.

[ArthurBorges]

My recommendation is to teach at a state university for a year or two in order to get to know the language needs and make the necessary contacts.

Special laws apply to companies started by aliens. Notably, it costs a tad more. It may be tempting to try and get around that so that your start-up looks 100% domestically-owned.

The trouble with that is that you lose all leverage in the managerial decision-making and when you end suing, the defendant's lawyer will start off with "Your Honor, the plaintiff knew the law..." and you're sunk.

China is a great place to be and there are never enough language schools, so give it a try, but go into business step by step.