Opening an afterschool in China

[olyoly]

Hello,

I've been reading some of the discussions on this topic in this forum.

As far as I understood it's not a good idea to open a language school in China but what about an afterschool?

So not only language classes but a range of activities for old and young.

Music classes, activities for children, help with homework etc.

Might this work as a formula?

Would it be possible to open this kind of activity in a big city such as Shanghai or Beijing?

[T-revor]

As far as I understood it's not a good idea to open a language school in China but what about an afterschool?

What data do you have that led you to that conclusion?

Are you asking generally about setting up a business in China, or are you specifically asking about how difficult it is to open up a language school? I suppose that once you jump through whatever hoops for setting up a business in China (and those may be significant?), the difficulty will be specific to the type of business you want to create and what your personal talents/abilities/connections are.

To confirm: you are talking about teaching English to Chinese?

[roddy]

Yes, it might, if you actually know what you're doing. If you're just casting about for a random business idea, no.

[yialanliu]

After school programs are extremely popular in China. The market is actually oversaturated in the major cities but as long as you are good, your students will flock.

The thing about China is either you will thrive or fail. There's no middle ground for many things including after school programs. My fiance's family pays 7k a semester to attend after school prgrams each semester per kid and it's good money if you run a good school. However, if you don't you won't get a single kid because of the flocking phenomenon.

With regards to opening a business. I just started the process a couple weeks ago. The hoops aren't that big for some businesses (opening a store). Actually it was really easy for me. Not sure about schools because those are probably regulated much more. At PKU, a group of MBA students opened a bar and they said that was easy as well.