Being a language school owner is one of the hardest yet most rewarding roles. Would you agree?
Managing teachers, doing marketing, taking care of the finances, finding clients, maybe even still doing some of the teaching – it’s hard, it’s competitive, and it’s often lonely.
Especially because there’s so little specific business support for language CEOs who want to make their language schools more profitable and enjoyable!
I experienced this a few years ago when I started my online English school.
As a teacher at heart, I had a lot to learn about running a business, marketing and selling courses.
So, I experimented with TONS of strategies and methods, some good, some not so good. Eventually, after a period of 9 months, I:
- Built a team of 7 people
- Had 200 students
- Had some great onboarding processes in place
- Had at least 2-5 new enquiries a week
- Brought £24,000 in profit
But in the midst of all that I spent way too much time and money on courses that didn’t bring results or the advice I wanted because the language world is so unique.
Since then, I have worked with several language school owners facing the same challenges.
If you’re experiencing them too, then I hope by sharing these lessons I can help you take the next step towards building a profitable language school.
What’s the next step for growing your language business?
Download my free (unofficial) CEFR guide to find out!
Lesson #1: You can’t teach if you want to lead
It shocks me to hear how many language school owners are still doing so much teaching several months or years after starting their businesses.
Don’t get me wrong, I know the start of a business journey is always super messy. It simply doesn’t make sense to hire teachers before you have a certain number of students and are bringing in a certain amount of revenue.
But when you reach those milestones, you have to realise that your time is precious. You’re no longer a teacher. You’re a CEO. So, you need to channel your energy into big-picture projects that move your business forward.
I taught at my online academy for around 3 months before I realised it was just too draining, and I had to stop. And yes, it felt sad. But we would not have been able to achieve so much with our school if I had continued teaching for longer.
So, whether you’ve recently started your language school or you’ve been running it for a while, if you’re still teaching lessons, you NEED to plan how you will transition away from this.
If that feels a bit tricky, I recommend that you seek an outside perspective. A mentor or coach can often help you spot things that you couldn’t see from deep in the weeds of your business.
If an outside perspective is what you need, you may like my 1:1 coaching program, Fly. ✈️
Lesson #2: You need great teachers behind you
If you’re not doing the teaching, you obviously need other (amazing) people to do it for you. The problem for most language school owners is that this takes SO MUCH courage and letting go.
You’ve created your school, it’s your baby, and its reputation depends on the quality of the classes. So, it makes sense that you want it to run smoothly.
BUT! That shouldn’t stop you from stepping into your CEO identity.
So, the question is: how will you find great teachers who you trust?
And how will you communicate with them and ensure the quality of your teaching without micromanaging?
This takes some letting go, which can be hard. Especially when you’ve worked so hard to build your school, find clients and get such great reviews.
But it’s necessary if you want to grow a profitable language school.
At some point, you need to accept that your business is evolving and entering a new era. An era that’s very likely more exciting than the last.
Lesson #3: You need to move away from traditional courses
This might sound controversial, but I honestly believe the traditional method of studying the CEFR levels is outdated.
AI-driven apps, online teaching platforms and teachers are pushing the language learning world in a new, exciting direction. Students no longer want to sit in a classroom with a textbook. And, to be completely honest, language school owners like you must adapt to the trends.
The way you can do this is by creating new offers that stand out from your competitors and help your customers achieve specific, measurable goals over a shorter period of time. In other words, not courses that run according to the school terms (if you teach adults).
This might sound scary and unfamiliar. Maybe even unstable. But it can actually make your courses more in demand and your school more profitable – even during those scary summer months!
At my language school, for example, we ran 4-month long courses for adults. They had a super low drop-off rate and people kept re-enrolling!
I know what you’re thinking… what if you teach kids?
You can still take from this approach.
Yes, it probably makes the most sense to run classes based on the academic year. But think about how you can promote a specific, measurable outcome instead of something vague and boring, like ‘beginner’ or ‘exam preparation’ courses.
Not only is this more interesting, but it’s also more believable. If you can clearly list what kids will be able to do with the language after your course, the value is obvious.
You may be thinking that kids probably don’t have tangible life goals for using the language at this stage. And that’s true. But their parents are enrolling them for a reason. Consider what that reason is and how you can use it to build and promote your course.
⚡ Related: How to Create an Online Language Course
Lesson #4: You need to differentiate yourself
Creating shorter, more targeted language courses is a great way to differentiate your school from your competitors. But this shouldn’t be the ONLY thing that makes you unique.
Students increasingly want to learn with people they can relate to and trust. So in order to resonate with your ideal clients, you also need to get clear on things like your values, beliefs and methodology.
Do you have a certain teaching method that’s different to anything you’ve seen before? Do you run your school in a non-typical way that goes against the norm of the industry? Do you bring a unique perspective to your work from a past experience?
Your uniqueness may not be crystal clear to you right now, but I promise that there will be something that makes your school perfect for your ideal students.
Take some of my clients for example.
Kasia runs a language school which offers English lessons for kids and adults in Poland. If she stopped there with her marketing, it would be nearly impossible to stand out. So instead she emphasises her fabulously unique approach which combines mindfulness techniques with language learning to help her students overcome their speaking anxieties.
This approach won’t appeal to everyone. But that’s okay because it brings the right people to her and has helped her build an incredible amount of authority in her space.
How to find your uniqueness:
- Revisit your business origin story
- Write a list of your business goals (your ‘why’)
- Reflect on your unique experience and beliefs
- Consider what your students love about your school
Lesson #5: Systems are your best friend
Fact: you cannot scale a profitable language school without tons of tech to support you.
As a language school owner, your time and mental energy is precious. You shouldn’t waste it on mundane, easily replaceable tasks like invoicing, client communication, recruitment, class lists, calendars, and so on.
All that needs to work smoothly. And honestly, it WILL work more smoothly if you let tech do it instead of your way-too-busy brain.
By investing in the right systems, you can free up hours of your time and make sure that key tasks in your business run smoothly.
For example:
- Online scheduling tools like Calendly can help the booking process run smoothly.
- Email automation software like Mailerlite can welcome new people as soon as they join your email list.
- Tools like Asana can help you organise your whole team and keep everyone on the same page.
- Social media scheduling tools like Buffer or Later can help you plan your content weeks in advance.
And this is just the start! There is SO MUCH you can do to streamline your processes. And although it may take a while to set up, it pays off by saving you time (which you can use to grow your school) and making sure your clients feel well looked after (which leads to more referrals and conversions). Win win!
Lesson #6: Making money is easy, but managing it is hard
I quickly learned that when you have an irresistible offer and you know how to promote it, selling is the simple part. But knowing what to do with it is a different story.
Most people in the language world aren’t natural finance people. In fact, numbers scare many of us. I blame that on the industry which, in my opinion, has affected our money mindset with low pay and the belief that ‘we just do this out of passion’.
As you step into your leadership role, you need a good grasp of your school’s finances. And the good news is that:
1) finances aren’t as tricky as they seem
2) you can learn it all quite quickly
Before you can make your language school more profitable, you need to understand exactly how much it’s bringing in already.
What’s your current cash flow like? How do you plan your budget? What are your revenue goals? What are your current prices?
When you know what you’re working towards and where you’re coming from, you can calculate backwards to work out:
- How to price your courses effectively
- How many students you’ll need to enrol
- What new offers to create
- When to run different courses
- How many staff you’ll need to employ
And so on.
Planning in this way should allow you to stop riding the income rollercoaster and know exactly how much revenue you can expect at different points in the year.
Plus, you’ll also be able to eliminate the dreaded summer worries!
Making your language school more profitable requires grit, experience, strategy and a very unique person.
But you’ve already come this far, so I have no doubt that by drawing from some of these lessons, you can get closer to your financial goals.
If you are at a stage where you need support to take the next step, I invite you to read about my 1:1 coaching program for language leaders.
Or if you’re not sure what the next step should be in your business, download my free Successful Language Business Handbook should help.