Happy New Year everyone. I believe you’re receiving this lecture because you have subscribed to our newsletter. It’s a way of reaching you with more content and and opportunities for your school and be sure you’re receiving it. It’s also a way knowing you’re committed to the SOF mandate.
Most importantly, I’d like to get more feedback from you.
DO I REALLY NEED A BUSINESS PLAN? DAVID, I’M RUNNING A SCHOOL AMD NOT A BUSINESS
My answer will not be to remind you that running a school and running a school business are two different things.
If you’re not interested in getting all the financial benefits you’re entitled to, for running a school, then you don’t need this lecture, you probably don’t need most of my lectures too. It’s ok.
But if you understand that you should be rewarded maximally for being a blessing to humanity, Imparting children in ways their parents cannot, putting food on the tables of several people who work for you, then you honestly need to understand in clearer detail, all you need to do to earn maximum profit from that school in your hands.
BUSINESS THAT OBEY BUSINESS PRINCIPLES DO BETTER THAN THOSE WHO DON’T
Just like wanting to live healthy. You need to obey simple health rules – Eat wisely, exercise and rest well, the same apply for every business. Obeying certain rules that puts you at an advantage over those who don’t. I know what I’m saying and why I’m saying it. Many schools are not doing well because their owners know little or nothing about business and it’s winning principles, not because the economy is harsh or there is competition. A business plan helps you answer from the onset and prepare for questions that will soon slam you in the face and lengthen your learning curve.
That education has become an obviously essential commodity and every one must purchase it for their children is a position too mere for you to engage in the business with little or no adherence to business principles without which hardly any other business entity thrives
THIS MAY INTEREST YOU
Let me shock you, many people would have sought to do other businesses apart from school, had they understood the principles of business before they started. Many have sunk so much fortune into their school and have little or nothing to show for it. Simply studying the climate of the business you want to do and preparing it’s *BUSINESS PLAN* will show you the right way to go about it and whether you should do it at all. Even now that you’ve been in it for long, settling down to craft something that looks like a business plan will help you find answers to questions you had never asked yourself.
YOU DIDN’T START WITH A BUSINESS PLAN. DID YOU. BUSINESS PLANS ARE NOT ONLY FOR STARTERS?
I’ll be fine if you did. But I know many didn’t. And those who did, probably did not see any reason to follow it. We mostly changed on this vocation. Either by passion, or by grace. Largely because we had access to capital and we had faith – 2 key requirements for survival. However, faith and something else is needed to thrive. That something else is: THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT BUSINESS IS AND HOW TO DO IT.
*WHAT IS A BUSINESS PLAN. Or should we just say WHAT IS BUSINESS?
Don’t assume you know. Let’s see What is Business is, then relate it to school business.
DEFINITION:
Business is a repeatable process that
- Creates and delivers something of value
- That other people want or need
- At a price they’re willing to pay
- In a way that satisfies the customer’s needs and expectations…
- So that the business brings in enough profit to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation
That means at the core, every successful business is fundamentally, a repeated collection of 5 interdependent processes:
1. Value Creation – Discovering what people need or want, then creating it
2. Marketing – Attracting attention and building for what you’ve created
3. Sales: – Turning Prospective customers into paying customers
4. Value Delivery – Giving tour customers what you’ve promised and ensuring that they’re satisfied.
5. Finance: – Bringing in enough money to keep going and make your effort worthwhile
THAT’S BUSINESS. ANYONE WHO OBEYS THESE 5 PRINCIPLES IN THEIR SCHOOL WILL HAVE NO REASON TO SWEAT. AND THESE ARE THE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS YOUR BUSINESS PLAN SHOUKD ANSWER.
I know you’re already thinking in retrospect and interpreting these principles with your school. Now let’s translate it together.
1. VALUE CREATION – What particular problem does your school intend to solve in the environment within which you’re intending to site it. And then getting the resources you need to create that school.
Examples:
=>There’s no Montessori school in this area, or there’s none with class
=> There’s no Home-Away-From-Home kind of boarding school in this area, and I want mine to be the standard
=> All the school in this area are just for the rich, I want mine to cater for children of the average (or the low income earner staffs of the rich)
Etc
2. MARKETING: How exactly do you intend attracting attention for this school you’re about to create and targeting to get as many as possible of the kind of parents you’ve defined in (1) above. The question here is are you really sure the set of parents you’re targeting are where you think they are? Or do you have enough resources to go get them where they are.
And if your school has been for a while and the environment has changed, answering this question helps you identify what these people want and strategies to woo them in.
AGAIN, YOUR BUSINESS PLAN MUST ANSWER THIS QUESTION IN DETAIL
If you want in-depth analysis of all of these, why not enroll for a course in SOF ACADEMY. 4 months, 5 months or 6 months at 2 twice in a month. I will walk you through and we will achieve the transformation together.
NOW DO YOU NEED A BUSINESS PLAN?
Let’s draw the curtain here tonight. Meet me next class, the series is just starting