Finance is the major challenge of many private schools. You may get frustrated as a school owner especially when you have a large student population and you’re not really seeing the money to run the school to the standard it should be.
If you own a school in a developing country like Nigeria for instance, it gets even more tougher to run a successful private school business due to the economic situation.
However, no matter the challenge or situation of the economy, I still believe that you can run your private school successfully with the right financial intelligence. I’ve put these tips together to help you become a successful private school owner.
#1. Own your premises.
If you really want to stay up financially, you must own your school premises. Many private school owners spend so much on rent that they are left with very little to run the school itself. The first step to having a successful private school business is to cut the cost of rent. And this can only be done when you own your own premises.
If you don’t own a property yet, I would advise you start saving up for that. Set your financial plan of how you’re going to raise fund for your own school property because renting an apartment for your school will cost you a lot.
#2. Employ teachers you can pay.
There’s no point putting yourself in debt before you can pay teachers’ salaries. You need to learn how to cut your coats according to your size. Qualification matters but you don’t have to employ a professor to teach in your school. You don’t even need a PhD holder. I personally believe in value rather than certificate. I believe in what a person can deliver than what is written on his or her A4-Paper certificate.
Employ teachers that can deliver the value you need to your students not the ones that will come to suck your pocket because they have higher qualifications.
#3. Stay out of debt.
This is common among many private school owners especially in Nigeria. Many principals and proprietors borrow money to pay their teachers salaries,many of them even borrow money to renovate the school. Don’t try this, it’s the path to financial woes. Stay out of debt as much as you can.
#4. Have a strategic flexible payment plan.
The major reason why many private school owners run into debt is because their students are not paying. I know a proprietress of a very small private school with less than 100 students that was owed over #400,000 within a short period. Now that’s huge! And the proprietress could not afford to pay her teachers because the students were owing so much.
The only way to overcome this problem is to have a strategic payment plan that will encourage the parents of your students to pay as quick as possible (I’ll be releasing a post for this soon).
#5. Sell something.
If you want to increase your finances as a school owner, try selling some stationeries or anything you think your students would buy. Sell books, calculators, pen, math set, drawing board, and anything you could think of. You could even open a mini restaurant for your students within the school premises.
This should help you generate more revenue for your school.
#6. Don’t try to impress parents by buying what you can’t afford.
Many private school owners make this mistake. They try to impress parents by acquiring gadgets they know they can’t afford.
Parents are not really impressed by what you have in your school, they are only impressed when they see the changes your school is able to make in their children.
I’ve been a teacher for 8 years now and I can tell you that. Don’t try to impress parents. By the time they expect to see a change in their children and they can’t, they will definitely change the school and go somewhere else. So you don’t need to spend all your money buying a gadget in the school just to make the parents impressed cos they won’t.
I hope these few tips has helped you. Please like and comment below.
Thank you!
EnnyFinance 