AI-generated transcipt: hello welcome back to this weekly chat i'm in front of the lake as usual and just in the middle of a bike ride and i just thought i would make a recording where i don't disturb anybody at home or in the office or at the school whatever so today's topic who are your best students

thinking about this really will turn your business into a success if you manage to get attract your best students let me give you an example for myself it doesn't necessarily follow for you you may have a completely different uh idea a different a different attraction but you know as usual i can only really speak to my own experiences i can't speak to yours

but I'm sure you can figure out what it all means for you okay so for us we started out as just a general all people coming if you want to learn English I will teach you

just so general it's unbelievable I had some salarymen I had some neighbors these are all adults in fact when we first started out really 50-50 it was adults and children were sort of like an addition I just thought oh well I guess we could teach some kids and now 90% 95% of our income comes from school children or up to the age of 18 actually but yeah

people in full-time education that wasn't how I intended it to be but that's the way it kind of worked out and if I think about the best students you know the old 80-20 rule 20% of your effort gets 80% of your results well you know something like that you know like 20% of our paying customers pay for 80% of our profits what I mean is some people stay for a very long time

our best students probably came through our playgroup in fact I'm still teaching every Friday I teach a group of high school kids that all started at our playgroup so they've been so they're now 17 pushing 18 I think they're 18 they've been with us since they were two

So that's 16 years times, you know, whatever the monthly fee is, times 12, right?

12 months times 16.

Wow.

Plus, a lot of those kids have been on a trip to England, so they've paid even more money for that.

They are long-term customers.

Some even went twice.

and you will probably find that's the same in your business there's some customers will be the very very best ones that keep coming back again and again it might be a type of customer maybe you're good at attracting housewives for want of a better word but you know usually women who are at home you know what a housewife is right and they're learning English maybe they were very good at it when they were younger

and there isn't really a strong reason to learn it except for fun those people are actually really good students because they just keep coming back or it might be retired people I've got a couple of retired people the great thing about retired people is they're quite happy to come in the mornings or early afternoons when your students your you know full-time education students can't make it so they're really good also they can be fun to teach I think

generally speaking because they really enjoy English I've got one lady who lived in London when she was younger was sent there by her you know her husband was sent there by the company and she went along too and stayed in London for three or four years I think 20 years ago and now she wants to get back to her level of English that she feels she used to have

and we have a great great time you know our lessons are very conversational and they're not geared towards passing any tests they're just keeping fluency so we have interesting topics and talk about them and she's genuinely interested and wants to learn new vocabulary and yeah that kind of person is great great person to teach because it's fun for the teacher and fun for the student there aren't many of those though I got like one or two two two people I would describe like that

other people I do still have a few salary men or salary women I suppose is that the term office ladies sounds a bit derogatory doesn't it they work full-time but have fairly low clerical jobs in fairly low status clerical jobs in Tokyo but but you know they live here they're good students and I've had yes I've had some of these people for

Since I've Been in Business for 2007.

So you'll find a few people will hang around and they become your best students but as a general rule and of course rules can always be broken but as a general rule kids are better because they will stay if they like you

by Patrick Sherriff

The Free Talk Staffroom

but you know eventually everybody quits I mean they have to you can't keep teaching English and there comes a point where you've kind of taught everything that you know and it's just you're just rehashing stuff that's maybe a topic for another another video how do you keep teaching the same students again and again the short answer is with topics but another video so you know generally speaking children are really good to have in your business

Business people not so much because they tend to have a specific target like I've got to learn English because I'm being sent to San Francisco in three months time okay so you've got that student for three months maybe when they come back from San Francisco in a couple of years they might come back but probably not

So that's not so great.

If it's a foreign company based in Japan, that's quite good because the salaryman needs English to get ahead at work.

And you can keep people for a couple of years, but I find more than a couple of years and everybody quits.

Maybe that's me.

Or it's just the situation.

It's just, you know.

When money's tight as well, another thing to consider,

The Free Talk Staffroom.

so you have to consider that from a business point of view what's the best way who are the best students that's just my experience you might have a different experience if you're in Tokyo there's a lot more salary men women a lot more workers around I would imagine so that might be better or you might want to consider doing something completely different like doing English for fun that's what I think

Might Be A Future.

I'm not sure if people are willing to pay for that.

Some people will, like the retired people, people who are relatively wealthy.

Wow, that's a cool bicycle.

Got flashing lights on.

So, I don't know, you know, like, if you focus on exams, then you're putting yourself in the firing line of jukers, and jukers teach better exam English than you, frankly.

I would imagine if you're doing any kind of an eikaiwa type thing your strong point is you're good at the culture and good at the enjoyment so that's this that's the market you're going for the type of person you're going for are they happy to spend money I don't know retired people some retired people yes something to consider and you know companies if the company is paying then they're quite happy to take lessons but if they've got to pay for themselves

you've really got to give something you know that's quantifiably valuable to them so that's my two pence anyway

and when you're building your business just consider who is your best student and try and attract those people by all means fill up the timetable with people who don't fit your ideal but if you're hitting the mark if you're aiming to get children focus on children and you'll get a few others too like the parents and stuff or if you're aiming for business people aim for business people and you might get a few kids coming but that's not your objective

So figure out what is your target?

What is the best one?

Which one are you most suited?

Which students are you most suited to teach?

Aim for that.

That's my advice.

But what do I know?

You know, things change.

Try stuff out and see what works.

And it's a brave new world.

You know, things are changing with AI and technology.

so it's still valuable to think about who exactly wants the lesson and why and if you can answer that those questions who and why you're well on your way to having a successful business okay that's my that's my bit I will see you next time enjoy the weekend

and as always I'll give you a quick shot of where I am this is Teganuma if I uh oh I can't switch it then okay I'll do the old school way this is Teganuma just at dusk okay have a good one see you next week1200012

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