Setting up of tuition centre
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mind sharing what’s the startup cost needed for kinderland?
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Hi,
My friend was a full-time tutor and was earning good money until he decided to open his own tuition centre.
He had set up his centre in one of the most prominent tuition hubs in Singapore. For the past 5 years, it was like hell for him. He couldn’t sleep well, suffered poor relationships with his family and barely had enough to spend, after deducting all the revenue to pay his teachers, rental, course materials, utility bills. In order to recoup his losses, he almost wanted to open another centre (for the hope of more revenue since he felt that his fixed cost should only increase marginally), but it was a blessing that he didn’t.
He finally gave up after 5 years, sold his tuition centre away and went back to full-time tutoring. We avoided this friend of ours for many years too as he kept coming to us for loans and all the lies he told us so as to hide away from his real situation. It was really bad.
In total, he loaned about a $100K from his mum over the past 5 years, plus his own savings and couldn’t recoup his losses.
Tuition centres might not be look like such a very lucrative business as it seems. And if you are not careful, you might end up with huge losses. Please think through carefully.
My 2c worth. -
setting up a business is easy, sustaining it is a whole differently ball game altogether.
Like Tamarind, I suggest that you research and maybe try to bring in a new methodology instead of taking on any of the franchises. There after, look for an existing operation to take over, you will then have some revenue to cover rent and basic operational cost and also not have a gestational period. If all goes well, start franchising out your brand to others who are interested. That is where the big bucks are. -
it’s not really about the money… it’s for the love for children and the drive for education… i just met up with someone who took a franchise from a well-known education centre in singapore … seems to be doing quite well…
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winth:
sounds exactly like what i went throughHi,
My friend was a full-time tutor and was earning good money until he decided to open his own tuition centre.
He had set up his centre in one of the most prominent tuition hubs in Singapore. For the past 5 years, it was like hell for him. He couldn't sleep well, suffered poor relationships with his family and barely had enough to spend, after deducting all the revenue to pay his teachers, rental, course materials, utility bills. In order to recoup his losses, he almost wanted to open another centre (for the hope of more revenue since he felt that his fixed cost should only increase marginally), but it was a blessing that he didn't.
He finally gave up after 5 years, sold his tuition centre away and went back to full-time tutoring. We avoided this friend of ours for many years too as he kept coming to us for loans and all the lies he told us so as to hide away from his real situation. It was really bad.
In total, he loaned about a $100K from his mum over the past 5 years, plus his own savings and couldn't recoup his losses.
Tuition centres might not be look like such a very lucrative business as it seems. And if you are not careful, you might end up with huge losses. Please think through carefully.
My 2c worth.
it was sheer hell.
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jamiechia73:
it's not really about the money..
really? wow, why not make it free then? -
jamiechia73:
mind sharing what's the startup cost needed for kinderland?
If I remember correctly what my friend told me, it should be more than $100K including the royalty fees. KinderLand don't allowed you to setup at HDB block must be either shopping mall or landed property. If you choose landed property you will have to built an emergency staircase is a regulation and that staircase well cost you around $20k. Lot of money that you have to spend to setup child care. So tuition center is cheaper. -
FOC then how to pay rental of shop space ?
so from your experience, you strongly recommend me not to set up something like a tuition centre right? How about child care centres? -
since u claim it’s not really for the money, but the "love of children and the drive for education", then just charge cost price only lor LOL
c’mon lah, what’s wrong with working for money? Only with money, then u can employ very gd tutors, provide very gd environment, and spur yourself to do more.
if it’s not for money, nobody will bother working. If u don’t believe, flush all your money down the toilet bowl, see whether u will still attempt to open tuition centre "for love of children and drive for education" LOL
if u want my opinion, don’t bother opening a centre…it’s very very very hard work for very very very little money. When i opened a centre, i was making around $4K, working EVERY SINGLE DAY, every weekend, every night. Life was really a nightmare. -
as someone who has walked down that very bitter road before, maybe i can share some insights:
1) what u make in 10 months, must last 12 months, because usually no kids have tuition during sch holidays. Can u pay rent, pay yourself, for 2 months a year?
2) no weekends, no nights free, means whatever u make, must divide by 1.5, to consider as \"OT pay\", to compare with other professions. U think tutors make much more than a clerk?
3) during the year when O levels was brought forward by 1 week, i suffered an instant \"pay cut\" of around $1K that month. Whenever one of my students have to quit because CCA infringed upon our tuition lessons, i suffer an instant pay cut too. In other professions, your pay gets cut when u don't perform. In this line, your pay gets cut because other ppl perform LOL with such wild pay fluctuations, it was real hell to plan for the future.
4) I was the only experienced tutor in my centre, i had to hire newbies for my other classes....they were inexperienced, late, tardy, heck-care....it was hell looking for qualified professionals to help u. When i approached an ex-sch teacher, she wanted $5K monthly, not including profit sharing. I don't blame her, she was well-qualified to open her own centre herself, why should she work for me? Anyone still thinks it's easy to open a tuition centre?
5) Because of market saturation, students that are drawn to a new tuition centre are usually those who failed to improve at existing ones. Why? If u don't kena delinquents or ADHD kids, consider lucky already. I once had a bunch of delinquents, forced to have tuition by their parents, came and smoked outside my centre, wrecked havoc, skipped classes. And their parents refused to pay for lessons skipped. U think going to the police will help? I had an ADHD case who damaged my computers in the centre. Advised the mother to bring her son see a doc, she refused, still believing her son is \"normal\" when in fact the son's schoolmates told me he's been identified in school already as an ADHD case. Does this seem like HELL to u?
Now i'm back to giving private tuition, and my life has never been better
Seriously, to anyone, don't bother opening a centre unless u got tons and tons of cash and energy. And if u do, why bother?
And those who love kids should just volunteer at Spastic Children's Association or Chao Yang School.
Cheers
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