English Nursery In Bangkok

[Azul_Blanco]

Hello,

This is going to be a bit long winded so I appreciate you taking the time to read it. I've managed to save a decent amount of money and I am getting ready to open an English nursery in Bangkok (Bang-na) and was just hoping to get some opinions from some long timers. A bit about me and what I am hoping to do:

I am 27 and have been teaching young children in Thialand for 1.5 years (I have 3 years of nursery experience back in the states). I really do enjoy teaching children and would like to be an active part of the school's staff.

I have a house in Bang Na lined up for this (80 talang wah, 6 room house - which I will own) and am looking at spending an additional million baht to turn it into a nursery.

I am doing this business with my Thai wife and (I hope) I have a decent understanding about the red tape involved.

My goal is a small scale nursery - about 20 children.

So my question is, do you think this would be a good idea or in your opinion is the market over saturated with this kind of operation? Might you try this if you were my age with decent savings?

I have given this considerable thought and time already but am always thankful for other opinions.

[Crocs]

The simple answer is where will you source your "clients" ie. the kids from ? Even in a saturated market, a good service will stand out and grow from its reputation. The scale of your venture seems reasonably small (only 20 students) so at least you are not biting off more than you can chew. presumably you've already worked out cashflow and will be profitable at this size (including a drop-out assumption). If that's the case then you really need to focus on your identifying and developing your target market: is it Thai kids learning English or farangs in an English nursery ?? And keep in mind that opinions on viability (form this forumn or wherever) are only that - opinions. You need to talk to the customers and form your own opinion on whether there is sufficient demand or not.

[Azul_Blanco]

Thanks for the reply. I know I am only getting opinions out of this topic. There are too many factors involved in opening this business to get anything more than a rough opinion from people. I'm getting ready to go ahead with this but just wanted to see if anyone would vote for --- You fool! (slap slap slap) and find out why they thought this is such a bad idea. I'm hoping for the best. thanks.

[MadFrankie]

sounds like a great idea

[JJDinsay]

Hey, I have a friend from the US that is doing the same thing - only not in a house. They rented a pretty large area on the 1st floor of our condo - a couple of doors down from a Kumon school - and created a giant play area and 2 small classrooms. Their focus is on young children, maybe kindergarten. They focus on total child development through playing and other educational activities. They had an open house yesterday but no one showed up - probably due to a lack of advertising. They also aim for a more upscale market, about 10K baht a month - I think this may be a problem since 10K seems very high even for above average income Thais. Although 10K affords you smaller class sizes (7 - 1) which leads to more focused attention for a child. I think this pricing strategy could eventually hurt them if they focus on Thais only. At these prices, they will most likely focus on foreigners. They can be compared to something like Gymboree instead of a pure language school or a more mathematical focused school like Kumon shops. Hope it helps.

[thaigene2]

Good idea, but Bang na might not be such a great area. You need to be conviently located to your clients. Who are your clients? Mid-class Thais, farangs? Are there many farangs out there with the types of jobs to afford your fees? Most of the farang live in central (Suk.) or in north-central (paholyothin, jatujak and some of the big-money company-pays-everything-and-wife-doesn't-like-anything-foreign-types live in compounds that look like suburban Phoenix near the ISB). But there are small numbers of farang everywhere..often cause they can't aford the central areas.

Good luck..anyone know of any good toddler playgroups that are in the paholyothin area?

[qwertyuiop]

Personally I think that schools are one of the best forms of investment opportunities here in LOS, but speaking as one with no money what do I know?

IMHO the sole purpose of most of the schools I have come in to contact with in Thailand is to make money. Certainly the education of the kids seems low on the list of priorities.

Most schools in downtown bkk were closed for the week of the aids conference to ease congestion on the delegates, after all we wouldn't want them to avoid emptying their wallets while here. This closure came about 2-3 weeks after the long annual break.

I do not think you have to necessarily focus on expats/farangs if marketed in the correct way even if you are to price it at the high end.

Make sure that you check out the MOE to ensure that you comply with their rules regarding 'schools'. I do not know if kindegartens count but in genreal you can not just put out a shingle in front of the house declaring "school here deposit your cheques in the receptacle provided"

good luck