i have a friend who is interested to run school biz in LOS..(he is not TV memb yet)

well i told him to email me ..and i will make a thread 4 him

here we go..

Aloha Bambi,

Some questions that I would hope to get some feedback from the newsgroups:

1) Is there a market for specialized "Teaching English as a Foreign Language" (TEFL) instruction in certain business sectors such as travel, tourism, retail, or import/export?

2) What are the gaps in the TEFL services currently being provided by traditional schools?

3)  Are there any studies to indicate that there is a significant return on investment when a business decides to have its employees take English language lessons?

4)  Does the D.O.E. conduct accreditation reviews to determine if school are meeting standards?

These would be my top 4...of course the list of questions is nearly endless, but positive responses to these would provide the impetus for drawing up a complete business plan.

Mahalo nui loa,

thaks for every comment

Bambi

If your friend is looking for a *small* investment to do something with his money, my advice is...

DON'T DO IT.... DON'T DO IT.... DON'T DO IT.....

I have a friend who's quite a bit more financially solvent than me who tried it- it's one of his biggest regrets in Thailand. He lost his money, loads of time trying to do work for the place, and several Thai friends who were his business partners (which are required legally) and wouldn't listen to his professional approach to setting up the school. I have a friend now who's going through exactly the same process- can't get accounts from his Thai partners to work out, is doing loads of free work for the business and getting no money out.

If your friend doesn't have bottomless pockets, DON'T DO IT.....

Your friend sounds like he is an eminently rational and reasonable businessman who knows what he's doing. That means he's pretty much doomed to fail in the schooling business here. There's very little rational and reasonable about it.

As a bit of a test to see how much he can really put up with, tell him to try to figure out how he's going to get work permits for himself and his teacher-employees, and what the governments requirements REALLY are. Just doing this ought to give him a taste for how unpleasant things can get- oh, and tell him he'll have to have SEVEN partners in the business at least, and an ironclad lawyer-concocted contract to keep any of them from screwing over the rest.

Good luck.

OH, and to answer the questions:

1. Yes.

2. None that I know of for anyone with money.

3. There might be in other countries. In this countries, the studies most often quoted in the "newspapers" are conducted by university undergraduates.

4. It's all about the money, but in theory, yes or maybe, sometimes no.

And I'm really NOT being sarcastic!

"Steven"

thank you so much steven

I've known a couple of guys who've tried this kind of thing. One went the language school route and this required a lot more contact with the MoE, approval of curriculum etc. The other was more interested in in-company contracts and set up a company with just an office at home. There was no school and this made things simpler. The first guy didn't last very long; the second did OK for a while but in the end there were still hassles (some along the lines of those mentioned above by Steven) and he went back to the States.

Answers to the questions:

1. Yes

2. None that are obvious.

3. None that I know of.

From what I've personally seen, I'd guess that many companies feel they get very little return. They often have very high expectations but go for the very cheapest options. There's a lot of competition at the lower end of the price range and that of course often ends up being reflected in the quality of the teachers sent out to teach the courses.

4. See Steven's answer - and I think it also depends whether there is actually a school or not.