How to start a Training Business?

What is a Training Business ?
Training Business is a service oriented business where you do not sell any product. Here you sell your expertise in some subject and train willing persons in that subject and charge a fee for it.
How it differs from Normal Product Sales Business?
Touch & Feel: Selling product is easier because here your customers are able to see the product and touch & feel it. Selling services is difficult because here customers do not see anything. They can not touch and feel it. They can only experience it.
Investment: Product Sales Business is a capital intensive business. To start any such business a person requires a lot of money. Training Business is not a capital intensive business. It can be started even if someone has few thousands in his pocket.
Seasonality in Training Business:
The first thing you need to understand is training Business Cycle. You might say I do not understand this. But you know that woolen product sells in winter and hardly there is any sale in summer. Similarly coolers and fan sales zoom in summer months and hardly any sale is there in winters.
Although you do not find such seasonality in training business but training business also faces its lean season. For example tuitions peak during the month of examination. You would find every student looking for some tuitions. Once the examinations are over tuitions start facing the lean season. You need to understand the seasonality factor involved with your training business and make maximum while sun shines means that you earn as much as you can in your peak period so that your cost should be covered when you face the lean months.
How to find out the area in which you should start a Training Business?
Demand: You should start your training business which is in Demand. Do not try to start something which is not in demand. For example teaching mathematics is always in demand and would remain in demand for ever. Another example can be English speaking course which would remain in demand in non english speaking areas. Yet, another example can be training for job related competitive examinations.
Involvement: You should be fully aware of the involvement required by the Training Business you are going to start.
Set-up Cost: You should know the set-up cost of the business you are going to start.
Operation Cost: Money begets money. To generate an ongoing income you need to invest in operation of the business. This investment is recurring in nature and needs to be done month after month every month. This investment can be on regular advertisement, electricity, telephone and water bills, salary to staff etc. You should be aware of it.
Breakeven Time: Time taken in getting your invested money back from the business. Shorter the period better it is.
Return on Investment: How many times of your investment you can earn in a year. Higher the better.
How to Market Your Training Business?
Marketing when starting out: When you are starting out your expenditure on advertisement would be high because you need to make people aware of your services. I have listed the stages in marketing below:
Stages in Marketing leading to Conversion
a) Awareness Generation
b) Creating your advertisement: Phamplets, Banners, Newspaper Advertisement
c) Choosing mode of advertisement
d) Selecting appropriate Vehicle for advertisement distribution
e) Handling Response
f) Calling interested persons for a meeting
g) Meeting
h) Filling the Registration form
i) Payment
j) Issuing the Receipt
Marketing when established: Expenditure on advertisement decreases when you are established but still you need to do some advertisement to let the people know that you are there.
Best Method of Marketing: Marketing Method which works best in this segment is word of mouth advertisement. Word of Mouth gets generated when your customers feel excited about your services and they talk about it. Now the question is how to make them feel excited?
Again there can be several methods but the best method is to give them a talking point.
You can provide them a talking point by doing something which they have least expected. For example taking classes using wi-fi, inclusion of various activities such as games, puzzles etc. in the class.
Your student's success in some competition can become a talking point.
The quality control practices adopted by you can become a talking point.
You can think a lot of such things and make it a talking point.
Critical Success Factor: Marketing Communication. Communication with your prospective customers and present customers is critical to the success of a Training Business. What you communicate and how you communicate matters a lot. You need to do a lot of experiment to find out what works and what does not. Continue with the communication which works and discard others which does not. Designing Successful Marketing Communication is an art which you needs to master.
Why a Training Business can Fail?
Success is not defined and communicated: Training Business owner fails to define and communicate success parameters to his customers. It means that his customers do not know how this Training Business is going to measure improvement on day to day basis and communicate with them. Due to this customers always complain about not getting any improvement.
No Quality Control Mechanism: Most of the training business does not have quality control mechanism in place due which the business becomes person oriented where as it should be Process oriented.
Lot of Expectation: Persons who start a Training Business expects to perform the business overnight. Which does not happen. Due to this he starts putting less time to it and reduces his committment.