Job Discussion Forums

[coledavis]

I am interested in starting up a school of English in a town in western Russia. Can anybody help with advice and information? E.g. differences between a school as a business and a school as a licensed educational institution (apparently there are two different administrative categories). Rules about the use of foreigners and visas. Etc.

[yakov1]

Good for you. Do you have TRP?

[coledavis]

[yakov1]

Temporary residency permit...if you have one of these you can apply for IE(individual entrepeneur) visa which also allows you to hire staff under you. Without TRP or permanent residency I am not sure of a way to do it(unless you make it a russian company with you as one director)

[coledavis]

thanks.
I think it will be a Russian company..

[maruss]

Try contacting Bels on the expat.ru site.He has done it and knows more than anyone else I can suggest.But he does have a Russian wife and of course that makes all the difference.Also beware that for a foreigner to register and open any kind of business in Russia it is a bureaucratic nightmare-and can cost you a great deal of money which you never anticipated!

[coledavis]

Thanks Maruss. I think I'll be getting a Russian to head it up.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I think it's generally a good idea to have a Russian partner or partners, unless one's Russian language skills and cultural awareness are of a very high level. It's no secret that business (including bureaucratic stuff) has a strong personal slant here, and locals have a better feel for that.
That being said, one should know and trust their Russian partners very well.
My experience with my Russian partners has been great, apart from some minor differences in opinion about how to promote the school and other business-related aspects. They leave all academic and teacher-hiring issues to me, though, which I appreciate and value.
As I have a TRP, and soon hope to have Permanent Status, I had thought about going it alone with an entrepreneural license. When I was offered to help open this school, though, I thought what the heck: I can always try it myself if the school flops (which it hasn't thus far...knock on wood!).
In the end, I certainly hope that more people try to open their own schools (or go in partnership to open one). In my opinion, it is one of the best ways to make a career out of this industry. Not only that, but Russia certainly needs more well-run English schools.
Best of luck!

[yakov1]

it is relatively easy...as i have looked into this bother here and in uzbekistan...although i am more familiar with the uzbekistan situation.

you can be a foreign company, a joint-venture or a russian company. i highly recommend the latter as the rules for the other two are always changing.

you put a russian in as a director-there are pros and cons of him being above you in the food chain. having this company doesn't give you the right to work in russia...this is an important thing. sure you can visit your company but doesn't give you the right to reside or work. for that you need your own company to sponsor you and justify why you are needed. Now your role within the company becomes important, especially because then you have to take into account quota....are you a director or are you a teacher? you have to be very careful every step of the way what you decide you are. You have to show your skills are needed etc.

That is why it is infinitely easier to have temporary residency permit then your status within the country is the easist thing to deal with. I strongly recommend that route, even if you don't do the IE visa thing.

[coledavis]

Interesting and useful advice. Thank you.
But to get the temporary residency visa: doesn't this require either having lived in the country on a continuous basis for rather a long time? or be married and resident? (I've been many times, and lived there for about a year, but never uninterrupted.)

Re. Director or Teacher: do you think teacher is better from the visa point of view?

[yakov1]

to be honest if you want control then Director...if you want to teach be a teacher. you have to ask yourself the motivations for starting a school. they do make an incredible amount of money , which is why i will do the same myself. Probably do it in uzbekistan for personal reasons for me but i did explore doing in russia and crunched the numbers.

you have to ask yourself if you really want to go through the hassle of hiring expats. It is far easier to avoid them. You can make yourself a teacher trainer and advertised your staff are trained by native speakers(not the same thing but close in many russian eyes) and be picky and pay them well(in comparison to your competition). You will make boatloads of cash( a normal business likes a 30% profit margin but English teaching is about 100%) on average. It seems you wont be able to easily get TRP which is a shame. Do you want to live here or visit here or just make money here? A lot of these things come down to your motivations for doing it.

[coledavis]

These are very good questions, Yakov
The trouble with hiring expats is that I'm one, so I'd need to get myself a visa if nobody else!

Your idea is a very good one. I was thinking, however, that the magic (in Russian eyes) of the native speaker would be part of the draw and that I would need to teach as part of staying in front as a company. Having said that, I do also enjoy teaching classes (as opposed to one-to-ones). Maybe some amalgam is possible.

But I have to say, it is a terrific idea. It is my preference to pay better. I work at a school at the moment where the guy pays the least possible, doesn't pay for last minute (often frivolous) cancellations, is seen rarely but is clearly rolling in it. I hate it, won't stay here and have absolutely no intention of perpetuating such an awful way of working.

Actually, I can see advantages in dealing with the problem of getting a visa. Even in their clampdowns about 'do we need these teachers when we've got thousands of good people of our own' that a teacher trainer may be a better bet. (There's nothing to stop the teacher trainer giving each class a couple of appearances a month or whatever, I guess.)

[yakov1]

Russia is big enough for all of us so i don't mind sharing. This is what I would do as the least cost, easiest way to go around things. there are many different ways depending on what you actually want but this is the way i would recommend:

100% Russian teachers. Perception is reality and frankly to a lot of people they don't really care about the native thing as much as we all would like to think. have the right textbooks, be well resourced and be PRICED correctly and they will come in droves. Use works like native trained, speech specialists blah blah and they will come.

Regardless of what visa you have you need to step back from the students. If you have teaching permission then pick a couple of favourite classes and individuals and leave the rest to the other teachers. If you don't (you might need some legal clarification on this) run FREE native speaker once a week classes(say sunday club etc) for students as a bonus for those who come.

Students pay at the start of a month, most schools pay teachers at end of month or one month behind-it means you get fantastic cashflow for your business.

Another way if you can teach is, i would start with 4 classrooms and 2 teachers(you and one other). Of course if you have piles of cash you can go for more. But basically keeping the centre small keeps cost down from a 6-10 room centre and you could with very few students afford to pay both your teachers wages and rent. You aren't aiming for a profit in the first 6 months, you are aiming to make it so you don't have to work(growth). When the first person is finally pulling their weight ie you both have 3-4 classes a day of 8 -10 students or so...then it is time to hire someone in your place. On the models i have done this provides a small income for yourself(livable) plus promotional costs and overheads. When you have two teachers going , start taking on new classes for yourself until you are again full then , again, replace yourself with a new teacher. When you have 4 teachers you will have enough money to support the rent of a second premise if you want...so rather than the big school concept(which failed so spectacularly with who i work for) do what our competition did(who has 25 russian teachers and now 2 natives) and open a second centre elsewhere that is small and convenient. rinse and repeat. When you have two centres with just 8 teachers and a fairly full class load you won't need to work again. More locations is more pool of students to get them from.

if you do it without the teacher thing it will take a long longer and more money to pay off, but the advantage is you will have time on your hands.

Oh and one thing i learnt in the real estate game is ask for and encourage referrals. a warm lead is much better than a cold one. one of the schools i worked out had a brilliant system where you get 5-7%(you decide) discount for friends who sign on with a referral form...it is only available for the next months tuition provided the new person stays that month.
we had it so it could be a maximum of 4 times..so if you refer 4 more people you would get between 20-35% off your fees. of course the new people pay full price unless of course they refer to....essentially network marketing through your students...don't think of it as a bribe for business but rather a reward for loyalty....i gave one student an incentive when i was working alone...he got me 32 students! Warm leads and word of mouth is far better than billboards.

By the way my calculations were based on a price per student half what the Mcschools were charging and still being incredibly profitable. Indeed better to come in cheaper and raise prices when you don't need students anymore and you are full.

i did this in uzbekistan...i charged 2500 soum which is like $1.20 per lesson per student for my first batch. My expert friends were saying charge $10 an hour and have a few students. In two weeks i had 20 students and then i bumped the price to 5000 soum. Later 7500 soum for the last group of 20. I then charged 20-50 dollars to the richer clients who heard about me all from word of mouth. i was making $3000 a month within 6 months from scratch. If i only had a few more months to sort out visa issues i would of stayed but i had to go but i will return and set it up soon. you make more from 10 students at 1 dollar than 1 student at 10 dollars because of word of mouth-more students =more potential students. Keep your prices realistic, at least until you are established and don't forget those who work for you. Make them love you by being the one guy paying right.

Hope that helps.

[coledavis]

Yes, Yakov, that is very very helpful. The only thing I'm less sure about is your writing off of the native speaker thing. For me it's the other way round. I don't think that we're that useful, but I find that Russians often get obsessive about it. One mighty wave of my wand and they think they'll be competing with Shakespeare before you can say 'and as for me'.
Moving to the practical point of this: my worry is that if I start up a class and then pass it on to a Russian (however good), won't that generate ill-will?

[yakov1]

by all means go the native speaker route but the real thing these schools need is fair western management. This is the critical difference you can give. bringing in native speakers will cost you lot more and if you are prepared then that is great.

as for switching from native to local teachers this can be a gradual thing, best bet is to make classes 50/50 of each...one lesson russian teacher and one your own....you also can keep your students if you like but just feed all the new ones into the russian teacher and thus no one goes from native to local.

we have one russian teacher here who speaks with a perfect british accent. i have another who worked as a translator trainer for 8 years- she still has the accent of a russian but perfect grammar...if you PAY for the best and pay real wages then you will get them fighting for you , loving you, and if anyone ever gets sick or drops out you can replace easier. native speakers often require up to a year in advance planning for hiring etc.