Korean Job Discussion Forums

[etopkorea]

SOLD!

[radcon]

Korean moms are very fickle. Buying a school of this size for that amount would be extremely risky.

[Koreadays]

weren't you selling this school like 2 years ago? I remember this add..

[jamesd]

[goat]

[etopkorea]

We have very stable students and parents. This is not Gangnam and the parents are not Gangnam parents. Gangnam parents are fickle and difficult to deal with. The people here have been wealthy for generations and their families have always lived in this neighborhood. They are stable and loyal and will give you a chance to prove yourself, especially if we ask them to. They trust us and will listen to us.

Ordinarily, if you own a hagwon and cancel classes for two weeks to take a vacation, you will lose a majority of your students. We have done this several times and have never lost students because of it. They simply come back when we resume classes. They are loyal and we are the only school of this kind within an hour drive.

We are not a typical hagwon and we do not have typical Korean students.

I can pretty much guarantee that you will keep 80 to 90% of the students, and we have new students apply every month. We have never had fewer than 20 and almost always have around 25 students.

Taking over any business always involves risk. But, we have an established name, we are the only hagwon of our kind in this area, and we have very stable and loyal students. It is a pretty low-risk venture.

[Hern84]

Sounds like an amazing opportunity!!! Wish E visas could buy things

Good luck with your sale.

[Dazed and Confused]

Are you a hogwon? or a Gyo-sup so? As far as I know, according to Korean law hogwons must be at least 60 pyung with other laws regarding the facilities. It does not sound like your place is that big. Can you employ native teachers legally?

[BigBuds]

[etopkorea]

I use the term "hagwon" loosely because that's what people generally call any private education institute. Officially we are listed as a Gyosup-so. We did not need to be 60 pyung in order to be listed as a hagwon. There are actually several different classifications of hagwon and each has its own requirements regarding size, number of students, etc.

Our focus is offering small class sizes since the parents are willing to pay much more for that. We make almost 3 times as much per student as traditional hagwons do. Also, hagwons pay much higher taxes than we do. We pay less than 3% tax and have almost no other rules we have to follow. The one caveat is that we cannot sponsor a native English speaker. Not a big deal because I am a NET and I teach all the classes (and own the place, too).

This would basically be a "Mom & Pop" operation. It is small scale compared to many of the hagwons out there, but we have very high-level students, very loyal parents, and we make more than enough money doing this.

[lizardflix]

Just curious how a person can prepare taking on such a venture. How were you able to learn the ins and outs of building and running a private school? Would the new owner be able to feel comfortable that they'd have the knowledge they need to be successful?

Thanks

[Dazed and Confused]

[quote="etopkorea"]I use the term "hagwon" loosely because that's what people generally call any private education institute. Officially we are listed as a Gyosup-so. We did not need to be 60 pyung in order to be listed as a hagwon. There are actually several different classifications of hagwon and each has its own requirements regarding size, number of students, etc.

Our focus is offering small class sizes since the parents are willing to pay much more for that. We make almost 3 times as much per student as traditional hagwons do. Also, hagwons pay much higher taxes than we do. We pay less than 3% tax and have almost no other rules we have to follow. The one caveat is that we cannot sponsor a native English speaker. Not a big deal because I am a NET and I teach all the classes (and own the place, too).

This would basically be a "Mom & Pop" operation. It is small scale compared to many of the hagwons out there, but we have very high-level students, very loyal parents, and we make more than enough money doing this.[/quote]

Thank you for clearing that up.

[etopkorea]

If the new owner kept our curriculum in place, it would be very easy to run the school. We have a proven curriculum for each level, and it would be very easy for any good teacher to pick it up quite quickly.

I handle the teaching and creation of materials/curriculum, so I can only speak to that aspect of the business, which is quite enjoyable. My wife handles the day-to-day operations (business), but I have never heard her complain about anything.

As I have tried to make very, very clear, we are not going to sell to the first person who shows up with cash in hand. We have a reputation and would like to see that continue. We also hope that one or two of our students will one day decide to do a home stay with us in the US, so we don't want to leave them with an unqualified teacher, or a person who is going to run the business into the ground. It would make us look bad.

My wife and I will teach the "system" to the new owner. We will go over in detail the business and academic aspects of the school. We will not leave the new owner dangling in the wind. It is our goal to have you keep all of the students and to get back your investment during the first half year of operation.

Because of this, we will not let someone take over the day after we agree to sell. We will ask for a 25% deposit and will begin training that person for a few weeks to make sure he/she knows all the ins and outs. Once we are satisfied the person can run the school effectively, we will complete the sale.

This is a serious sale and we are looking only for serious and qualified people. This is not a fire sale and we are not looking to "get out". We want to find the right person to take over a business we have put a lot of time and effort into.

I am not trying to scare anyone off, but I do want to make it clear that money is not the most important thing in this transaction. We have already had 6 people contact us to take a look at the school, so we are not desperate. However, who we choose is very important to us and is something we will take very seriously.

Finally, to those who say this is a lot of money to risk on a business like this, all I can say is that different people will have different opinions. I would argue that starting a school from scratch would cost almost as much (when you consider time spent to develop materials and a program like we have) and would start with no students and no revenue. We are offering an established school with almost full classes, and revenue from day one. This is a much smaller risk than starting your own school. And there's always the old adage, "No risk, no reward."

[Murakano]

might be worth trying

www.afek.info

All the posters there are F series holders

[etopkorea]

I thought about it, but it's such a hassle to join (scanning my ID card, blacking out the personal parts, etc).