Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cheonmunka]

'Hypothetically', if a foreign teacher has got permission to start his own school or hakwon in his own name and run the business with the same facilities as another Korean citizen, would other foreign teachers be interested in investing in it, working it, and co-managing it?

A teacher, with limited initial funds, but with firm support structures, could be looking at alternative ways to start-up and operate such a (special and unique) school and so is throwing this out there for discussion.

How do you feel about the current private school (�п�) climate?
I feel it has become so standardised that there might continue to be room to establish and run profitably a school, but one which has a different meaning for the student than the typical ����hakwon. I think there is room to move into an area where competition is slight, rather than where there is a greedy establishment of various schools already knocking each other about.

But, what do you reckon... how do other long-term foreign teachers think, especially with the initial question proferred at the end of the second line above?

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[Ya-ta Boy]

I don't mean to rain on your parade, but before I put any money into it, I would want to know:

a) specifically, how does it differ from the competition: for investors; teachers; students?

b) how are you going to sift through the socially dysfunctional way-gookins out there so they don't grab the power and destroy a good thing?

c) what neighborhood would it be located in and how much local competition is there?

d)what methods of advertizing will you use to get the news out to the potential market?

e)within two months of arriving here, every foreigner I've ever met has said they wanted to open their own hakwon and/or write a better book. What makes this idea (whatever it is) superior and potentially successful?

[Cheonmunka]

The last time I put this up in detail it got moderated and sent away as soliciting... from what I gather...

Anyway, here are some comments to your comments, good ones from you too, thanks:

a) Perhaps not so different considering one has to adapt within an already established framework of operation. However, differences for two or three investors/teachers would be no longer working for somebody else, a Korean, and a supervisor, who dishes-out his orders, but for yourself.
It would be different for students because a teacher would be one who put 20 million of his/her own money into the students' success.

b) I don't quite understand that one. If they have the dosh maybe they've got a handle on things, too?

c) Too early to comment on exact location but for me around a slightly lower decile neighborhood. Some, local compettion.

d) All methods.

e) Not necessarily superior. Just that I am tired of working for someone else, and have permission from the top. Have had a relationship with Korea just 11 years; not nearly long enough to have it all sown up but as I said I have support structures in place.

Anyway, now youv'e pointed some stuff out.
I may well have made a mistake. Perhaps it's too big an operation to get involved with. I mean, I would easily do a small study room with myself for 10 million won, but now I have second thoughts about involving the bigger costs and others, too, as you state.

I am trying to find ways to get around a difficulty I have and that is that I cannot bear to work for any more Korean owners and directors.
They $$# me off no end. I am sick of their demands that turn out to make me smaller and them bigger. As I said, I've been around a while but bosses still try to use fiction for fact with me simply because I have white skin. Even a man I've worked for for nearly four years tries to pull the wool over my eyes.
Funny, I was in his office and he in his big soft chair, when he was describing to me my lowly position all I could think about was how I could easily have that chair he's sittting so comfortably on, if I just had the gumption to seek out a way to do so.

PS: I have Dip of Teaching, and it is my career. I don't want a fly by night proposition. I don't want a pipe dream. I think there are many ways for businesses to get started. I thought I'd get started and try, too, still with my feet flat on the ground, as it were.
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[ajuma]

Found this on EFL-law. Hope it helps!

http://efl-law.com/business.html

[Cheonmunka]

With regards to EFl Law...

I don't need an investment bond or certificate cause I can operate as a Korean would.

My wife deals with all the authorities. She'd be the reception for parents and the liason.
We have a labor lawyer actually, who helps us a lot. We don't need to go to the labor office cause his advice is direct.

I just thought, well, there must be two or three teachers with a bit of capital who don't mind investing where they work. I need to work too and well, strapped as I am I wondered if it would work.

And, I have heard the word 'co-op' before and I thought it sounded an interesting idea.

[ontheway]

Cheonmunka,

You responded on another thread about looking into buying a small hogwan. If your wife is Korean, (it sounds like it here ... she "deals with all the authorities") then she could own the school. You can design the program, she runs the management and deals with parents and authorities.

IF that is the case, then you should start the school alone. Don't try to bring in other teachers and their money. You will have enough trouble fighting with your wife over what to do as far as business decisions.

The hogwan business is tough. Many owners do not make anywhere near the kind of money some of the disgruntled teacher posters here on Dave's think they do. Many schools are losing money. Plus, if you really try to create a good program, your income will be tight and expenses high. You will have to look for things you can do without in your school in order to pay for the extras that make it a really good school.

You will have to work a huge number of hours creating your program and in managing the business. Do you have any business or accounting experience? And while you will be able to pay yourself some money as the "teacher" and your wife can earn some income as the "office worker/manager", it will take a long while to reach a true "breakeven" point and earn real profits. The first year you probably won't be able to pay yourselves your full salaries that you would have earned at another school. It will probably take 2 or 3 years to catch up, break even and make small profits.

It's worth doing I think. To be able to control your own destiny, teach the way you think it should be done, it's worth the long hours. But, it ain't easy.

(If someone just wanted to open another bad school, rake in some money and run - Yeah, that's easier. Still risky. And NO, I don't mean you Cheonmunka.)

Anyway. Life's short. Go for it.

[Cheonmunka]

Thanks, On the Way.

Your points are apt.

[dutchman]