You've decided to leave the franchise that you've been working for, or have recently passed your Part 3, and now want to go independent and start your own driving school.
Getting a driving school up and running isn't easy. Being an entrepreneur, you are the 'top guy'. This means that 'buck' stops at you. You have total control of the business.
These include:
- Sole responsibility of dealing with all the financial problems that happen.
- You should also be very friendly with your bank manager and accountant. - You will need their advice, especially when your starting up.
- You'll also have to do all of the book keeping for the Inland Revenue. So you need to keep a record of all your reciepts relating to the business.
- You will also need to deal with marketing your business to keep your school name in the public's eye. This can include a website, or other advertising.
- You will have to deal with all the bookings and complaints from irate clients.
- Having a plan to deal with difficult clients.
- You will also have to deal with the upkeep of your car. That may include either purchasing or leasing as well as maintenance.
- Having a plan to deal with the 'quiet times' of the year.
There are a lot of pitfalls along the way. Here are some of them:
- Not having enough capital to get you going and sustain your business during the start-up period.
- Not having a plan of action, to deal with any eventualities.
- Not having your family behind you every step of the way.
Many new driving schools can really struggle to get enough business to keep their business going during the early years. There is a failure rate as much as 90% during this time. There are many reasons for this, some are outlined above.
During the start-up time, you may find that the banks will make it tough to loan you money for your business in this economic climate. You should shop around, for the best deal. Not all banks are the same. Ideally, you should have two bank accounts; a business account for everything related to your business and a private account for your personal expenditure.
Having a good accountant to work on your behalf will help your business. Although it's not really necessary to have one these days, as you can fill in your tax return online, but they can suggest ways to help the financial decisions of your business.
Having a partnership with another ADI can prove worthwhile, as you can both 'feed off' from each other for ideas. However, you should have contingency plans if it doesn't work out. Its best to have some sort of formal agreement at the start, which would cover those areas.
Don't be afraid to use technology in your job. Perhaps having a digital video camera in your car or a laptop to help with theory training.
Don't be afraid to change your way of doing things and experiment to find what works best for you and your clients.
A good business person will always 'keep their ears to the ground' to find out what your competitors are doing.
Pricing
Its important to make sure that you set your lesson fees adquately so you can cover all your business expenses, plus pay yourself a wage.
With the current climate of around an estimated 40,000 instructors around the country, and all trying to get a 'piece of the cake', some instructors have resorted to offer rediculasly low prices. Think about whether that's the route you want to go down? If you do, then its really hard to get your fees up at a later date.
Selling your business to your clients
Every business should have a 'USP' or Unique Selling Point. As a business you need to offer something different to your prospective clients and which make you stand out from your competitors. Its the item that will encourage your prospective client to have lessons with you.
You've only to look in a Yellow Pages directory, and you'll see that every driving school offers door-to-door pick-up, or freindly instructors etc, but how would you stand out?
Thats where you have your USP, where your offering more than the competition. It could be that you offer a free theory test, or maybe a different teaching method, such as coaching, as apposed to teaching.
For more information about going independent see our Part 2 going independent and starting up your own driving school.
