Trés bon! Language school triples intake and expands into new premises.

Case Study 2

Type of business: An English language school in Worcester

Services provided: Language services to foreign students

The problem: One client providing the majority of the work; irregular cash flow due to stalling of business.

Originally a ‘kitchen table' business, this language school had operated for 14 years providing English language tutoring to foreign students.

Business had stalled and the owners, a husband and wife partnership, were unable to progress it despite trying numerous ways. Having analysed the business and identified the problems, we started work.

The first action was to sort out the organisational structure and established who was wearing what hat(s). Whilst doing this we found nobody was actively taking care of the sales. We ensured that one of the partners took ownership for the sales and then began to work with them to develop new business.

This incorporated not only dealing with sales but also improving administration and customer service activities. This helped create smoother processes for bringing in new students and dealing with them on the courses.

The result:

Within 6 months the business had to move to new, larger premises and a year later they were in a position to buy the building next door and expand into that too!

Having started working with them in 2002 we are still helping them with continued growth. Six years on, and the school is a very different place. Average student numbers have risen from 10 or 11 per week to 23-24 per week. Six years ago they had one main client providing 75 % of the business. That same client now accounts for only 45% of the business, as numbers have increased so dramatically.