27/08/2022
YOU CAN RUN A PROFITABLE SCHOOL.
Last time I made a post listing some problems responsible for the losses you are currently incurring in school while calling for a webinar to address them. This is the summary of the webinar.
1. To fix your school fees, you must consider your costs, number of pupils/ students on enrollment, and profit.
By this I mean, your fee must be such that all your costs will be absorbed by it. You must consider your rent and other expenses.
This goes a long way with your enrollment.
You should ask yourself, can my students/pupils cover these costs?
2. You should use a mix of Pe*******on, competitive, and value-based pricing strategies in fixing your fees to fasten increment with ease.
3. You should have a separate bank account for your school. Do not use the same bank account for school and personal purposes. This makes your reconciliation easy.
4. You should have a touch-not bank account. This is your savings and emergency account.
In this account, decide the portion of school fees that goes into it. You can decide that every N1000 of each person's paid school fees will be saved there.
Nothing except life-threatening will make you touch the money there.
This account is for your future. That your children will go to the US to study is from this account. No ATM is needed for the account.
Be reasonable with the amount to save. Make it easy. Maybe 2% of fees depending on the amount.
Remember, it's a touch-not account.
5. Always do a cost-value analysis before embarking on any new project. If the value is less, leave it.
6. Be an all-around CEO. If you must cut costs and make a profit, you must be able to do certain things for yourself especially if you are still struggling to grow or are new in the system.
You will be a teacher, accountant, admin, etc. You should be able to fill in some spaces. You can't employ for all roles.
If need be, take up a class and manage.
7. Have a budget for your expenses for each term and be disciplined with it.
At the end of the term, measure actual expenses with budgeted expenses.
List all the expenses you are likely going to incur and attach their costs. A simple template will help you do this. Also, consider price increases in the lists and have plans for emergencies.
8. Manage your funds yourself. Be your accountant. Even if you have a bursar, reconcile daily with him or her.
To manage your funds, you need
A. software that will help you
a. Bill all students/pupils.
This helps you to know the amount of fees you are expected to collect in each term.
b. Receive payments and issue receipts.
c. Filter debtors.
d. Gives you the total amount collected so far.
c. Record and categorize your expenses.
d. Tracks your expenses.
B. Make sure all the payments recorded with the software can be traced to your bank account or cash at hand.
C. Every fee collected as cash must be deposited at least the next business day. Do not hold any money for more than 1 day.
D. Do not record any fee received through bank transfer without confirming from your bank statement.
There is now fake credit alerts and bank print-outs.
For points 7 and 8, you must not escape them if you must run a profitable and sustainable school.
Amaizu Ukamaka
