I have a mate who wants to set up his own comercial training company. I have given him some ideas, but wondered if there is anyone who has some key pointers?
Ginny Haynes
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I have a mate who wants to set up his own comercial training company. I have given him some ideas, but wondered if there is anyone who has some key pointers?
Ginny Haynes
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7 Responses
Setting up advice
As both a business consultant and trainer I would suggest that your friend does his research. Any new start, however brilliant, is unlikely succeed unless there is a market and the business has the knowledge, skills and attitude to satisfy that market. The next piece of advice must be to; network, mix with people, sell yourself and your wares, put yourself about, talk to people, show people what you can do and then when you are tiered of that, do some more.
I could go on but if you want any more thoughts then please email me at peterm@fairlawn.co.uk
Oh, the last piece of advice for your friend is if he is convinced; then GO FOR IT:)
Regards.
Peter.
Setting and Running Up the Business
As a consultant and training organizer, my advice to your friend is to draw up an initial business plan, office location, the type of wares,management, technical or IT related? do a market research, identify potential clients, in-house programs or public?.If in-house, draw a list of potential clients that your friend should visit and he should be able to sell himself well and to make his wares saleable. Be very careful about initial expenditures, don’t try to overspend, and wherever possible try cut down expenses to a minimum!
Setting and Running Up a Business
Further to my previous comment, I would not mind sharing my ideas in details to enable him to know more and about future pitfalls , please ask him to send e-mail to me direct.
Good Luck!.
Going independent
Try ‘How to succeed as an Independent Consultant’by Tim Foster. It is a good deal better than most of the alternatives as it is UK rather than US focussed.
It is not specifically about training but covers all the key issues that need to be considered.
I hope your friend does well.
Use the services of Business Link
Contact your local Business Link, http://www.businesslink.gov.uk, for advice and guidance in setting up in business and for information on support available in your area.
Getting going takes time
It is worth him bearing in mind the long lead time between first contact with a potential client and delivery of a training course – which is when he will get paid.
I have come across a number of training companies which failed because they did not plan for this transition
Any Ideas for a new training company
Do your market research very well and try to identify a gap in the market.
Do not commit huge amounts of finance. Any business should be self supporting apart from the initial investement and that needs to be on necessities.
Your friend is going to be competing with 12,000 + training companies never mind colleges and Universities, so your friend needs to be 100% sure that it is going to work.