Should I buy a language school or start one?

Both routes can work, and neither is the safe one. A language school sells to adults and visiting students, so its income depends on how students find it and whether they come back. What follows is a way to weigh the two paths. It does not tell you which to take. That is your decision, with your advisers.

What buying can give you

An existing school may bring students already enrolled, relationships with the agents who send them, teachers who know the program and materials that are already written. Ask whether it holds any approvals to enrol certain students, and which body issued them. Ask your lawyer whether any approval carries over to you or must be applied for again. Do not count on it until that is answered.

What starting can give you

A new school lets you choose the programs, the premises and the staff, with no old contracts, disputes or habits to inherit. You also skip the purchase cost. What you give up is time. Enrolment, agent relationships and a reputation take a while to build, and you pay for the premises and teachers while they do. A business plan helps here; that tutoring page weighs the same choice for a local K-12 client base, which is a different market.

Questions to ask yourself

• Can you run a school’s day-to-day, or will you hire someone to?
• How long could you fund a start with little enrolment?
• If you buy, will the teachers and key agents stay?
• What would you change in an existing school, and could you?

Whichever way you lean, talk to people who run schools like the one you want, and have your accountant and lender look at your numbers.