Learning how to start an after school program is all about research. From market trends to competitor names and reviews, the building blocks of an exceptional business strategy are all around you.
As after school program software providers, we care deeply about helping after school businesses start off on the right foot. So, we created this 11-step guide to help you succeed.
In this guide, we’ll tell you how to perform your market research, how to passively generate new customers with the right after school program name ideas, how to design your programs with sizzle, how to give yourself the best chance to launch with full classes, and much more.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to start an after school program, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s dive in!
1) How to start an after school program with market research
When you understand your market you will clearly see where your business opportunities are. You’ll also gain a clearer perspective on how to present yourself to new customers.
To get started you need to collect top-level data on all your local competitors. Create a list with these basic questions answered:
Who are they?
Collect your competitor’s names, logos and taglines. You need to understand what’s out there before you consider branding and naming your own business (more on names below).
Try to understand the reason for your competitor’s names. Are all of your competitors named after their district or county? This may have search engine relevance (more on that later). Are your competitors named after the types of programs they offer? Do their logos reflect their names or are they abstract?
What programs do they offer?
Contrast your competitor data to discover any subject specializations. Consider adding another layer of data and contrast what surrounds each competitor. For example: are there several after school coding programs surrounding your city’s largest tech employers? This may help illuminate important trends and opportunities.
When do they operate?
Find any patterns in your competitors operating hours. Then, dive deeper to understand when other after school activities run your area. If there’s a large recreation facility where 200 kids are playing sports until after 8pm, there may be an opportunity to operate your business nearby so you can serve their siblings.
Where are they located?
Get a clear idea about where each school is in your city. Map that data against the location of your competitors. But, as we alluded to above, don’t stop there. Understand where recreation centers are located, where large companies are located, and any other hubs for parents or children.
Lastly, understand the socio-economic layout of your area. Which areas have money to spend on your programming and which areas have the highest population density of your prospective customers?
How are they doing?
Look at the reviews of your competitors. Make sure you include Google and Facebook reviews in your analysis.
Find any common complaints and think of them as unfilled customer needs. Remember to consider aspects outside of the programming itself. For example, if there are several complaints about busy or cramped drop-off and pickup areas or busy street traffic, let that information help inform decisions about your ideal space.
2) Assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses
Learning how to start an after school program requires a lot of honest assessment. This isn’t about determining what you want your team to be. This is about discovering what your team currently is.
What are your team’s educational backgrounds and accreditations? What hobbies and interests do your team members have?
Dig up old performance appraisals that you and your team members may have from past jobs. Try and be completely open about everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. The more you know, the better you can plan.
The intention of this exercise is to minimize the assumptions you’re making about yourself and your team. When you have a clear, honest picture of your strengths and weaknesses, you eliminate surprises.
Of course, there are always time-consuming surprises when you run your own business. But the more surprises you can eliminate the better!
3) Use your strengths as a competitive advantage
Now that you’ve got a picture of your market and what your team can do, it’s time to determine your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage will be the reason why many of your customers register for your program.
Naturally, you may have more than one competitive advantage. But ideally, you want one clear and compelling reason why your customers should choose you.
Your competitive advantage is something your customers will repeat to themselves when they think about your business.
Your competitive advantage is also what your customers will tell others when they talk about your business. So, it has to be easy to understand.
Here’s an example: “PHD-level instructors and peace-of-mind security with large pick-up and drop-off zones.” This statement provides a clear picture of a competitive advantage: it’s safe, high-quality programming.
4) After school program name ideas to help you grow
You business name may seem like an after-thought when starting an after school program. But, did you know a well-crafted name can help passively bring customers to your website? Its’ true. When you include the name of your local area and strategic keywords in your business name, search engines have a better chance of recommending you to your ideal customer.
Why?
Search engines want to produce the most relevant results for people. So, the easier it is for search engines to understand your business, the better.
When you include your local area and strategic keywords in your name, you’re clearly communicating where you’re located and what you do. For example, if you name your business “Citytown Robotics After School Program”, your name will clearly tell search engines that you offer robotics after school programs in Citytown.
Plus, every time someone links to your site using your business name, they’ll be simultaneously telling search engines that your site is a good source for “robotics after school program” information in “Citytown”.
As a result, search engines will help prioritize your business every time someone searches for a robotics after school program in Citytown.
Which means that your business can passively attract new customers without any additional advertising dollars.
For more information on local search engine optimization checkout our 7 local SEO tips.
5) Get the proper insurance and licensing
After you’ve settled on your business name, it’s time to register your business. Then, get your business licensed and insured.
As part of the discovery process, it can be helpful to find out what types of licenses and insurance your competitors have. Some of this information may not be publicly available, but checking out your competitors can be a good place to start.
If you choose to purchase your space, there will be additional insurance and safety measures you’ll have to abide by.
Regardless, it’s always best to get in touch with your legal counsel to understand all licenses, accreditations, or insurance policies your business will need.
Once you have what you need, make sure you publicly display all relevant licenses and policies so that parents can clearly see your standards for quality and safety.
6) Protect with non-competes for your employees
As an after school business owner, you want your instructors to inspire and genuinely connect with students. When students love learning from your instructors, they can excel in their studies. Plus, they’ll be eager to come back again for your next semester.
In this way, a great instructor can create high levels of student retention for your business. However, what if that instructor has aspirations of starting their own education business?
Like any business owner, you want your employees to succeed but you have to protect your business too. This means you need to ensure that instructor won’t leave and take your students with them.
When speaking with a lawyer about licensing and insurance, consider asking for legal guidance regarding non-compete clauses. It may make sense to have each new hire sign a non-compete clause to ensure that if they do leave, they can’t enroll your students in their new tutoring or after school venture.
7) How to start an after school program with referral business
One of the best ways to kick-start your business is to make referral partnerships. Consider building partnerships with recreation centers and other likeminded businesses wherever you can.
Often times the most mutually beneficial partnerships generate the most referrals. So, look for opportunities to add benefit to the businesses that you’d like referrals from.
Also, don’t forget about generating referrals from within your program. Kids and parents love to share a positive experience with friends.
Help incentivize the parents of your current members to recommend your club by providing them with a referral bonus.
With software like Uplifter, it’s easy to add a referral field on your registration form. Using that field, new members can let you know who referred them to your program.
Once you confirm that referral, it’s easy to create a digital gift certificate and give it to the parent that referred the new customer. That gift certificate can then be used for future classes, swag or upcoming fees. Rewards like these are always appreciated. Plus, they can help encourage parents to send even more referrals to your business.
8) Add sizzle with social media moments
A lot of businesses wish they could “go viral” to grow their business online. However, there are numerous businesses and content creators that go viral multiple times with no business benefits to show for it.
That’s often because their content “goes viral” with an audience that doesn’t include their customers. Or, it’s because the potential customers that are seeing their video have no real connection to their business. As a result, what seemed like a golden ticket turns out to be a waste of time and resources.
In reality, the type of virality you should be aiming for is good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.
You want to create moments in your programming that inspire your existing students to tell their friends.
When students tell their friends about your business, you’ll generate interest from a prospective client that is already connected to you. Since these individuals are friends with your existing students, they are more likely to enroll in your classes than a cold prospect with no connection to you.
So, build these potential word-of-mouth moments directly into your curriculum for each class. That way each of your offerings can potentially inspire new enrollments.
To generate ideas for these moments, search each class’s subject matter on Youtube. But, don’t limit yourself. Get creative!
Plus, don’t forget to show-off the great work of your students by sharing cool projects and accomplishments across your program’s social media accounts.
Of course, if you want to include students in your posts, make sure you have social media release forms signed by parents or guardians. With software like Uplifter, you can ensure your social media release form is reviewed and signed as part of a seamless online registration process.
9) Make happiness and security central to your business
One of the most rewarding things about teaching kids is being a part of their breakthroughs. Being able to watch when a concept clicks for students is deeply fulfilling. And perhaps just as fulfilling is seeing a roomful of happy students.
There is some early research underway that suggests happy students are able to learn more easily. This means that if your program is full of happy students, each one is more likely to do their best.
When kids have fun and do their best, they’ll want to return for another semester.
As a result, putting happiness at the center of your programming can set off a chain reaction of positives for your business and your students.
10)Happiness flourishes in a secure environment
Security can provide fertile ground for happiness. So, do your research to make sure your business has the appropriate physical and digital security tools in place.
Consider how your business will approach protocols like locked doors in the classroom, emergency exit access, keycard access, and tools like security cameras.
When it comes to your digital infrastructure, consider choosing after school program software that prioritizes security.
After School businesses that use Uplifter for registration and class management can take comfort in knowing we go the extra step. By providing single-tenant cloud databases for an extra level of security, schools know that their data is never stored with another school’s. With redundancy backups and a commitment to first-party ownership. Businesses know that their data is secure and strictly belongs to them.
Plus, on Uplifter after school programs can securely upload notes, achievements and report cards to private family accounts where parents can track their child’s progress, and also make secure payments, update their information, and view their private family calendar.
11) How to start an after school program with full attendance
Launch promotions are a great way to make sure that your business starts off on the right foot. When you offer a promotion to get your first students in the door, you’re lowering the biggest barrier to entry: cost.
Once your first students are in the door, your instructors and programming can take over. From there, student happiness and quality of education can keep this first cohort of students coming back for another semester.
Software like Uplifter makes it easy to offer a variety of promotions. Beyond your launch promotion, it’s easy to incentivize customers to take specific actions by offering specific promotions. For example, you can encourage parents to register multiple students with a multi-student discount. Or, you can incentivize parents to enroll their children in multiple classes with buy-one-get-one or multi-class discounts.
The options are endless with automated discounts built right into your class software.
Summary: success starts outside the classroom
As the old adage goes, preparation is the key to success. Much like the students you teach, the work outside the classroom can be just as important as the work inside the classroom.
These 11 steps can help you build a rock-solid foundation for your after school business.
Still have questions about how to start an after school program?
We’re always happy to hop on the phone to help. Schedule a call with us today, or send us an email at info@uplifterinc.com to find out how you can start your after school business with ease.
