How to start a training business and succeed; 4 critical areas to consider before starting a training business
In my career in the training industry, I’ve lost count of the number of providers I’ve seen come and go.
Sometimes it was down to mismanagement; some were fly-by-night operators who existed solely to take advantage of a specific loophole or scheme. Sometimes it was plain bad luck.
But other times the problem was foundational; their business was doomed to failure from day one.
This is a deeply complex industry which does NOT reward flying by the seat of your pants. If you’re looking to start a training business and you don’t know where to begin, you need professional advice.
But before you speak to a training industry consultant, it would be helpful to have a few things clear. I’ll cover four of the most important points here.
What are you going to deliver?
Does your experience and team naturally lend itself to specialism in some particular job role, such as health and safety or management? Another approach is to focus on a particular industry, such as construction, or a particular client group, such as people with mental health difficulties or the unemployed.
Specialising deeply by focusing on one narrow specialism can limit your options. But this is an especially viable option for small operations which will allow you to develop the skills, track record, and reputation to expand your offer.
It’s worth doing serious research to support this decision. This should take in competitors, economic trends and skills needs in your area, demographics etc. It would be wise to look up which industries are growing and shrinking in the geographical area you intend to cover.
After identifying what you plan to deliver, you need to think about what you require to deliver it. Do you require tutors and assessors with particular qualifications? Do you need to be registered with any bodies such as UKRLP or the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers?
Who are you going to deliver to? AKA how are you going to market yourself?
Marketing is an art - and a science - all of its own.
Developing a full marketing strategy is beyond the scope of this post. But there is one central point to consider here which will inform your whole approach to marketing your training business. That is: who is your customer? Businesses, learners, or both.
Learners
Will you be marketing your courses directly to learners/customers?
A 2018 survey by Accessplanit showed that 63.2% of training businesses relied on social media for marketing. This figure will continue to rise, especially among younger learners.
So, depending on your client group, your approach may involve significant investment in your social and online presence. Online and social marketing is a deep rabbit hole, but I covered some basic tips in another article about recruiting learners and staff by social media.
Older client groups may still demand more traditional outreach methods such as events, advertising in public places, etc.
Businesses
A 2019 report by the Social Mobility Commission showed that 77% of training was provided by employers for the period 2010-2016. The landscape has changed since then, but it remains true that employer-funded training is the biggest game in town.
Business to business marketing will look quite different than marketing directly to learners, and may include more in the way of traditional marketing, networking, email outreach, pay per click, etc.
But one factor which I can’t stress enough is REPUTATION.
The Accessplanit survey respondents identified reputation (69.6% of respondents) and referrals (70.3%) as the top two crucial factors for marketing their training businesses.
Experience tells me that this is still very much the case.
Hopefully, you already have some clout either in the training industry or your particular specialism which you can leverage here. If not, it could prove an uphill battle. Having a consultant with industry connections onside in this situation is a make or break factor.
Where are you going to deliver?
Are you a one-man band who will deliver courses at employer premises? You won’t require much in the way of physical infrastructure. But if you plan to deliver classroom-based training to large groups from your premises, that’s a different story.
Depending on what you’re going to deliver, ad-hoc hired premises may suffice but if you need e.g. IT equipment for your learners, that’s not going to work out. Similarly, some funders may require you to have your own delivery premises as a precondition for funding.
What staff and skills do you require?
Regardless of the size of your team - even if you’re a one man band - you will need some cross-section of the following skills as a minimum:
Quality management
Business development and marketing
Delivery of training
Financial
Business leadership
Administration
You need a plan for each of these from day one! If you don’t have the skills already, you need to learn them or hire someone that does.
Next steps
I could write a novel on this topic and realistically, every case is different. If you’d like more info on the funding side of things, I covered that in more detail recently on FEfunding.co.uk.
Still, we barely touched on the topics of investment, staffing, finances, quality, and business development, which I’ll aim to cover in future posts.
If you’re unclear on what any of these other points mean for your business, I’m always available to consult. Just get in touch on LinkedIn.
