How to start an online school from scratch?

The traditional form of study at the desk for higher education or advanced training is gradually fading into a secondary plan. The market is increasingly conquered by the remote delivery of information through the opening of online schools, masterclasses, webinars, training, etc.

This form of education has a number of significant advantages. Firstly, it is a large audience coverage without the need for a limited space. Secondly, in a single communication with feedback from both the teacher and the student, there is no need to spend time on trips to the educational institution, and thirdly, the organizer of the school does not have to have a higher education himself. He can invite highly qualified specialists to become business partners, and he himself can promote his resource and solve purely technical issues.

In addition to the fact that it is convenient, such a business is justified by the high demand, which grows every year by 20%, and brings good profits literally from the start. Opening an online school as a business will not be difficult if you think wisely about its organization, having worked out a competent business plan.

High profitability of the project will be ensured by:

• Saving on monthly salaries for your teaching staff, since the course is recorded once (payment corresponds to one class hour), and you can sell it to an infinitely unlimited number of students.
• No need to pay for the rent of the premises. It is enough to have a PC and a reliable Internet operator.

In addition, this form of education provides an opportunity for choice: for teachers – the audience, and for students – teachers. Both parties receive bonuses in the form of comfortable conditions, cost savings and precious time, the ability to contact the most distant point both in their own country and abroad. After reading the article, you will learn where to start, how to promote your business and how profitable it is.

What you need to know at the start to create your own school online

An online school business plan begins with an analysis of the market and demand for a particular type of service. In our case, it is providing an opportunity to acquire knowledge remotely. Do I need to have special higher education for this? Not at all.

It is enough to have organizational skills, understand marketing and create your own resource, and the teaching staff can be connected by offering them favorable terms of cooperation. Considering that the average salary of a teacher, let’s say, is not very high, then any intellectual worker will agree to a profitable part-time job.

It doesn’t matter if there is a knowledge gap in the organization of your site, understanding the functionality of software or platforms that provide their sites for placement. For this, there are also specialists in their field. The main task is to properly organize the process and set the right direction. The main thing is to clearly understand what result you want to achieve and intelligibly convey this information to your team.

The presence of a priority circle of interests or sufficient knowledge in a certain area will greatly simplify the task, since it will be possible to choose and occupy an appropriate niche – a direction. Experts recommend at the beginning of the activity to outline its framework as narrowly as possible. Too vague a proposal will not be able to concentrate the attention of the required contingent. The more specific the topic is, the more chances of attracting an audience of interest.

So, for example, just the word “sport” does not carry any specifics, which means that few people will be interested in them. Another thing, say, “yoga”. Or crochet courses. Here, a potential consumer can already determine exactly whether he needs to go to this resource. This will be a kind of “trial balloon”, probing the market and demand for supply. And it is possible to expand the circle of interests after the initial promotion has passed.

When opening an online school as a business, you should pay attention to the most demanded areas in which interest is significantly increased:

• Programming.
• Copywriting and SEO-promotion of texts.
• Photoshop and drawing lessons.
• Photography master classes.
• Psychology.

These activities are more like a hobby, but with deep study, they can become a demanded profession. Having studied the market, having understood what interests people are ready to invest in, and have chosen their niche, you can entrust the establishment of the process to specialists-programmers, and deal with bureaucratic issues themselves. This is a business registration.

The field of study for the provision of higher education allows you to open an online school as a business as an LLC (Limited Liability Company). This form requires opening a legal entity and an address, it takes more time to obtain permits and licenses.

RF PP No. 966 allows you to formalize such activities, but it will be strictly controlled by the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science. In addition, you will have to settle the issue with numerous permits. But the entrepreneur is given the right to maintain a teaching staff with the subsequent issuance of diplomas upon completion of training and passing exams.

The situation is simpler with the registration of activities as an individual entrepreneur. In this case, you can do without obtaining the rights to conduct teaching, but you can sell your courses by purchasing a special patent. It is inexpensive, within 30 thousand rubles, but allows tutoring and training.

How much does it cost to open an online school from scratch

For a budding entrepreneur with small start-up capital, an online school is a great option. A business plan will help determine the initial investment and calculate the return on investment of the project. It is very difficult to name the exact amount required to start selling courses. It depends on the chosen work format.

For example, teaching a lesson online will take the same amount of time as recording it, but it will need to be repeated over and over again. Therefore, the greatest demand is for video footage with voice guidance.

If we are talking about software training or instructions for using an application, then it is more appropriate to make a screencast. This is a recording with a video screen capture, and the effect is such as if the person watching what is happening is sitting at the monitor himself. By the way, this can be completely free, but hiring specialists for better mounting will require an investment of up to $ 350.

Conducting a yoga training will require renting a gym, purchasing a branded tracksuit, etc. If this is a baking master class, it is important that there is a beautiful kitchen set in the background, expensive tools, a neat new uniform from the hostess, etc. As you can see, the costs will differ significantly. You can invest even a million in one project, and start the other from scratch. It depends on the imagination and idea of ​​the author of the idea.

For the “test of the pen”, at the first stage, you can start sending thematic tests. It is inexpensive, but it will help you understand if there is a demand for this topic. If yes, then you can go deeper into the project and create a more presentable packaging, raising the cost of the product.

Website for the school online

An online school business plan should include the development of your own website. Although with this moment you can not rush. First, you need to create a training base. At the initial stage, one direction is enough for a specific target audience. And this means that you can get by with one landing page – a landing page, to which the buyer will be led by a catchy convincing advertisement or a well-formed request.

But if, nevertheless, a decision is made to open a full-fledged website, then you can try out the theme using a ready-made constructor, that is, act on your own. Modern designers offer many free layouts from which you can choose the one that suits you best. All that remains is to add the text.

Nobody forbids using the services of professionals if the starting capital allows. You will need to find reliable hosting, choose an original unique domain name. It should intrigue a potential buyer. The master page should reflect the essence of the content. It is better to make icons large and noticeable. It is desirable that each section contains detailed information, for example:

• topics and their summary;
• what is included in the training course;
• what period covers the passage of the entire program;
• what documents are handed over at the end;
• price;
• teaching staff and so on.

The page must contain reviews, contact details, payment options, etc. It is important that the resource looks convincing, which means that the design must be modern with high-quality photographs and competent texts. This is the only way to build user confidence. To successfully open an online school as a business, it is best to entrust the writing of documents to professional copywriters. In order for the site to be in demand, you should think carefully about the options for requests. For example:

• Include in the search “minus words”, let’s say the word “free”. Then this contingent will not see the ad, which means it will not bother in vain.
• It is also advisable to exclude a frank mention of the sale from the request, and come up with something original that will make you click on your page.
• Clearly spell out the subject of the request, say, “school-online preparation for the exam”.

For online learning, there are special ready-made platforms, you can even find free domestic ones. This is very convenient, since both one student and a whole group can be involved in the learning process. To do this, you just need to register in your personal account.

Services for organizing training and access to lessons

You can open an online school as a business using various services and platforms, the so-called LMS. There are plenty to choose from:

• ru, My Own Conference, Imind, Etutorium are suitable for webinars.
• Telegram, Skype, WhatsApp are popular messengers.
• VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram – these social networks have recently begun to be optimized for online promotion and sale.

There are also numerous online learning sites. Some of them are paid, others are free, and there are good domestic developments, with the presence of various “chips”, such as gamification (the use of gaming techniques). This helps to make the educational process more interesting, memorable, and therefore effective.