Is Starting a School Profitable?: Mercy Nyakan is the managing director of Mana Preparatory School. Started in 2019, the school follows the British curriculum and parts of CBC. It is located on Katani road in Syokimau.
Mercy says her motivation for starting her school was after she realized that there was a shortage of British curriculum preparatory schools in Syokimau. She also realized that the few schools offering the curriculum were charging exorbitant fees.
Market Research
Nyakan began by analyzing various fee structures and expenditures of similar schools in Lavington, Ngong Road, and Karen. She wanted to know their profit and loss margins so she could set realistic expectations for her startup.
She realized that only three schools offered the British curriculum in Nairobi. None was close to Syokimau, despite the availability of a ready market of many families in the area who could be potential customers.
Despite having no teaching background, Mercy was determined to actualize her dream.
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Starting
Mercy says the starting period was a bitter-sweet experience. She imported her school equipment, but the container arrived too early and she had to incur storage costs.
Only five children enrolled in the school initially, including two of her own. Due to overplanning, she had a staff of five teachers for her five learners.
“It was an up-and-down journey. One day you would wake up and think you are okay, and the next moment you would remember you had a staff who needed to be paid,”
says the mother of two.
Despite there being little competition from schools offering the British curriculum in the area, she still had an uphill task of convincing parents.
Capital
When starting, Mercy realized she did not have enough capital to run the school by herself. Therefore, she decided to partner with another investor.
“We had thought of a starting figure of approximately Ksh 2M. However, we hadn’t considered how hard it would be to get children. A school takes time to grow, as you have to convince the parents,”
says Mercy.
She spent the months of September to December marketing her school so she could expect new learners in January. Initially, she had to dip into her pockets to pay her staff as the money wasn’t enough.
By 2021, she had spent around Ksh 6.5 M in expenses.
Marketing
Besides word-of-mouth marketing, Mercy printed and distributed numerous brochures in shopping malls and gated communities around Syokimau. She also used Facebook marketing, which she says got her the most clients.
She has since bought school vans and installed signposts around Syokimau, which she uses as marketing tools.
Challenges
Mercy says her greatest challenge was accessibility, as her facility was not located near the main road. Not branding her school also lost her many customers as parents could not identify it.
Finding quality staff was also challenging, and Mercy had to entice them with larger paychecks.
Her Advice
If you’re looking to start a private school, Mercy says location is a key factor you must consider. If parents can’t find your school, you’ll lose customers. Bad road conditions will also cost you in terms of repair for your school vans.
That said, you’ll need to train as a teacher, in the long run, so you can know whether your staff is doing the right thing and following the curriculum.
Finally, you’ll need to decide on the proper diet and uniform for your learners, as these are the factors that most parents consider.
“Running a school is doable, but only if you arm yourself with the right skills,”
says Mercy.