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There are many such students whose aim is to get international exposure and experience by studying abroad. Most of them have inspiration from foreign colleges in their minds, but the reason for not completing their aim is the lack of proper guidance to make their clear way. So this is the exact and appropriate way where educational consultants can offer their worth consulting services to benefit such students. They act as a bridge tool between the students and the educational organizations and institutions. Therefore, if you want to know how to start an education consultancy business, keep reading this informative article.
Why Education Consultancy?
As you can see, thousands of students spend more than $50 billion every year on higher education. However, this accounts for only 1% of the entire population, which means that it’s a huge market with unfulfilled opportunities and hidden potentials awaiting those entrepreneurs who will step forward.
How to Start an Education Consultancy Business
Being an educational consultant of a firm or a company means, you are ready to help your clients by giving your services and will deal well with their academic matters. Your experts will guide them in terms of admission to the reputed universities.
You can start an education consultancy business by putting in the minimum investment, as the return in terms of profit in this business depends on your experience, skills, and the strength of your potential clients.
Running this type of business is a mandatory task for you because you have to be trained like an educationist and is a very profitable business in the UK and USA. The educational industry is growing at 3.4% per year from 2011 to 2016. The report says that revenue increase from 0.9 % to 13.7 billion in 2016 on average per year.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s dive into the essential steps of how to start an education consultancy business.
Here are the steps you must follow;
- Form a company
- File for DBA (Doing Business As)
- Apply for trade license
- Get Licenses and Permits
- Apply for Insurance Coverage
- Go in depth of the industry
- Raise capital and fund
- Enhance the brand awareness
- Search for the ideal business location
- Arrange perfect office space
- Gather essential professional documents and certificates
- Pick up the attractive business name.
- Involve in local and professional associations
- Make professional development
- Work of educational consultants
Forming a Company
Entrepreneurs should form a company before they embark on their first educational consultancy business. This makes it easier to open a bank account and saves you from facing legal consequences on personal grounds. Although there are no strict laws regarding forming a company, you must work with at least 2-3 partners sharing equal ownership and responsibilities.
However, if you’re planning to start an education consultancy business alone, you can use your name as the business title.
File for DBA (Doing Business As)
If you want to start an education consultancy business under a specific name other than your own, you will have to register it first by filing for DBA. This will be beneficial in some states but not so much in others.
You must speak with a lawyer or accountant before applying for DBA because its procedure varies according to different jurisdictions and may put you at risk of identity theft if handled incorrectly.
Apply for trade license
Apply for a trade license from the concerned department of your state government. The State’s rules and regulations vary when it comes to obtaining a trade license, so make sure you consult the respective laws in your state before applying for a license. A trade license is not necessary if you are running an online business.
Licenses and Permits
While very few licenses & permits are required to run any educational consultancy service, some are compulsory depending on the type of business you’re running. If you live in a state where licenses & permits are compulsory, then your consultancy must have the following documents:
State Sales Tax License: A sales tax license can be applied for by all businesses authorized to sell goods and services. It must be renewed every year and requires a small fee which varies from state to state.
Employer Identification Number (EIN): This number is required to open a bank account that will enable entrepreneurs to receive payments from their clients and file taxes.
Federal Tax ID or Social Security Number: Depending on whether you are an individual acting as a one-person consultant or a consultancy firm, you will have to provide either your Federal Tax ID or Social Security Number.
Apply for Insurance Coverage
It is recommended that all educational consultancy businesses have some insurance coverage if there are any unforeseen accidents. There are several types of insurances you can get for your business, depending on the volume and range of services you offer.
Go in depth of the industry
Over time, the educational industry will flourish more if you put your efforts in without any demand. The majority of local and international students is now aware of and need the importance of educational consultancy and their offered services. The educational consultants guide them to select the fit university according to their interests.
It is necessary to know about the depth of industry and marketing to get potential clients. This is the best way to save you from the hassle and get more clients from the market.
Raise capital and fund
It is not easy to start a new business, but if you are passionate about your idea, your business concept surely will be strong enough to build up that enterprise. If you are planning to raise money to finance your Education Consultancy Business, here are some things that you might need to take into account:
Before start raising capital for your company, the first thing you should do is create a formal document containing all your business plan information. This documentation has two main purposes: it helps you identify every aspect of the project, and it helps convince others (investors) on how well prepared you are in terms of concepts and ideas. Remember, these people will invest their money into your business, so they want them to be well protected.
Another thing that you have to take into account is how prepared you are in terms of cash minimization strategies. I know every entrepreneur dreams of making a lot of money with his business to live comfortably and provide for his family’s needs. Still, you don’t want to risk running out of cash before your company even starts making profits, do you?
Where to Collect Funds?
There are several ways in which an entrepreneur can minimize the amount of money spent by his company. One way is by borrowing capital from other sources like banks or lending institutions.
Another good idea is to negotiate contracts with stakeholders to offer discounts when they pay early (which means more money for your pocket). Yet another good tactic would be getting suppliers to offer you discounts in return for long-term purchases (so you buy x amount of widgets per year).
If you want to raise money to start your company, you mustn’t let anyone feel like they are taking advantage of your business, so be willing to negotiate. Remember, most importantly, the investors will be looking for a good excuse; why not invest their money into your business so try not to annoy them by making unreasonable demands.
Once they realize that your only interest is creating a profitable company, they might comply with most or all of your conditions.
Enhance the brand awareness
One of the significant ways to succeed in this field is to make the solid corporate identity you can obtain through the advertisements and vigorous promotion of your businesses. You can market your business through ads on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, as these digital and social media platforms are highly effective tools to spread your business.
Related post: Rules to Make Money on Investing.
Search for the ideal business location
You can run educational consulting agencies and firms online, but these locations’ physical existence is essential for the business. You have to organize the physical meetings where face-to-face discussions are necessary to make.
Therefore, you have to choose the right and proper locations to accommodate the individuals and vehicle traffic. So it would help if you went to the area in the middle of the city where all the good educational institutions and colleges should be nearby.
Office Space
The type of office space needed will also depend on whether you’re running a one-person show or having employees working with you. Most consultants prefer to work from home since the initial investment is low, but it may prove quite distracting because family life might interfere with business success.
If an office environment is more your style, then your best bet would be to use serviced offices since they provide many facilities at a fraction of the cost compared to other office spaces around the market.
Gather essential professional documents and certificates
The experts say that specialization is the key to success, as one of the best ways to qualify for your consultancy is to be a specialist in your subject. This means that you should have all the essential certifications regarding your subject. The certificates you should have:
- Membership of AIRC-American International Recruitment Council
- Certified Educational Consultant Certificate
- Independent Educational Consultant Certificate Program.
They will refund service fees to 100%, and there will be no need to ask how to start a consulting business, as according to the IBIS world, the revenues of the consulting industry will increase by 261% in 2020.
Pick up the attractive business name.
It is essential to note that your clients will be more youth and follow the trend most. So it should be in your mind that when you start your business regarding educational consultancy, the name you choose should be one that should create a long-term perception of what your business will be promoted. If your business name is beautiful, then many people will enter your industry.
Involvement in local and professional associations
To start an educational consultancy business, you have to make efforts on your own, like getting involved in the local and professional associations for experience and exposure.
Search on the internet for professional and local associations, and join one of them according to your niche. Many associations work nationally, like the Science Teachers Association, The NCTM, and the NCTE are the best platforms.
- Attend events and meetings
To start the education consultancy business, begin with the local events organized by the other consultants and attend the events and meetings to get exposure from their experiences.
- Volunteer
You can also voluntarily learn the skills of education consultancy by joining these institutions about new events and opportunities.
- Become a board member
When you participate in the institution or any organization, you will become a board member. You have to make sure and present yourself as an interested and passionate member for learning the educational consultancy.
Professional development
Manage your time for getting the professional development skills regarding the educational consultancy industry. After checking the proper categories where you will need enough time, like health, mental, health, reading, and literacy, to find the professional development, you can implement it in your educational consultancy field.
Working of educational consultants
The clients are the children, parents for some educational consultants may think about the post-high school academic posts. The responsibilities of the educational consultant should be the provision of career advice, administration in career-related exams, and helping students fill the applications and forms while applying for schools, colleges, and universities.
The educational consultants’ responsibility also includes working with the parents of children’s unique requirements by giving advice regarding which institution is best for their kids and help them to forward an application for the funds and grants.
There is also a third type of educational consultant who is likely to work with nonprofit educational institutions. Their work is to provide guidance and experience in classroom management, administration, and curriculum development.
Requirements to Become an Educational Consultant
Whether it is an academic consulting field or any other field, each type has unique needs and requirements. Generally, the educational consultant should have the following qualifications.
- An individual should have a bachelor’s degree to minimum qualification and a master’s or PhD in maximum.
- Should have educational experience in a specific area or subject.
- Working experience in the educational setup in which you want to offer your services.
- Awareness of federal and state education policy and rules, regulations.
- Should have working experience of working with parents, teachers, and children.
- You should have the ability to write and read constantly online to guide your clients properly.
Other soft skills that an educational consultant may have are management skills, decision-making, prioritization, solutions, project management, and communication skills.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an educational consultant do?
An educational consultant is someone who helps guardians, pupils, and school groups arrange for their child’s schooling. An educational consultant, like a college counselor, offers comparable services but also is self-employed or hired by consultancy organizations, while school systems employ school counselors.
What qualifications are necessary to be an educational consultant?
An educational consultant must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, but a master’s and Ph.D. are preferable. Education and experience in the specific subject or area of study and working experience in the educational setup. It is where you want to offer consultancy skills.
How much does an educational consultant make?
The top educational consultant can make up to 104,000$ per year and 8,666$ every month. On average, he can make up to 60983$ per year, and on average, it is 5,081$.
How can I start an educational consultancy business?
By learning what you are good at, get the license you need, identify your target market. Provide the reasons for hiring your client, pick the proper location, and advertise your consultancy skill.
How do I start my consultancy?
Access your abilities and set the skills, figure out the market needs, ride the organic market train. Moreover, invest in the tools of the trade, select the staff wisely, practice the elevator pitch, and write client proposals.
Is Education Consultancy Business Profitable?
Becoming an educational consultant is an excellent alternative for teachers who want a break from a hectic classroom routine. They do it to connect with the educational field and impress their students significantly.
Final Verdict
Conclusively stating, everyone around you is aware of what you are promoting. And what services you are offering to your clients and students. In this advanced stage, the students divert their attention towards the dissertation assistance service.
Also educational consultancy business, and academic help to get the best exposure to the university and college opportunities. So you have to make sure to fulfill their demands and requirements according to their needs regarding education consultancy.
