Don’t let the coronavirus outbreak get the best of you and your students. Media reports are highlighting the drop in enrollment rate in the United States and other countries. Students did not return for the “new norm,” which means spending more time virtually than face-to-face lessons. For many parents, this new norm did not sit well with the idea that their kids will only learn in a classroom setting.
So what does that mean for your school, teachers, students, and other staff? If you had a drop in the enrollment rate, how could you survive as a business? In as much as a school is a center for learning, it’s also a business that needs to make revenues.
Look at your survival strategies. How did you communicate the changes in your setup with your clients (the parents and students)? Have you thought of other remedies to accommodate your clients’ needs?
More Services
These are special times, and special times have special needs. These special needs demand greater and more services from everyone, including someone who owns a private school or daycare facility. What are the current services that you are offering clients? To boost your profits, you have to offer extra services to your clients.
Changing the Business Model
Have you thought about transitioning to a boarding school? Sure, you need a bit more capital to make this work, but if you have the resources, this is a good way to survive the pandemic. Some boarding schools can accommodate only 100 students. That might even be a smaller number than the regular number of students you accommodate every day in a pre-pandemic world.
Do you know that boarding schools may actually be the safest bet right now for students and their parents? Some may think that the parents will be wary about sending their children to boarding schools. On the contrary, interest is up.
For parents who want their kids to have a more normal school life, leaving them safely on the campus is the best thing they can do right now. Think of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) bubble in Orlando. That’s how parents see boarding schools right now. Their children are far safer there.
Support for Work-from-home Parents
If your district allows face-to-face classes, one other thing you can offer parents right now is daycare services. You can create a facility where the kids can learn and play while the parents stay home to work. Parents don’t want to admit it, but it’s harder to work when their kids are around than when they were in the office before the pandemic. Giving them the time they need to finish their work is exactly what they need right now. Just make sure you follow the state’s minimum safety standards.
Better Marketing
There is so much misinformation about the importance of school during these uncertain times. Many are even considering delaying their kids’ education because of the fear to let them out of the house. It’s more important than ever for a school to highlight the importance of education and why even the pandemic shouldn’t stop you from finding the right setup for your kids.
If there’s anything you have learned from the past six months, it’s that people eventually learn to adapt to changes. Soon, the new norm will be just the norm. Your enrollment rate will go back up. But before you reach that point, you need to survive these trying days first.
