Everyone who has learned to drive or taken driving lessons remembers their driving instructor. They are the ones who set you on your first steps to getting on the open road. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to actually become a driving instructor?
Well, thousands of people have and thousands more are keen to get their hands on the steering wheel. With millions of learner tests conducted annually the demand for new instructors is there so if you have the time, patience, skill, concentration and are more than competent enough to teach other people to learn to drive, then perhaps you should consider this as a career.
The great majority of professional driving instructors concentrate on teaching learner drivers to a level where they can pass the driving test to drive cars and vans. You may well want to do the same, but there are other services that you could offer as well.
You might decide, for example, to specialize in advanced driving techniques, possibly for chauffeurs and professional drivers. Perhaps you will offer courses in off-road driving skills or motorway driving.
Some of these specialist services can attract premium lesson rates, so you may be able to charge more for this type of work. But whatever services you decide to offer, make sure that there is a market for them.
Your Market
It is important to decide whether your target market is large enough to support your business. Your target market means the people who you expect to come to you for driving tuition. It is likely to include young adults, but might also include other types of person and possibly even business clients, depending on the range of different services that you offer.
Remember – the size of your market depends not only on the number of potential customers but also on the number of other driving schools already operating in the area.
Doing some market research will help you to establish the size of your market and the amount of competition which already exists.
Pricing
How will you decide what to charge per lesson (or possibly per hour, although it is usual to advertise a price per lesson)?
Getting the price right is very important. It is very likely that there are already quite a few driving instructors operating in your area – so what is going to attract customers to your business? Unfortunately, many learners still choose a driving instructor on price alone. You may find that some instructors in your area are charging what seem like unrealistically low prices for driving lessons. Are you going to join them, or will you place emphasis on quality rather than just price? Perhaps you will set your rate above theirs, but offer a special rate for customers who book 10 or more lessons in advance.
Above all, you must make sure that your lesson rate is enough to cover what it costs you to give each lesson, including your own drawings.
Also consider the following points when deciding on your lesson rates:
- will you be offering any services to customers (for example other businesses) who are less concerned about price and more concerned about the quality of service that you provide?
- is there anything special that sets you apart from your competitors? For example, some female instructors find that they are in demand and can charge higher rates. Perhaps you will work within a well known franchise scheme.
- will your lesson rate be standard, or will it vary? You may, for example, decide to offer a 10% discount to all students. Or to offer cut-price lesson rates during quiet times of the working day
Other issues
Successful businesses are always on the look out for ways of increasing sales. Think about:
- effective advertising (for example a leaflet drop at a local college)
- other ways to distinguish yourself and your business – for example there are several professional qualifications available to qualified driving instructors, but many still don’t hold one
- are there any other ways that you can make money out of being a driving instructor? What about selling study and learning materials, or even some driving accessories? Perhaps a local garage or insurance broker will agree to pay you commission for each new customer that you introduce to them
You can choose to start out on your own. Alternatively you could train with and sign up to a pre-established franchise that already has a list of pupils, contacts and trainers. In both cases you are self-employed but with varying degrees of individuality and support. A franchise-based company will offer training. However, it will charge a fee (usually a percentage of the lessons they have booked on your behalf or a fixed fee) but you might want the support that will be there in the background. Heading out on you own, on the other hand, can be a lonely business and also one that you control. Depending on whether it is a career change or career start, as well as your personality and business acumen, this is entirely up to you.
Visit this link for full details.
A sample of Starting a Driving School Business Plan here
sources: www.startups.co.uk, www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk, photo from ce.byu.edu
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You haven’t mentioned the requirments in starting up a driving school. Are there any LTO’s regulations about starting up a driving school?
Only 6% of people who start out to become an ADI are successful. Its much much harder than the adverts suggest. The demand for new instructors does not exist in most areas.
Try this lens for useful information.
http://www.squidoo.com/driving_instructors#
It is not that quite easy to start a driving school, you haven’t mentioned the training costs of actually becoming a driving instructor, which you will have to find up front and can run into thousand of pounds.