Business by Janice

Are blogs supposed to be personal or educational or both?

I suppose it depends on the blogger’s objective. I ask that question to set the scene for my next few posts. Being an open person, there will always be a large element of the personal in what I write, yet I like to be organised and focused so it’s important that I’m also clear about what the objectives are here.

The original intention of this blog was to raise awareness of issues in the language training sector in Madrid and to create a voice for language school owners. Many blogs are being written by teachers, none by “the other side”. In this way, I hoped to forment better understanding. However, I deliberately chose the title “Business by Janice” as business and personal development issues related to running your own business have always been my passion. I didn’t want to be restricted to the TEFL stuff.  I intended then to move onto coaching and the Law of Attraction.

As my regular readers have observed, there have been many personal development and spiritual posts. That, in fact has been where I’ve been at for the last one and a half years. And it has all led up to something really big, which I had no idea about 2 years ago. I’m completing what I now recognise to be one of my essential 8-10 year life cycles - I’m moving on from Windsor Idiomas to join a Business coaching company launching in Spain called Shirlaws.

www.shirlawscoaching.com

It’s interesting to hear people’s reactions. The majority are supportive (as due to the LOA I don’t have negative people in my life now) and are excited for me regarding this new challenge. However, there are others who think I’m crazy, that being on my own with 2 children to support, it’s too risky. The Shirlaws model is not as an employee, all Shirlaws coaches have to bring in their own clients, so yes, there is risk involved.

All I know is that fear is an illusion (false evidence appearing real), so i choose not to feel it, that when you feel excited and passionate about a project you invoke the power of the universe to inspire you to act to bring success.

Regarding this blog, I have to admit I’m struggling to find a focus right now as I’m in a phase of transition. Perhaps my readers could give me some feedback as to what subjects are the most interesting for them. I suppose, being in transition prompts many topics from the personal side,  and from a business point of view, I’m about to enter a new experience, that of selling my shares and managing the negotiations and integration of a new shareholder, so food for posts there.

What would I like you to get out of this post? I would like to emphasise that life is really one long journey and adventure. All the decisions we make lead us to where we are now and where we want to be. Are you making the right decisions?

My blog resembles Twitter this week - it’s short and sweet.

As I’m really tight for time, I thought I’d leave you with a quote from my favourite Law of Attraction authors, Esther and Jerry Hicks/The Teachings of Abraham.

“There’s not enough action in the world that can compensate for misaligned energy”

And something for reflection - Who are you spending your life with? Are you happy in your job? If you are taking action to make up for something that doesn’t feel right, could it be that you’re tackling things the wrong way round?

I came across an old note book the other day where I used to write all my ideas and inspirations. There was a quote in there, related to the topic of leadership:

“If other people can do the same thing as well as you do, let them do it.  If you do the same as them you add no value”.

Over the course of the last 10 years (the time I’ve spent with Windsor Idiomas), I’ve constantly come back to the subject of leadership as I really believe a company cannot be great without it. And the quotation above gives rise to a fundamental question about running a business; are you working ON the business or IN the business?

If an owner wants to grow a business that is ultimately saleable, they should be constantly seeking freedom from the day to day activities. They should then use that freedom to show how they can add value to the organisation. In essence, leaders should be working ON the business. They should be working to make themselves redundant. They should not be doing a job that someone else can easily do because that is a waste of the leader’s time and energy.

Now I know that in the beginning, this may be very hard.  But you CAN find the time and space to have vision, to decide strategy and to gradually move towards completion of that strategy, (to then design another one!)  OK, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and of ocourse small companies who are strapped for cash do take time to consolidate and grow.

But what contributes to that growth? What do employees truly value in a leader?

They want to see the following:

• the ability to motivate others
• vision
• honesty and integrity
• decisiveness
• the ability to handle crises.

If you are running your own business, how would you rate yourself in these areas? How would others rate you?  Why don’t you ask them?

There are hundreds of books written about leadership as it relates to running a company. Two or my favourites are listed below:

Leading at a Higher Level by Ken Blanchard. Prentice Hall

The Leadership Mystique by Manfres Dets De Vries. Prentice Hall

Up to now we’ve concentrated on face to face language training but have recognised that to keep up with the times it was essential to have an on-line or “blended” product in our portfolio. And of couse the advantage to the client on this product is price.

As we’ve been hearing so many comments about budgets contratints from our existing clients, you would think that the offering of a product which allows language training to continue and at the same time meets new (much lower) expectations on price would be welcomed or at least considered.

I don’t know what other schools’ experience has been so far this year in this area, but we just can’t seem to raise any interest for this type of product.  Every time, the reaction has been that there is nothing like having a real flesh and blood teacher to motivate the student and on line classes are a very poor substitute.

Quite frankly, I totally agree. And so I wonder if I’m  projecting my beliefs on this subject subconsciously onto the client which then accounts for the results I’m getting? At the end of the day we are really only successful in selling what we feel passionately about.

I’d be interested to know if other schools have seen an increase in their on-line products this year and whether they feel this can be attributed to prices sensitivity in this recession.

The TEFL sector is dynamic to say the least. A busy school dealing with company and private classes sees their class vacancy list change almost daily as classes are covered and new ones come up. For this reason it’s very difficult to make committments to teachers very far in advance especially mid academic year.  Perhaps it’s related to the recession, but in our case we are receiving applications several months in advance of the teacher actually coming to Madrid. I’m all for planning ahead but teachers often run the risk of their application getting swamped and eventually going unnoticed if they try to secure a post too early.

Even though our applications are filed appropriately it’s human nature to fix our attention on those CVS which just arrive at the time we are ready to recruit.

Even planning for the new academic year, when we know we will need a large number of new teachers can be problematical if we interview too far ahead. People’s circumstances change and on several occasions we have made a committment to a teacher for a full time contract and they have then not followed through.

So what is the ideal time to send in CV for the new academic year?

While we are still in the previous academic year, our attention is on wrapping things up and organising summer intensive courses. Any CV sent before June will just go into the “file” often buried “forever”. My recommendation would be to contact schools in early July with a follow up mail or phone call approximately 10 days later. September is also a good month. Some may think that this is leaving it a bit late but there’s still a lot of shuffling around going on at the beginning of September and many company clients don’t even start classes until October.

One last point, face to face interviews are always the most effective. When teacher supply was scarce last year we promoted telephone interviews because we were desperate to get teachers into Madrid. With the recession the situation has changed dramatically. To be successful in securing a teaching post it is necessary to be here, to send your CV just at the right time and to be available immediately.