Foreign education consultancy, just like any other business, needs to know these common mistakes to avoid failure.
It is not uncommon for any new foreign education consultancy to make mistakes. However, some errors are much costlier than others. Most of the times, foreign education consultancy business owners don’t realize what causes the success or failure of their business in the long run. This is also the main reason why startup businesses tend to fail. It is even more applicable for foreign education consultancy since the competition is very high. No two businesses are alike and the list can go on forever. However, we have noted down some of the most common mistakes made by startup foreign education consultancy.
Finding the Right Business Partner
It is always much better and easier to start a business with a partner than doing it alone. Just as its hard choose the best CRM platforms, choosing your right business partner can be tricky. This is probably the most common error made by any startup study overseas consultancy. While choosing your ideal partner, you should always leave your emotions aside. Especially if you are looking to start a business with a close friend. This is because you will tend to overlook flaws that may make them an incompatible business partner. This will eventually cause the downfall of your business.
A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship
-John D Rockefeller
Once you have selected the most suitable candidate for your startup study overseas consultancy, there are other important things to keep in mind. For instance, you must always assess their financial situation. If your partner is not willing to be transparent about it, that’s a red flag.
You must also keep in mind their personal life and issues that may make your startup foreign education consultancy a second priority. You should not be surprised as you may have to wear many hats during the initial phase of your business. So, if your partner’s priorities aren’t straight, look for someone who will make your study overseas agency a first priority.
No one wishes for a business relationship to get sour. But planning for the worst will save you a lot of trouble down the road. However, you can easily avoid such common mistakes made by startup agency. To do so, you must clearly document the rights, roles, and responsibilities of each partner. Sitting down with a startup lawyer can help you get through this process easily. And always devise an exit plan in case of a disagreement. Dealing with such issues, in the beginning, will save you professional embarrassment as emotions may run high during a split. This is good for your foreign education consultancy.
Setting Appropriate Goals
Young startup foreign education consultancy owners can confuse goals with ambition. This is a deadly mistake. It is good to be ambitious, but you must be careful while setting your business goals. It is also crucial that your goals align with your partner’s. For example, if your goal is to provide quality service to fewer clients. But your partner’s goal is to provide service to as many clients regardless of the quality. You will have a hard time making compromises that will eventually affect your foreign education consultancy performance
People with goals succeed because they know where they are going…It’s as simple as that.
-Earl Nightingale
Goals are guidelines to the success of your foreign education consultancy. They are more of a benchmark and should be dynamic. Knowing your clients best is most crucial when it comes to setting foreign education consultancy goals. Do some thorough market research before you jump in.
You must know exactly what kind of education they want, or what their priorities are. Whether they are seeking quality education or just looking for a study overseas lifestyle experience. Your goals should be to provide what your clients want. And your services and products should represent it.
You should also take a look at modern goals setting guidelines. One of these methods is setting SMART Goals. Basically, it states that any business should set goals that is specific. Vague goals like “obtaining maximum success” can be very misleading and may not direct your startup business anywhere.
They should be measurable and achievable. And you must always set goals that are time oriented. For example, “to provide 300 students with Australian education from at least 5 different universities within the first year”, could be an excellent goal for a startup foreign education consultancy.
You should also research your competition’s activities. And what goals they have set for their foreign education consultancy. You can learn a lot from an experienced business competitor. Review their mistakes so that you can avoid most common mistakes made by startup foreign education consultancy.
Fundraising and Financial Management
While it is necessary to raise adequate funds for your startup foreign education consultancy, you should not obsess over it. New founders tend to overdo this process. As a startup business, you must try and limit the fundraising process to only meet your essential needs. Besides, too many investors mean that you will have less control over your business. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth. Your goal should not be to raise more money. It should be to make money from your business.
It’s no longer about strategic development. It’s about financial management
-Micheal Diekmann
Once the fundraising is done, you must now manage your financials wisely. You should not fret over smallest details and resources. This is also one of the most common mistakes made by startup study overseas agency. Learn to make do with only the essential and important.
As founders of a startup foreign education consultancy, you will have to fulfill many roles. Undoubtedly, this will be tough, but you will learn a lot from this experience. You must move towards self-sustenance and avoid financial mistakes made by most startups.
Understanding the Importance of Marketing
A lot of new founders with great ideas are overconfident and believe that clients will simply come. You may provide the best courses in the most popular destination, but without a strong marketing strategy, your study overseas agency will not flourish.
Assuming virality is one of the most common mistakes made by startup study overseas consultancies. No business can assume to go viral spontaneously. Especially for study overseas agencies, there are too many options available in the market. You need to make sure that your prospects are aware of your presence. You need to be heard. And you can achieve this through intense marketing and advertising.
Reach your clients where they are active most. Promote your education agency on multiple channels. The most effective being social media marketing, since there is a high presence of your target audience.
Engage your existing clients in multiple events and seminars. Think out of the box. Maybe you could organize a small entertainment or social event for your clients and prospects. Give them something different. They will appreciate it and you and your foreign education consultancy will be remembered. This will help you increase your referrals and eventually you will be recognized.
It is the same when it comes to investors too. You need to show them what you can accomplish and how your services are unique. No investor will invest in your business unless they are 100% sure of a positive outcome. So make sure that you have an effective study overseas business model and reach out.
Handling Feedback Wisely
Feedback, whether it is coming from clients, prospects, partners or investors, is very important. Failure to acknowledge feedback can be fatal to your startup study overseas business. Whether it is negative or positive feedback, they are always helpful and can be very constructive.
Your response to feedback shows your clients, partners, and investors that you are an effective listener. It represents a genuine interest in perfecting your study overseas business and can be very motivating.
Listening to feedback will definitely help you improve performance as it is a tool for continual learning. However, young entrepreneurs tend to overthink or overreact to feedback. As new founders of study overseas agency, you need to realize that you cannot satisfy everyone.
Although feedback and brainstorming generate great ideas, you must not dwell on these thoughts for too long. You will end up over-optimizing every decision and hamper the overall productivity of your study overseas agency. Avoid this scenario at all cost. Only act on the most popular opinions and make smart decisions for your Management tool. Being overconfident by positive feedback and discouraged by negative ones are common mistakes made by startup businesses.
Feedback is the breakfast of champions
-Ken Blanchard, Goodreads
These are just a few tips on do’s and don’ts for a startup business. But at the end of the day, mistakes are the best teachers you will ever have. So it is good to avoid them, but don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Every startup business will make some blunder. It’s only human to err. What you learn from such blunders is what counts the most. So do your homework and avoid most common mistakes made by startup study overseas agency.
