Entrepreneurial Goldmine

Did you know you could outsource the implementation of your decision to home school?  I knew education had become big business, but I primarily associated that big business with higher education or adult education – a la, University of Phoenix (UP), the godfather of online college degrees.  Since UP came on the scene, over 2500 traditional colleges and universities have joined them in leveraging technology to offer higher education programs, taking the total non-traditional educational programs to over 5000 accredited and non-accredited schools that help men and women achieve their educational requirements, desires and dreams.

The remote and non-traditional education model has been so successful that within the past 36 months, a non-traditional model for elementary and secondary level education has become extremely popular.  I recently helped a client leverage technology to support their client’s growth and expansion of offices (I guess schools in this case).  The company provides home schooling programs in target profile areas, where the teachers go to the kids’ house to help the home schooling parent layout the program (lesson plan) and provides weekly and/or frequent checks to ensure the process is going well and to audit/test the kids’ progress.  The teacher can use the local office as a meeting place and parents can bring their kids to the facility for group activity (play dates).  

Yes, I know the concept is not new.   I am aware that any group of parents can get together and organize this infrastructure; however, not many of them are making a multi-million dollar business out of it – a la UP.  Here’s the reality…this is an opportunity because in the complex, busy world we live in, we Americans are outsourcing everything to make life easier or more simple.  How many of you have a house keeper/helper/person?  Do you outsource the tutoring for kids, household repairs or cooking? How many of you still cut your own grass?  Some of you may have even paid someone to put up your Christmas lights cause you were so busy….and I ain’t mad at you!

The Home School Opportunity

Over the past 10 years thousands of parents in the United States have made a decision to remove their children from the public school system in favor of home schooling their children.  The fact that parents want to home school doesn’t mean that they will be the best teacher.  The increasing trend combined with the question of who does the teaching creates a fantastic opportunity for an individual with a teaching or education background to start a new consulting business that assists parents in establishing a home-schooling educational program for their children.  According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “The home-schooling programs can be designed to specifically meet the educational needs of children at various stages of development and age, as well as feature subject testing, suggested educational field trips, and recreational and social interaction activities. The business can focus on developing and marketing home-schooling programs for children and parents. Or, the business can focus on in-home consulting on a one-on-one basis with parents to specially design a home-schooling program for their individual children.” 

Who’s Doing This?

1. Zion Academy:  Looks like they’ve been at this quite a while…20 years! 

2. K12: Primarily in Texas and growing like CRAZY!

3. First Class Home School Ministries: Marketed as a Co-op  

Is This For Me?

I don’t know…What I know for sure is this: While home schooling and even structured, multi-location home schooling has been around for a long time, the current trends associated with this  industry suggest it’s on the ground floor.  Current Trends (home schooling, families outsourcing, success w/non-traditional education at the higher education level and technology ease of use) 

• If you are a business person or desiring entrepreneur, this could be for you.

• If you are looking for a different kind of franchise opportunity, this could be for you.

• If you are a teacher and looking for something different, the consulting option could be for you.

How Do I Get Started?

This type of unique consulting service is best marketed directly to parents who are presently home schooling their children or who are considering it in the near future.  The best way to gain access to this market is to join home-schooling associations and utilize the associations’ memberships or roster lists as a basis for a direct mail campaign for your home-schooling consulting business. The following are two such home schooling associations:

United States National Home Schooling Association
P.O. Box 327 Webster, New York 14580
Telephone:               513-772-9580         513-772-9580
Web site: www.n-h-a.org

Canada The Association of Canadian Homebased Education
P.O. Box 34148, RPO Fort Richmond Winnipeg, MB R3T 5T5
Telephone:               815-366-5342         815-366-5342
E-mail: homeschool-ca-admin@flore.

If you get this going, ping me, I may decide to outsource the education of my kids!!!  Opportunity #7 is coming soon!  If you missed Opportunities #10 and #9, be sure to go back and review…it may be the game breaking info you need!