I’ve noticed a few comments on various forums, lately, from people complaining that other ADIs are trying to poach their pupils by undercutting and making “offers” (perhaps another way of saying “making bribes”) to get them to switch.
I can’t say I’ve noticed it myself, but I don’t doubt that it is happening. Mind you – and now that I think about it – I have had enquiries, and I just know the pupil has gone with a cheaper school after phoning around. So maybe that’s part of the same story. But to continue…
You see, there has been a huge influx of ADIs into this job over recent years. I’m not one of those people who automatically assumes that this is a bad thing because it is taking away work which might otherwise have come to me. But I amcertain that the quality of many of those ADIs is questionable – not necessarily just their teaching skills (after all, they may have what it takes in that department), but more probably their motivation and business acumen.
As I’ve said many times, and most recently in that post about leisure time, you have to know what you are getting into. If you want to be successful at it, this is not a 9-5/Mon-Fri affair, and you have to be on the boil all the time to avoid running into trees or ditches on straight roads. And that’s where the problems for many begin…
Lazy people want the oft-mentioned £30,000 salary, and many of them definitely fall into the “no qualifications needed” category. In addition, maybe they have kids and can’t do school runs or weekends. Plus, can’t handle the stress. So, if they pass the exams and start trading as ADIs while carrying this sort of baggage, £30,000 is not going to be knocking on Mr Bank Account’s door anytime soon! But it still costs money to be in business, even if you aren’t actually doing any.
Step 1 is to try undercutting. The big schools are charging perhaps £24 an hour, so they go in at £21. It doesn’t work, so next comes £20, £19, and so on. Step 2 is the “special offers” – first 10 lessons for £99, or whatever.
I question ADIs’ business acumen simply because this ploy has never worked, and it never will – and especially now that so many are doing it. Even if it filled up your diary, the amount of work you need once you’ve undercut everyone else is now something like 15 hours more than it would have been if you’d have succeeded at your original price, in order for you to make the same turnover. But the reality is it just doesn’t fill up your diary – it just sends you further down the deadly spiral towards giving it all up.
So, we come to Step 3. Since we already know that the people coming into the job are not necessarily of the highest standard when it comes to business ethics, it stands to reason that some might try to poach work.
I don’t know if everyone is familiar with a 1980s TV show, called Boys From The Blackstuff. There was a character (Yosser Hughes) in that whose line was “Gizza job – I can do that”, and this has since passed into the English language as an accepted and recognised phrase. What we have is a real case of that: people so desperate for work that they will resort to anything.
Undercutting and ridiculous offers are bad enough. I’m quite sure that the majority of ADIs aren’t trying to poach pupils, although I’m also pretty sure that some are – through sheer desperation and lack of morals.