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How to Start a Broadcasting Training School

Do you want to start a broadcasting training school? If YES, here’s a complete guide to starting a broadcasting training school with NO money and no experience. The fact that there are loads of radio stations, TV stations and media houses makes people want to get trained as broadcasters for them to be able to work in these stations. As such, if you have the capacity, you can consider starting a broadcasting training school in the United States of America.

A broadcasting training school is a school where aspiring broadcasters are trained or retrained to be able to perform better as broadcasters. Starting a broadcasting training school might not be entirely easy, but one thing is certain, it is a straight forward business that can generate steady profits if well positioned and properly managed.

You can start your broadcasting training school from a small town in the United States and if you are consistent and creative, it won’t be too long before your brand becomes a nationally recognized brand and you start attracting students from all across the United States of America.

20 Steps to Starting a Broadcasting Training School

1. Understand the Industry

Broadcasting training school falls under the trade and technical schools industry and establishments in the industry offer vocational and technical training in a wide range of subjects and trades. The training offered by trade and technical schools often leads to job-specific certification. Instruction may be provided in diverse settings such as the company’s training facilities, the workplace, the home or through distance-learning methods.

Key areas in this industry include broadcasting training, music schools and musical instrument training, cosmetology and barber schools, flight training, defensive driving training, apprenticeship training and other technical training.

The Trade and Technical Schools industry that broadcasting training school is a part of is indeed a large industry and pretty much active in a lot of countries. Statistics has it that in the United States of America alone, there are about 8,876 registered and licensed (accredited) trade and technical schools scattered all across the United States responsible for employing about 127,260 people and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $13 billion annually.

The industry grew at -1.1 percent annual growth within 2012 and 2017. It is important to state that there are no establishment in this industry that has a lion market share.

Due to the fact that it can be somehow stressful to get government accreditation for a standard vocational school especially those involved in training broadcasters in the United States, it will be safe to say the industry is under saturated.

It is important to state that entrepreneurs who are into training people on various skills such as how to drive, how to play musical instrument, how to cook and how to dance et al can easily be found.

Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own broadcasting training school despite the fact that the business is challenging could be that the business is highly thriving and profitable.

Starting a broadcasting training school requires professionalism and good grasp of the skills you want to teach people. Besides, you would need to get the required certifications and license and also meet the standard for such business before you can be allowed to start a standard broadcasting training school in the United States.

2. Conduct Market Research and Feasibility Studies

  • Demographics and Psychographics

The demographic and psychographic composition of those who need broadcasting training schools cut across male and females who want to become professional broadcasters in order to work in radio or TV stations and also broadcasters who want to attend refresher courses to be able to come up to speed in the industry.

So, if you are looking towards defining the demographics of your broadcasting training school, then you should make it all encompassing.

3. Decide What Niche to Concentrate On

It is important to state that there is no niche area in the broadcasting training school line of business because broadcasting training school is a niche area in the trade and technical schools industry.

Broadcasting training schools are involved in running licensed broadcasting instruction programs that will help churn out TV and radio broadcasters. Most broadcasting training schools run offline, but in recent time, there is a growing number of online broadcasting training schools and they are doing pretty great.

The Level of Competition in the Industry 

Broadcasting training school business is a competitive business because loads of universities and colleges also offer training for aspiring broadcast journalists. It means that whoever intends to go into this business should ensure that they carry out thorough feasibility studies and market research so that the risks associated with this type of business can be greatly minimized.

The first thing to consider before launching this business is to know how to secure the required license and permits needed to run the business.

The truth is that no matter the level of competition in an industry, if you have done your due diligence and you brand and promote your services or business properly, you will always make headway in the industry.

Just ensure you have competent faculty members in school, your certificates are well – respected and you know how to attract and reach out to people who want to become broadcast journalists.

4. Know the Major Competitors in the Industry

In every industry, there are always brands that perform better or are better regarded by customers and general public than others. Some of these brands have been in the industry for a long time, while others are best known for how they conduct their businesses and the results they have achieved over the years.

These are some of the leading broadcasting training schools in the United States of America and also in the globe;

  • The National Broadcasting School
  • The Connecticut School of Broadcasting
  • The School of Broadcasting & Communication (SBC)
  • Western Academy Broadcasting College
  • The BBC Academy and BBC School Radio
  • The Standard School Broadcast
  • Emerson College
  • Hofstra University
  • New York University
  • Northwestern University
  • San Diego State University
  • Washington State University
  • University of Georgia
  • Lewis University
Economic Analysis

When it comes to starting a broadcasting training school, you just have to get your feasibility studies and market research right before venturing into the business. It is good to mention that starting a standard broadcasting training school is not for rookies; it is for professionals who have the experience and expertise to train people to become successful broadcast journalists.

Starting this kind of business definitely entails that you acquire the required technical skills and profession certifications, government approval/accreditation and also build good working relationship with stakeholders in the industry.

If you are already a major player in the trade and technical schools before venturing out to start your own broadcasting training school, this might not be an issue.

Depending on the scale you want to start from, you might require as much as multiple thousands of dollars to strike this off and at the same time you might need far less than that if you choose to start the school on a small scale.

You will be expected to hire the services of experts that will help you with a comprehensive economic and cost analysis of the business. If you get your economic and cost analysis right before launching the business, you may not have to stay the long before you break even.

5. Decide Whether to Buy a Franchise or Start from Scratch

When it comes to starting a business of this nature, it will pay you to buy the franchise of a successful broadcasting training school as against starting from the scratch. Even though it is relatively expensive buying the franchise of an established broadcasting training school brand, but it will definitely pay you in the long run.

But then again, if you truly want to build your own brand after you must have proved your worth as a veteran broadcast journalist who has the capacity to train, then you might just want to start your own broadcasting training school business from the scratch.

The truth is that it will pay you in the long run to start your broadcasting training school business from the scratch.

It is important to establish that most of the successful broadcasting training schools around started from the scratch and they were able to build a solid business brand. It takes dedication, hard work and determination to achieve business success.

6. Know the Possible Threats and Challenges You Will Face

No matter the part of the world that you reside in, if you decide to start your own broadcasting training school today, one of the major challenges you are likely going to face is the presence of well – established broadcasting training schools and also universities and colleges that are also into training broadcast journalists.

The only way to avoid this challenge is to create your own market; you can start by targeting high school leavers in your immediate community.

Some other threats that you are likely going to face as a broadcasting training school operating in the United States are unfavorable government policies especially as it relates to meeting up with the expected licensing and accreditation requirements.

There is hardly anything you can do as regards these threats other than to be optimistic that things will continue to work for your good.

7. Choose the Most Suitable Legal Entity (LLC, C Corp, S Corp)

In the business world, if you are considering starting a broadcasting training school, the legal entity you choose will go a long way to determine how big the business can grow.

Generally, you have the option of choosing a general partnership or limited liability company for your broadcasting training school. Ordinarily, general partnership should have been the ideal business structure for a small – scale broadcasting training school especially if you are just starting out with moderate startup capital, in a small community handling and a handful of students per time.

But if your intention is to grow the business and have students from all across the United States of America, then choosing general partnership is not an option for you. Limited Liability Company will cut it for you.

Setting up an LLC protects you from personal liability. If anything goes wrong in the business, it is only the money that you invested into the limited liability company that will be at risk. It is not so for general partnerships.

Limited liability companies are simpler and more flexible to operate and you don’t need a board of directors, shareholder meetings and other managerial formalities.

These are some of the factors you should consider before choosing a legal entity for your broadcasting training school; limitation of personal liability, ease of transferability, admission of new owners and investors’ expectation and of course taxes.

If you take your time to critically study the various legal entities to use for your broadcasting training school, you will agree that limited liability company; an LLC is most suitable.

You can start this type of business as limited liability company (LLC) and in future convert it to a ‘C’ corporation or an ‘S’ corporation especially when you have the plans of going public.

Upgrading to a ‘C’ corporation or ‘S’ corporation will give you the opportunity to grow your broadcasting training school so as to compete with major players in the industry; you will be able to generate capital from venture capital firms, you will enjoy separate tax structure, and you can easily transfer ownership of the company.

8. Choose a Catchy Business Name from the ideas Below

When it comes to choosing a name for a business, it is expected that you should be creative because whatever name you choose for your business will go a long way to create a perception of what the business represents.

If you are considering starting your own broadcasting training school, here are some catchy names that you can choose from;

  • Elton Jones® Broadcasting Training School, LLC
  • Peters Memorial® Broadcasting Training School, LLC
  • Martins Harry® Broadcasting Training College
  • Bob Noel™ Broadcasting Training Institute
  • The Arena® Broadcasting Training Center
  • Dallas Community® Broadcasting Training School
  • Vintage® Broadcasting Training School
  • Rickson P® Broadcasting Training Institute
  • First Class ® Broadcasting Training School
  • On Air® Broadcasting Training Academy

9. Discuss With an Agent to Know the Best Insurance Policies for You

In the United States of America and in most countries of the world, you can’t operate a business without having some of the basic insurance policy covers that are required by the industry you want to operate from.

So, it is imperative to create a budget for insurance policy covers and perhaps consult an insurance broker to guide you in choosing the best and most appropriate insurance policies for your broadcasting training school.

Here are some of the basic insurance policy covers that you should consider purchasing if you want to start your own broadcasting training school in the United States of America;

  • General insurance
  • Health insurance
  • Liability insurance
  • Workers compensation
  • Overhead expense disability insurance
  • Business owner’s policy group insurance
  • Payment protection insurance

10. Protect your Intellectual Property With Trademark, Copyrights, Patents

If you are considering starting your own broadcasting training school, usually you are required to file for intellectual property protection/trademark. This is because the nature of the business makes it possible for you to challenge organizations and individuals in court for illegally making use of your company’s intellectual properties (training manuals that you produce).

So also, if you want to protect your company’s logo and other documents or software that are unique to you or even jingles and media production concepts, then you can go ahead to file for intellectual property protection. If you want to register your trademark, you are expected to begin the process by filing an application with the USPTO.

11. Get the Necessary Professional Certification

Irrespective of the results you produce as it relates to training your students to become broadcast journalists, professional certification is one of the main reasons why some broadcasting training schools stand out.

If you want to make impact in the industry, you should work towards acquiring all the needed certifications. Certification validates your competency and shows that you are highly skilled, committed to your career, and up-to-date in the market.

These are some of the certifications you can work towards achieving if you want to run your own broadcasting training school;

  • Certified Broadcast Technologist (CBT)
  • Professional Broadcasting Instructor Certification
  • Degree or Diploma in Journalism, Mass Communications and Related Courses

Please note that you cannot successfully run a broadcasting training school in the United States and in most countries of the world without necessarily acquiring professional certifications and business license (accreditation from regulating bodies) even if you have adequate experience cum background in the trade and technical schools industry and as a veteran journalist.

12. Get the Necessary Legal Documents You Need to Operate

Having the necessary documentation in place before launching a business in the United States of America cannot be overemphasized especially a broadcasting training school. It is a fact that you cannot successfully run any business in the United States without the proper documentations. If you do, it won’t be too long before the long hand of the law catches up with you.

Here are some of the basic legal documents that you are expected to have in place if you want to legally run your own broadcasting training school in the United States of America;

  • Certificate of Incorporation
  • Federal Tax Payer’s ID
  • State Permit
  • Accreditation Letter
  • Business License and Certification
  • Business Plan
  • Education/Training Curriculum
  • Non – disclosure Agreement
  • Employment Agreement (offer letters)
  • Operating Agreement for LLCs
  • Insurance Policy
  • Consulting contract documents
  • Online Terms of Use
  • Online Privacy Policy Document
  • Company Bylaws
  • Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

13. Raise the Needed Startup Capital

Apart from the required certifications and hands-on experience, starting a broadcasting training school can be cost effective. Setting up a studio, purchasing the needed training equipment and paying your employees are part of what will consume a large chunk of your startup capital.

When it comes to financing a business, one of the first things you should consider is to write a good business plan. If you have a good and workable business plan document in place, you may not have to labor yourself before convincing your bank, investors and your friends to invest in your business or to partner with you.

Here are some of the options you can explore when sourcing for startup capital for your broadcasting training school;

  • Raising money from personal savings and sale of personal stocks and properties
  • Raising money from investors and business partners
  • Sell shares to interested investors
  • Applying for loan from your bank
  • Pitching your business idea and applying for business grants and seed funding from donor organizations and angel investors
  • Source for soft loans from your family members and your friends.

14. Choose a Suitable Location for your Business

Broadcasting training school and most training and educational based type of businesses require that you see physically with your clients (students) hence it must be located in good location; a location that is prone to both human and vehicular traffic and a location that has an appreciable number of school leavers and growing population if indeed you want to enroll loads of students in your broadcasting training school.

It cannot be overemphasized that the location you choose to open your school is key to the success of the business, hence entrepreneurs are willing to rent or lease a facility in a visible location; a location where the demography consists of aspiring broadcast journalists and businesses with the required purchasing power to train their staff.

If you make the mistake of renting or leasing a facility for broadcasting training school in a not too visible or hidden location simply because it is cheap, then you must be prepared to spend more in promoting the school.

It is important to note that a business facility in good location does not come cheap hence you should be able to allocate enough fund for leasing/renting in your budget.

If you are new to the dynamics of choosing a location for a business such as broadcasting training school, then you should feel free to talk to a business consultant or a realtor who has a full grasp of the city and perhaps country you intend starting your broadcasting training school.

So, if you are looking for a location for your broadcasting training school, ensure that it is a place that is located in an educational hub in your city, a place that is visible and easily accessible. Of course, you would not want to locate this type of business in the outskirts of town. Your students should be able to drive down and locate your school facility with little or no difficulty.

15. Hire Employees for your Technical and Manpower Needs

When it comes to technical issues as it relates to running a broadcasting training school, then you must be ready to acquire all the needed gadgets to set up a studio where your students are expected to carry out practical sessions.

In order to run a small administrative office, you will need computers/laptops, internet facility, telephone, fax machine and office furniture (chairs, tables, and shelves). These machines, tools and instruments can be purchased as fairly used especially if you have limited finance to meet your budget.

When it comes to choosing between renting and leasing a facility for a broadcasting training school, the size of the school you want to build, and your entire budget for the business should influence your choice.

If you have enough capital to run a standard broadcasting training school, then you should consider the option of leasing a facility for your broadcasting training school.

As regards the number of employees that you are expected to kick start the business with, you would need to consider your finance before making the decision. Averagely, you would need a Chief Executive Officer/Principal Partner, School Administrator, Teachers/Instructors/Coaches, Business Developer, Accountant (Bursar), Customer Service Executive/Front Desk Officer.

You would need a minimum of 5 to 10 key staff to effectively run a medium scale but standard broadcasting training school. Please note that there will be times when you are expected to go out of your way to hire experts to help you handle some high – profile students especially from big corporations.

If you are just starting out, you may not have the financial capacity or required business structure to retain all the needed professionals.

The Service Delivery Process of the Business

The service process as it involves broadcasting training schools is simple and straightforward because it is the practice for students who are admitted into a broadcasting school to go through the academic curriculum which usually involves both on the classwork and off the class work.

Off the class work are the practical sessions that they are meant to undergo. It might be posting the students to radio stations or television stations to go and understudy professional broadcasters.

Depending on the scale of the training and the number of students who enroll in the broadcasting school, after the full training which may last for 6 months or more, graduation ceremonies are organized and certificates are awarded.

16. Write a Marketing Plan Packed With ideas & Strategies

In other to capture a fair share of the market in your location, you would need strong online presence; a good website and ensure that it is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) compliant if you intend to achieve a good number of visitors.

The truth is that your website ensures that your business remains visible to your existing and potential customers. This means that you should maximize the use of your website by ensuring that you make it interactive for your target market. You can even ensure that your customers get to book and pay online so as to make it more convenient for them.

So, when you are drafting your marketing plans and strategies for your broadcasting training school, make sure that you create a compelling personal and company profile.

Aside from your qualifications and experience, it is important to clearly state what you have been able to achieve in the broadcasting and the trade and technical schools industry and the organizations you have trained in time past. This will help boost your chances in the market place when sourcing for students.

Here are some of the platforms you can utilize to market your broadcasting training school;

  • Introduce your broadcasting training school by sending introductory letters alongside your brochure to high school leavers, aspiring broadcast journalists, broadcasting houses within and outside the city you are operating in who have the capacity to pay for your services
  • Advertise your broadcasting training school in relevant magazines, radio and TV stations (make yourself available for broadcasting related talk shows and interactive sessions on TV and Radio)
  • List your broadcasting training school on local directories
  • Attend international broadcasting and vocational education expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
  • Create different packages for different category of students and clients in order to work with their budget
  • Leverage on the internet to promote your broadcasting training school (when you blog regularly on key issues as it relates to your business, people would consider you an expert in the field)
  • Join local chambers of commerce and industries around you with the main aim of networking and marketing your services; you are likely going to get referrals from such networks.
  • Engage the services of marketing executives and business developers

17. Work Out a Reasonable Pricing for your Services & Products

One key factor that will help you offer your broadcasting training services at a price that is highly attractive is to ensure that you source your startup capital from sources that won’t put pressure on you.

So also, it is important that you purchase your training equipment, tools, instruments and materials directly from the manufacturers or from wholesale distributors. If need be, you can purchase these equipment, tools, machines and instruments from fairly used market. It will still save you some bucks.

Another strategy that will help you offer your broadcasting training services at the right price is to ensure that you cut operational cost to the barest minimum and channel your efforts towards marketing and promoting your brand name.

Aside from the fact that this strategy will help you save cost, it will also help you get the right pricing for your products and services.

You can also try as much as possible to work with independent contractors and marketers; it will help you save cost for paying sales and marketing executives.

18. Develop Iron-clad Competitive Strategies to Help You Win

The trade and technical schools industry and broadcasting training school line of business is a competitive industry, and you must come up with a unique and highly creative strategy to be able to outsmart your competitors in the industry.

Part of what you need to do in order to stay competitive in the industry is to continue to churn out students who will become professional and licensed broadcast journalists.

Another strategy that you can adopt is to ensure that your organization is well positioned; key members of your team are highly qualified and certified as it relates to training students to become professional broadcast journalists.

19. Brainstorm Possible Ways to Retain Clients & Customers

When it comes to business, no matter the industry that you choose to pitch your tent in, one of the easiest ways to increase customer retention and perhaps attract new customers is to produce results and satisfy your customers always.

If your customers are satisfied with your services delivery, they can hardly source for alternative service providers or products.

Statistics has it that one of the major reasons why clients source for alternative service providers or products is when there is a drop in quality. Another reason is poor customer service.

If you can continue to churn out professional broadcast journalists and your training is excellent, then you won’t struggle to maintain loyal students and clientele base.

Ensure that you offer your customers incentives if you want to retain them and of course continue to generate repeated sales from them and also to attract new students.

Part of what you need to do to achieve this is to track progress, results or outputs with the aim of improving on them quickly as the case demands. When it comes to managing your customers, and building loyal clientele base, you should purchase a customized CRM software.

With a customized CRM system, you can easily stay in touch with your clients (you can carry out quick surveys, you can introduce new products and prices to them without any hitch, you can felicitate with them on their birthdays and other anniversaries, you can keep track of their progress, you can send bulk sms and customized e – mails and above all, you can easily receive compliant and feedback from them).

20. Develop Strategies to Boost Brand Awareness and Create a Corporate Identity

If you are in business and you are not deliberate about boosting you brand and communicating your corporate identity, then you should be ready to take on whatever the society portrays your business to be.

One of the secrets of larger corporations is that they are willing to spend fortunes to boost their brand awareness and to continue to communicate their corporate identity the way they want people to perceive them to be.

If your intention of starting a broadcasting training school is to grow the school beyond the city where you are going to be operating from to become a national and international brand, then you must be ready to spend money on promotion and advertisement of your brand.

In promoting your brand and corporate identity, you should leverage on print, electronic media and social media. As a matter of fact, it is cost effective to use the internet and social media platforms to promote your brands, besides it is pretty much effective and wide reaching.

Below are the platforms you can leverage on to boost your brand and to promote and advertise your broadcasting training school;

  • Place adverts on educational related magazines and newspapers, radio and TV stations.
  • Encourage the use of word of mouth publicity from your loyal customers
  • Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Google+ and other platforms to promote your broadcasting training school.
  • Ensure that we position your banners and billboards in strategic positions all around your city
  • Distribute your fliers and handbills in target areas in and around our neighborhood
  • Advertise your broadcasting training school in your official website and employ strategies that will help you pull traffic to the site
  • Brand all your official cars and ensure that all our staff members wear your branded shirt or cap at regular intervals.