EDUCATIONAL TOUR CONSULTANT

Recently my son asked me for some money. He needed it because there was an excursion that had been arranged his school . The trip was to the slave trading sites of badagry in Lagos Nigeria. 

From all indications it would not be cool for me not to give him the money. The boy needed the trip not just for educational purposes but as i was told  
( by him )  everybody else had paid. He would be the only one left in school that day if he did  not pay. it was not compulsory for him to pay, but it would look funny if he ended up being the only one in school would it not ? Whether this was true or not, i had to push out the cash and the little boy pranced away beaming happily.

I later found out that over 200 students from his school made the trip. In my head I multiplied that by the 5k I paid and the figure set my head ticking. Lol. wow ! 1 million cool Naira. Just like dat !!!   ... no be small thing !!!

This is money for one days work.  How many people make 1 million Naira in a day ? I know there will be logistic costs and all,  but here was a really truly viable business concept . No matter the expenses, these guys made some good money. if they were better organised, there is no reason why they can not be doing it weekly or even more often for other schools...

The tour was organised by the history teachers in the school. i think they were allowed to keep the money.. i found out its something they do every term in that school. i also discovered that NO COMPANY IS ACTUALLY SET UP SPECIFICALLY TO PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL TOUR SERVICES. The Internet was awash with them. It is indeed a huge business. There are so many educationally relevant sites across Africa and beyond that you can organise a tour to.

So i conclude educational tour consultancy is definitely a great business idea if properly run. 

WHAT YOU DO. 
organise educational tours for schools. All students subscribe. You make money.

WHY IT CAN WORK.
Educational tours are designed more to complement what the students learn in school. it is actually very much needed. And it important to note that this service is very different from what currently happens now in schools. most schools have excursion in one form or the other already ..... some even go abroad to Canada, Dubai ect...  BUT THESE TRIPS ARE NOT REALLY EDUCATIONAL ... they are more tourism experiences. An educational trip has to be well researched and planned and the educational relevance clearly identified and even documents and guides and books produced for the trip. if possible a test can also be organised after the trip.

There is a huge market. Many thousands of schools and millions of potential clients. if you structure your business properly, and set  up well you really can not fail. Just imagine if you have just 50 schools and 40 students in each attending your trips per term ... if you are making a clear profit of just N2000 per student ... how much will you make per term ??  

HOW TO START. 
jumping through the decisions process, you should get a list of all potential educational locations that you can organise trips to. google is the best help I can think of... then put together the educationally relevant information about the locations.... again, google will help with this... 

these locations can be in Nigeria or even beyond Nigeria. as long as you can get the relevant information that shows the educational relevance, this is what will be the key content of your brochure. 

You will then cost your trips and factor in your profits to create a cost profile for each trip. then you can begin marketing first by building a site for the business then pushing through mass emails to established school addresses and also do direct marketing by dropping proposals at schools and following up same. make a colourful leaflet and a great looking website full of information. 

TIPS
Be creative and aggressive in your marketing. if you have a well researched and quality service, this business is not a hard sell at all.... you will get schools and student who will subscribe provided you deliver a QUALITY SERVICE....
so focus on quality ... and not on money at the initial stage... focus on building a very good reputation ... then over time you will see that it is more profitable to have a good name than to make plenty money .... especially when competition comes.... you clients will not leave you because they will have no reason to .... you are already doing a great job..... FOCUS ON QUALITY....

Innovate..... look at very cool and interesting locations that are not very popular already. the more innovative you are , the faster you are likely to grow...

Package yourself very well. 

Don't expect it to be all worked out for you here. here, you just get the idea. you have to do the gathering and organising. The good thing is that google will lead you to all the information you will need ...... for it is all online....

good luck.