Can Anyone Own/Operate A School or Business?

Transcript:

Jeremy Walker: 00:00 Can anyone own and operate their very own school or business? This is Jeremy Walker with Five Minutes with a Christian Education Entrepreneur. This is a very common question we get from time to time, and I’ve run into many times. People are curious about who is able to own and operate a school, a Christian school, or a business as well. The problem is, is that most people want to own and operate a business, they like the idea of the prospect of freedom, they like the idea of making their own hours perhaps or making more money being the owner. The problem is, however, is that most people don’t understand or, number two, they don’t want the responsibilities that come with being the owner or operator of a school or a business in general. People want the fruits of the labor without having to do labor pretty much at all. They would like to own and operate something just to let it function on their own, they don’t really want to have to worry about the maintenance and operation of a school or business.

Jeremy Walker: 01:02 In fact, most people that I talk to, whenever people ask me how many hours I work, because my wife and I run a Christian school in southwest Florida here, Grace Community School, we also help to manage and supervise the other eight locations here as well of Grace Community School in southwest Florida as well, people ask me how many hours I work. Whenever we tell them we work 11 1/2 hours, from 6:30 to 6:00 at night, Monday through Friday, weekend off, people typically have a horrified look on their face. For some reason people think they can work eight hours a day, come in at 8:00 and go home at 5:00, and for some reason this is going to be enough to own and operate a school or own and operate a business in general. I just don’t think people understand what it takes, the type of commitment, the type of vision, the type of responsibility, the type of risk that it actually takes to own and operate their very own school, or their very own business in general.

Jeremy Walker: 02:00 Now, Christian education is not one you typically think of as a person being an entrepreneur. My wife’s father started the very first Grace Community School in 1986, and since then the locations have expanded, of course, to nine locations here in southwest Florida. You can find the school’s website at gracecommunityschools.com for more information. Now, our school also does what’s called an apprenticeship program. That apprenticeship, of course, is to help other people duplicate the success we’ve had here in southwest Florida, part of the course, which I’m part of, in which we try to train people to do. But when you’re seeking apprentices, you’re not looking for somebody who just wants a general vocation or general job. You’re looking for somebody who wants to share the vision, somebody who gets it, who understands it, someone who wants to put out that commitment that it takes to own and operate something, to oversee something, to work for the success of a school or business.

Jeremy Walker: 03:03 Now, there’s a lot of different factors that go into running a business, because it’s not just about being a good schoolteacher, it’s not about just being a good accountant. Somebody asked one time how much is success and business is management, and somebody said one time 50%, somebody said one time 75%. What it really comes down to is it’s 100%. A school or a business all functions and operates based on regulations, policies, sets of rules, making sure that everybody’s doing their job. There’s a lot of commitment that’s involved, so it’s not just one person. That’s also something as well that people don’t seem to understand when they ask the question can anyone do it.

Jeremy Walker: 03:46 So the answer is no, not just anybody can do it. It takes a person with vision. It takes a person with commitment. It takes a person who wants to make something succeed. Above all, it takes God’s blessing for something to actually take root and to be blessed and to succeed in general. But if a person doesn’t have he vision, responsibility, commitment, potentially risk, all wrapped into one, and the know-how, then no, they cannot own and operate their very own school or business.

Jeremy Walker: 04:18 We like to encourage people to think about these ideas, our program here at Grace Community Schools and the apprenticeship program that’s related to that. You can find more information about that at GCSapprentiship.com, but we encourage you to look into that. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, we’d be glad to help you out. But this has been Five Minutes with a Christian Education Entrepreneur and we’d like to thank you for joining us today and joining us again in the future as we answer more short questions about owning and operating a Christina school and what it takes to do that. Thank you and God bless.