With the credit crunch biting hard on many businesses in the UK, everyone is seeking new ways of generating more income, and it seems that driving instructors are good targets to make money from.
Over the past few weeks, I've had all sorts of people contact me either by phone or post offering services which they claim would increase the number of people contacting me for driving lessons. The offers range from websites asking me to pay for links on their directory because they claim to have a very good online presence in the area I work, franchises for other schools, free 0800 numbers (i didn't even bother to find out what the catch was). One of the most amusing calls was from a company that wanted me to pay them to advertise in a section on their online directory which they claimed had a good ranking in google for driving lessons in my area. When we did a google search, my school website was in a higher position than theirs, but the sales guy said that if I paid them my money and they put in my entry, then it will make their directory move above mine, and then I would get more enquires!
Many people think that driving instructors are stupid or something. While businesses might be struggling, you need to make sure that any marketing services you use, actually work, don't take the company's word for it, and spend your money wisely, because there are no shortage of driving instructors out there, in fact there is an excess, and there are those out there who would like to make a quick quid or two out of struggling instructors.
If you are not as busy as you would like, spend the extra time you have on getting a good driving school website setup (you can do it yourself, and it won't cost the earth), promote it, and it could become the life line that you really need, don't allow anyone to make some easy money from you as a driving instructor.
