Some schools regularly miss their revenue goals and the school board consistently looks for way to increase the revenue to meet the next monthl expenses. Schools need to define their missions and goals. Many of them depend on a single or couple of income sources. When financial issues happen repeatedly, it is important for the school management to step back and define the missions. Information and knowledge should be useful to allow people achieve their goals, including financial goals. Mission is an essential statement for any school and it’s essentially a general interpretation of what the school is capable of delivering. Schools often need to use indirect methods to increase their revenue. As an example, schools that teach electronics or nursing; we need to educate the local business community. In this case, we should be able to inform people that we are able to prepare them with specific skills, so they are ready for employment or entrepreneurship. Schools should offer plenty of information for the local community.
Schools should develop relationship with the local community and people should be familiar about the offered program. This is a good marketing effort and people would urge friends and family to get enrolled into our schools, if they need our programs. Not many schools have a clear sales system and school board could be unfamiliar with marketing methods. There should be information, newsletters and mailing lists that we can distribute to the local community, so relationship will still be established. Once relationship has been established, it will be possible to increase enrollment and eventually the overall revenue. Schools should be able to establish themselves as providers of knowledge and information. Schools should be able to private and personalized training through various training seminars. As an example, school for nurses could provide simple first aid courses for local community. So, any crisis management program can be associated with the school.
Schools may also open their libraries for the local community. Many books are stacked on shelves without being read in libraries. It would be better to use them to improve relationship with local community. It would be better to provide high school students with various new services and they could develop interests match with school’s programs. There are many things inside the school that can benefit high school students. Other schools may also provide affordable computer training or sales training for local businesses. Business owners and employees will be aware of the school’s presence in the community and there’s a higher chance that their children will be enrolled into the school. The school management, teachers and instructors could design a training pack that is usable for the local community. Schools are able to enhance their brand image by offering various programs and services for the local community. In this case, educational programs are “products” that schools need to sell to the local community. People will trust these services and schools will be better known in the community.