How "doubling" our prices helped us double the number of our DREAM students

If you had 100% dream students, according to what you consider a “dream student” now, would you be fully satisfied? Would you say, “Yes, this is what I wanted, this is all I’ve dreamed of!”

Or would you think: “Ok, this is nice, but actually my school is still not what I had dreamed of originally, I want to take it to the next level.”

Where I want to get you is observing your dream students a bit.

Are they dream students only for your current school, or would they also be dream students if you had your DREAM SCHOOL?

I’m asking you this, as this is what happened to me in my 5^th year as a school owner: The students I had were almost all dream students for the business I had back then.

But for the business I truly wanted, only 40% of them were dream students.

Why?

Because what I had built up was still too conventional, too much adapted to the market. I had adapted my method, my pricing, my schedules, my patience, my team, the building we were in, to what I thought the market needed.

The above adaptation process went super well. Students were happy, families were happy, my team was happy.

But there was something missing. I wasn’t happy…. Why?

1. Because I felt we were not teaching what our students really needed (and this is not always identical with what they want…) and
2. Because there were still months when I had to sacrifise my salary so that the school could keep going.

I could have accepted it and just continued the way many after school academies did around us. But my conscience didn’t let me.

I felt as if I was selling “Coca Cola” just because that was what the market wanted, while knowing it was bad for them.

I don't mean that my product was actually counterproductive, but knowing what we could have done, I more and more felt the urge to sell the REAL GOOD THING, instead of what the market wanted.

I felt as if I was cheating, lying every day by not telling this to everybody. 

I felt that finding my motivation was harder and harder. You know when you constantly have to make a sacrifice instead of being able to just enjoy what you do. When not being able to speak your truth, the resentment it creates can slowly eat you up.

This is how I got to the decision that it ALL had to change.

We needed to reduce the number of our students, increase contact hours with each student, and turn our back then “VIP” package into our ONLY programme my school offered.

It was freakin’ scary. But my fear of not going for it and my school falling into mediocrity was bigger, than my fear of failing.

This is what got me through the toughest moments. And there were countless, believe me.

There was yet one thing this whole process couldn’t leave intact. And that was the scariest part.

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To be able to deliver THE REAL GOOD THING, I had to change my prices per student from 49€ a month to 87€ a month. That’s a 78% price increase.

We didn't literally double the price but I know from the feedback back then that that's how it felt like. It felt like "going from 40€ to 80€".

And from the subject of the email you know we succeeded.

We not only managed to maintain 40% of the old students - the DREAM students, but we managed to attract the same number of brand new DREAM students.

And that’s how we became a completely unique, "go to" English school in our area, with the right level of authority. That’s how we said goodbye to chasing new students and turned our school into a “we’re fully booked, but you can get on our waitlist” academy.

It might sound weird to you;

"How do you go with a 78% price increase into fully booked?"

Well, it turned out that before this shift, we were not talking to the right people. We were even repelling some of our dream students. Our low price made some of the dream students doubt the quality of our service and our results.

We sort of wanted everyone to say YES to our offer. But we got the YES from the wrong people and we made it difficult to ourselves to get a YES from the right people.

The shift we made was to get the “HELL YES” from the right people!

We didn’t succeed because of blind faith in success. We succeeded because of careful planning, thorough communication, standing our ground against critiques. And that’s where I grew into being a “heart-centered, no bs” school owner and company owner.

That’s where I was able to start fully serving the DREAM students, with honesty and my heart open, leaving all the non-necessary bs behind. Fully concentrating on delivering on what I had promised our students: “Live where you want, do what you love and change lives without language barriers!”

If you have been following me for more than a year, you know that I have shared my method for doing this shift with you each year.

Those who went through it, now have a full understanding of how it works, and I am certain it made a lasting change in how they handle every single situation at their school.

Once you learn it there’s no way back. You can’t unlearn it, as it feels so much greater to do things this way that you won’t want back to the old way.

Imagine you charge what you're worth, your dream students pay it happily, and they even bring their friends. And this is not only about the price and the payment.

Imagine you're able to deliver what you think is best for your students, the way you think it's best for them and for you. 

Now, this year I'm bringing all the knowledge behind this shift to you in the format of a super succint MINI course. It is called "Get Paid What You're Worth".

Why focus on the money part when it’s much more complex than that? It’s being unique, it’s communication, it’s your team, it’s everything else too.

Yet I feel that if you dare to ask for the money you deserve and find the way to make people pay it to you with pleasure, it will give you the peace of mind, authority and strength to sort out everything else.

Therefore, this is where I think you got to start the change.

So this mini course will be out in the coming weeks, and as I want to bring it to as many school owners as possible, there will be a very friendly price of 37€.

Why isn’t it free? Because whenever we get something for free, the likelihood of only consuming it but not putting it into practice is exceptionally high. So it’s to make you go through it, digest it and apply it straight away.

What you will get for those 37€ can in no way be squeezed into that price, but it will still all be included in the course.

You will learn how to build a unique, incomparable product, build an indisputable price, and make the RIGHT people pay it with pleasure.

And why am I sharing this if the course is not ready yet?

Because I need your input on it.

>>> And as my thank you to the BETA group members, you will be offered a gift which won't be available going forward in the same format: a free 30-min zoom consultation for when you're finished with the mini course. For you to ask me all your related questions. I am adding this gift, as by being on this BETA group you not only get access as first, but you also do me a huge favour by being amongst the first people to share your opinion about it.

If you’re still with me, a huge THANK YOU to you, I appreciate you! If the above makes you excited and makes you want in, click here.

And if not this time, don’t worry, there will be plenty of things coming your way from me, and I hope you still found value in today’s content.