---------
Our training clients include:
Community Colleges (and Some Colleges)
What is the opportunity? Every community has a community college. Every community college offers adult education courses. For more and more of these colleges, adult education is a vital part of their income stream. They rely heavily on bringing in outside experts from the community to provide adult education courses and seminars. These experts offer courses in everything from tai chi to tax planning. Strategy will fit right in, especially if you make it training in a specific type of strategy, say “career strategy” or “business strategy.”
Why are community colleges important? You can get experience, gain credibility, and make money speaking at them. If you have the opportunity, you may even get to give a complete course in strategy and call yourself a college professor. You can also make credible contact with local business people who are taking courses to improve themselves.
How to you get invited to speak? You first make contact with the college and find out about the adult education programs and see if they have offer seminars. You get their booklets and pamphlets and see what they offer, who is giving courses for them, and what they are charging. You can then contact some of the local trainers to learn about:
- How they got hired, and
- Their financial arrangement with the college.
Most colleges will have you submit a written proposal for the course, (its length and what you will charge for teaching it, number of students in class, etc.,). They may give you some examples of these proposals and may provide guidelines for writing . However, before you do you own proposals, you need “a local guide” to learn strategy terms, to tell you what they are looking for and, especially, you must get some sense of what fees are possible. Every college is going to be different in their preferences.
This allows you to understand how their system works. (Some may also use “circuit speakers,” which do not involve local people, see “Showcases” below, don’t confuse the two.) Once you know about what they are looking for and how they work, you contact the program coordinator or event planner for the college and
How do you make money? This depends on the institution. Sometimes you will set a fee. Other times, you will get a percentage based on who signs up for your course or seminar. However, some community colleges also offer “free seminars” where they either charge you for the room and promoting the event or will split the proceeds from product sales. This education work tends to develop close relationships with students that leads to long-term sales of products and services.