How can you earn money in education?
It is a question I have had to answer far too many times…
Everyone seems to have an understanding that there is no money in the education. At least getting even a small payout is believed to take five to ten years of negotiations.
But it could not be further from the truth. While it may be hard to become a part of the education system, there are other ways for generating revenue.
So let’s settle it for once — it is possible to earn money also in education.
Not as easy as selling ice cream.
Unfortunately, it is correct that most of education is ran by the government(s) who are not willing to test new solutions right away.
However, it is not schools that one always need to sell to.
Yes, getting into the system would be perfect. Lots of leads without much of marketing costs, leading to a sufficient revenue, I suppose.
But more people are finally accepting they should do extra investments by themselves. Thus making direct sales possible.
After school programs, boot camps, courses, DIY kits, events and all sorts of software can be a way for reaching the end user.
Some of it might be harder to scale. The rest take more time for developing. Yet everything can be made work.
If not the government, then who?
In the long run, we can hope that governments start investing more into the education, as well as become more willing to test new solutions on a nationwide scale.
Until that, we ought to focus on business models targeting other businesses, individuals or both.
It can be a software helping individual schools run themselves better. Perhaps still a hard sell.
Or it could be providing solutions for corporations to find talent early. Not meaning they would go work for that company right away or for tens of years. Still, innovation can even be sought in the K-12 level. While some might actually end up joining those firms for a bit after graduating.
Of course, advertising is another way for getting corporates to join the cause! Either to sell something or build a better brand.
Meanwhile, the parents are willing to spend thousands for giving the best education for their kids. Either putting them to special classes or buying any materials on the shelves.
Another great way for reaching the latter is via educational games. Not the boring, bad quality ones. But something like Big Bang Legends— the awesome game on particle physics Peter Vesterbacka and his team are building.
What about Robotex?
We are also a semi-educational company.
On one side, we help to generate the next 50’000 robotics startups and innovations for the corporates via all sorts of challenges.
On the other side, we are helping to educate the next wave of engineers that will eventually build those startups or innovate the corporations from inside.
For the latter, we have been running events with competitions, conference, exhibition and workshops since 2001. Now already in 9 countries! Where attendees and exhibitors pay us for organising these get-togethers. While helping us build the brand.
We use this brand then to set up boot camps and robotics schools, as well as help sell the robotics kits along with other types of merchandise. Eventually leading to online courses and perhaps even some mobile games…
That is all from the educational side. Certainly not bringing riches to anyone, as we are reinvesting everything to reach more people. Yet the brand will one day help us lead the direction for innovation across frontier tech.
In short, we know first hand that it is possible to earn money in education. It can be hard and take longer to reach the ultimate goals. But it will be worth it in the long run!
Are you building something in the education field? How are you generating revenue? Can we somehow help your cause?
We are hosting the biggest robotics conference in the Nordics, as part of Robotex International 2018. Have you already gotten your tickets?
