Just had to tell you that my daughter *loves* the Lango CD. Each morning this week since Spanish class, she runs into the living room and jumps up and down yelling, "dance, dance!"
Lisa Kully
Becoming a Lango Business Owner
In operating our own Lango region in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have learned what it takes to be successful. Moreover, we have learned what kind of person makes a great Lango Leader, and we have based our selection of new Lango Leaders (franchisees) on the following criteria.
Vital Strengths and Skills
Lango Leaders come from different backgrounds and bring various strengths and skills to their roles. There are, however, a few "must-haves" when it comes to succeeding in this position:
- A passion for bringing new languages and cultures to kids. Without this conviction, strengths and skills mean little.
- A strong interest in running and growing a business. Lango Leaders are entrepreneurs and educators, but they are also managers, marketers, salespeople, financial planners and operations coordinators as well.
- Excellent organizational skills. Scheduling and organizing teachers, classes, students and locations are crucial aspects of the operational role.
- Effective communication skills. Many Lango Leaders serve as teachers, managers and salespeople and encapsulate many aspects of running a Lango business. They should be not just effective communicators, but eager ones as well, interested in engaging, teaching and persuading all kinds of people.
- Committed and connected to the community. Being connected and engaged in their communities is crucial to operating a successful Lango region. This is helpful when developing relationships with schools, parent groups and other local organizations to help grow their business.
Other Important Skills
There are other skills that certainly help Lango Leaders achieve success. These include:
- Fluency in a target language. Being able to teach your own classes helps to hold down costs, while also ensuring that you remain keenly aware of what makes a great Lango class, what challenges teachers face and how students and parents perceive their classes.
- Financial acumen. It is not necessary to be a seasoned financial manager to keep abreast of a Lango region's revenues and costs, but a working knowledge of the fundamental financial aspects of the business certainly helps.
- Being a parent! A Lango Leader doesn't need to be a parent, but being able to observe Lango classes through your own child's eyes, and being personally familiar with how kids grow and learn can make the role simpler and more enjoyable.
Things to Consider
Again, we believe that a Lango Leader can achieve success without these more specialized attributes, and we believe that all of our Lango Leaders have what it takes to grow their business and make Lango the leader in teaching new languages to children. Here are some important things to consider:
- Why do you want to run your own Lango business?
- Are you an entrepreneur at heart? Consider your professional experience, times you have had to be a savvy business person, resourceful, and how that background applies to running a business like Lango? Many Lango Leaders have run a business before, have taught children, or otherwise have had experience that prepares them.
- What area would you want as a territory?
- How would you reach out to your community to make parents aware of your business? Some of our most successful Lango Leaders are very well-connected to their communities.
- Which languages and levels would you want to offer in the beginning? How would you select those?
- What do you anticipate would be your three greatest challenges that you would need to overcome to be successful?
- How many hours per week do you expect to devote to this business? Do you have any personal or professional obligations that require your time?
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