Testimonials

A Pleasant and Rewarding Career Change:

In early 2005 at age 50, while employed as a well-paid OEM operations manager for a $2 billion car entertainment electronics supplier to Mercedes-Benz, BMW, GM and Honda, I was looking for a career change that would allow me to operate my own successful business while moving toward retirement and also alleviate the normal day-to-day stress of dealing with endless customer complaints, meeting the VP’s ever higher expectations and the general politics that come with any management position within a major corporation.

There was also the consideration of my wife’s Japanese parents’ increasing age and her desire to be near them in their latter years and to be near our new grandchild, our son and his wife in Tokyo.

Having worked for Japanese companies for 26 years in Japan and the US and having taught English at Berlitz and privately for companies for over 5 years in Japan back in the 1980’s, I decided to look into starting an English school in Japan. A Google search for “English Schools in Japan” found the Smith’s School of English Franchise website.

I was impressed immediately with the level of information provided on the site and decided to contact SSE about buying a franchise license. My first email resulted in a call back by Mark Smith, the franchise’s founder, and he spent a lot of time explaining to me the costs involved, the expectations and why SSE had the right combination of curriculum, training, support and the track record to assure my success. Still not sold yet at that point, I decided to pay Mr. Smith a visit in May 2005 during a trip to Japan to attend my son’s wedding in Tokyo. Again, Mark was very gracious and spent a lot of time with me answering my questions and even spent the afternoon with me looking at a potential school site in Ikeda City, Osaka where I was considering to live and operate my school.

After sending a small deposit toward buying a franchise license in August 2005, I found that the existing Okamoto school was for sale on the SSE site and after a exchanging a lot of information and pictures and a direct meeting between my wife’s cousin, Mr. Smith and Mr. Elliott, the owner of the Okamoto school at the time, I decided to go ahead with the purchase of the Okamoto School. Mr. Smith then transferred my deposit to the then owner of the Smith’s Okamoto franchise and stepped back for his own sale.

I took over the Okamoto school in July 2006 and have almost increased the enrollment by 50% in the first two months simply by following the processes taught by the SSE head office trainers and staff and a lot of my own effort at local promotion. The school is making money and growing and I am convinced that, if I continue to work hard and follow the methods taught by SSE and with the excellent support of the administration staff, I will completely replace my original salary within a year and a half, I will be my own boss and will, most likely, live longer without all the excess stress that comes with climbing and trying not to fall off the corporate ladder.

No business is an automatic success and there will be some who simply cannot be their own boss or are not willing to put in the hours and effort to make the business succeed. However, I will not be one of those and I know that I am not alone in my effort. Mark, his staff and my fellow franchisees are always there to provide support and advice each step of the way.

I cannot think of a more rewarding or well-planned out business than this. A big part of SSE’s success comes from a philosophy of genuinely wanting to provide good English education that meets the needs of the students for a fair price and without all the pressure and limitations they find at some of the other large chain schools. It is by far the best deal for the students and for the teacher-owners of the schools.

Al Bartle.

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