29/08/2025
My Dad made me chairman of the board in his school as he retired. I looked into the finances - boarding house was making a loss, day school was fine but teacher grossly underpaid.
I increased teachers pay, increased school fees a bit, increased boarding fees quite a bit. This would normally lead to a drop in population of the school by about 20% to 30%. People don't like increments.
First thing I did was an extensive renovation across the entire school - sinking in money to fix all parts of it at high speed (took less than 4 weeks).
I turned on Meta ads for the school with heavy spend, and started advertising in nearby towns - Port Harcourt, Aba, Uyo.
We still have 15 days before the term starts but we have already increased school population by 100 new kids, even with the new fees.
There is a lot more to do, but the takeaway for me is this - if you have something with physical infrastructure, run ads.
Mark Essien
