What an incredible period! I'm sure we will all remember this for many years to come. Change of the norm, uncertainty in the future, looking over your shoulder at what's happening elsewhere; these are modern times. You may well be reading this now, with the prospect of being made redundant in the not too distant future and wondering if you could become a driving instructor. Is the pay good? How hard is it to qualify? Is my own driving good enough?
Don't panic...... don't panic.
Perhaps the first thing to say is that you are not alone, there are literally millions of others having exactly the same thoughts. That is kind of good to hear but does pose somewhat of a threat to your plans as well. There is likely to be an upsurge in new driving instructors. One of the benefits of joining the BIG TOM Driving School Franchise is that it has been established since 2009, the business is successful, the systems used do get results for customers.
One of the easiest traps to fall into is to under-estimate the task of running your own business in a competitive market. Instructors who ignore this warning resort to charging £8/hour in a desperate attempt to keep trading, and they do that for about six months, lose the will to continue and terminate their business. It happens, often.
You don't need to actually experience that situation to realise the gravity of it. Over the course of several years, I have witnessed many, many "new" driving schools die a sudden death after a short period of trading. If you need proof of this, check out the numbers of newly qualified approved driving instructors on official DVSA statistics (on www.GOV.UK), then check out the total number of instructors and notice the figure not rising - THAT will show you how many instructors are giving up their badge.
This is avoidable, simply by joining an established school like BIG TOM, who look after their instructors, support them, and help them to develop.
