Would you visit a local Internet Marketing center and what would you want to find there?

Thanks Steve, good questions. During our test, we used private contractors to provide the education, although, each of us had been classroom instructors also.

We could easily begin anywhere in country with Shared Office Space, the pay as you go model, and there are some nice places. The ones we used had computers and high speed Internet access. The projector room was used on a first sign up, first used basis, the one to one was done in one of the small meeting rooms.

So, our overhead was covered by the facility, we bought units of time, and after a couple of months, were at the highest use level, which was about 650 per month. This was an out of pocket expense, but we didn't have rent, utilities or such, and no long term contract, although we did by the quarter for a discount and first use of some services.
We tested our marketing with ads in the local newspapers, mostly Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Canton Repository.

We ran mostly HELP WANTED classified and usually did 5 in a row. We also offered a free resume and job readiness evaluation.

In our area, we have these Govt funded places, in Akron it is called the Job Center on Tallmadge Ave, and it is the place where the county sends people who are receiving welfare of any kind, plus the One Stop place to get the poor services. The problem is, they, like you did, depend on Gov't funding.

We found a niche, people NOT on any sort of social services, just workers who had been laid off, wanted a career change, or displaced. These people felt very patronized and often humiliated by the funded places, who treat everyone with a certain disdain. May not be the same across the country, but when you ask for public assistance, you come hat in hand and take your music.

We also worked directly with corporations, hiring some contractors who had worked for our company at the time, New Horizons Computer Training Center which had seen it's better days.

These contractors were paid as they were for New Horizons, on a commission basis.

We had a Job Training track, a computer training track, a skills assessment track, and job connection. We also learned that many companies don't like to use the gov't funded places because of the red tape and quality of worker which may come from such a place.

Three of us had also worked at a County Funded Computer Training center located in public housing, and found much of our time doing documentation for grants and such. At least 33 to 40% of our work day was filling out paperwork, at Computer Horizons, it was all teaching.

Our plan had a start-up figure of a "seed capital" or angel investor amount and each unit had to be self sustaining.

The reason it tested so profitable, was exactly for what you say. One nearby competitor was the University of Akron, with all those classrooms to heat, light and cool plus all the computers...but they have big Gov't money. Still, if you want to have an employee take a class, you have to fit it in to their SCHEDULE.

We found both corporations and individuals were willing to pay a competitive price to get what they wanted when they wanted it.

We also did some paid seminars and workshops too.

Very good questions.

gjabiz

PS. The reason we didn't pull the trigger can be summed up in two words...Heart Attack, which knocked me on my azz and even now, I'm still not up to speed, and probably never will be again.

With the interest in IM, probably most first year Warriors, who have any success, could teach a class, like my friend the second grade teacher told me, how hard do you think it is for a College Grad to stay ahead of 2nd graders. Here, a lot of Kindergartners...so, the IM today sector could be a gold mine.