The current economic climate has seen a downturn for the professional services industry, and independent driving school instructors are also feeling the pinch of the credit crunch as many learner drivers either cut down on the number of driving lessons they take each week, or stop them completely! As people struggle to meet the essentials of living, only those who can still afford tuition or those who need a driving licence for a job will be willing to allocate money for a driving instructor’s services, and with fierce competition, many ADIs are finding it hard to keep their heads above water, with many unable to pay weekly franchise fees or monthly car leasing costs.

So what can a driving school owner do in these hard times to survive the effects of credit crunch and the low number of learner drivers willing to take driving lessons?

Here are a few ideas to try to that may help to boost your turnover and attract more pupils to your driving school.

Special Offers: You can offer special discounts to both existing customers as well as new learner drivers which could be run over a couple of weeks or for a month. Examples could be 3 driving lessons for the price of 2 if paid for in advance, special driving test offer, take a 2 hour assessment lesson day before test and only pay for 1 hr on the test date.

Don’t forget to remind existing pupils of the fact that they get a free lesson for every person they refer to your driving school who takes 2 lessons.

For new learner drivers your existing clients who haven’t had lessons for a while, you could offer discounted lessons such as £3 off your next 5 or 10 lessons (you do the calculations to make sure you are still making a profit while offering an incentive).

Promote post driving test tuition: Contact pupils who have used the driving school in the past, and have passed, offering them post driving test tuition such as Pass Plus, DIA advanced drivers test, offering a discount. Other services could be night driving, adverse weather or even a 2 hour motorway driving lesson!

Refresher Lessons Make sure you advertise the fact that you offer these to driving license holders who haven’t driven for a while, especially if you know of people about to buy a new car, as a few extra pounds to build confidence will be money well spent on keeping safe and not crashing a new car worth thousands of pounds, recession or not, there are still people getting bonuses and handouts so look for the right opportunities.

Learn a languageBeing able to speak french or spanish could open up more doors for foreign nationals to learn to driving with your driving school.

Diversify your income source Don’t only think of earning money as a driving instructor, there might be other skills that you could use, such as giving maths or science tuition, piano lessons, web design skills.

With a little bit of effort and work on your part, you can make sure that your driving school business survives the credit crunch and does not go under.