How Guy Arthur Canino created a lucrative education venture in the first year of business

• Course Instructor: Guy Arthur Canino

• Website: www.guyarthurschool.com

• Course Topic: Business English, English for tax professionals, conversation English, interview and job coaching  

• Interesting Stats: I made 5 figures in the first year and haven’t looked back since. I’ve landed contracts with the biggest companies in Germany, and I mean THE biggest.

1. Who are you?

I’m originally from Chicago but I’ve been living and working in Germany for 20 years now. I have an MA in applied linguistics and English language teaching. I am an extremely high energy person that can’t sit still and I need to keep building and creating.

2. What’s your course all about?

We provide our clients with English coaching for their job. As all of our teachers live in Germany, we know exactly what our clients need to succeed. We interview our clients and develop a tailor-made course just for them. People prefer that to the one size fits all cookie-cutter approach.

3. What makes you an expert in this field?

Apart from my education, I have knowledge of American and German business culture. I have worked in a variety of fields in both the US and Germany and am able to take that knowledge and use it to help others. Being able to speak fluent German is also helpful.

4. What is the transformation your course offers to the students?

We get our students to feel confident with the language. Most of our students took English in school and they often found it boring, we take them to the next level by showing them the rewards being fluent in English can bring. 

5. Which market does your online course serve and how did you get into it?

We serve the business community in Germany. When I moved to Germany, I started working at a language school, this was what I trained to do. I really wanted to start my own school, so I hired a telemarketing company to cold call potential clients and I quickly gained clients. This was 20 years ago mind you, I don’t think cold calling would have the same rate of success today.

6. Why is it important to you to serve this market?

I really know Germany so I can serve this market better than someone who is trying to serve all countries at once. Serving a market you understand is far more lucrative than trying to serve the one you don’t. 

7. Describe the moment when you decided to create your own course. Where were you, what happened and why did you decide to do it?

After working in the field for a while I got to know what the clients were after. It seemed like a lot of the language schools were more about selling books and getting clients into hard to get out of contracts, almost like a gym membership, but less on course content. I decided to work on developing courses and leave the business side of things for later.

8. How did you overcome doubtful moments during your course creation journey?

I have to say I didn’t have many, everything took off from the beginning. I’ve always been one to spontaneously jump into things without worrying about failure. My attitude has always been, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll try something new.

9. What are some of your tricks to deal with imposter syndrome?

I think imposter syndrome is quite natural in the beginning but wears off over time. Often we overthink what others think about us but we have to remember that most people will take you at face value, if you say you say you can do something, they’ll believe you unless you show them otherwise. We all have to start our careers sometime and if you try to keep humble, people keep coming back.

10. How long did it take you to create your course?

It took a while in the beginning, but now I can create a great course in under an hour, it’s all about experience.

11. How did your first launch go?

It went well, I never thought it wouldn’t. People liked the fresh approach. 

12. How do you structure your launches in general now?

As my classes are always live, there is no real launch per se.

13. Where does your traffic come from?

Google, LinkedIn, and Xing.

14. Which content do you like producing the most?

I go through phases but at the moment I love intercultural training.

15. What online course platform are you using?

I don’t use one, I concentrate on SEO instead. Most of my courses are taught using Zoom or Skype.

16. What is amazing about this platform?

N/A

17. Which features do you wish this platform would have?

N/A

18. Why did you choose this platform over other platforms?

N/A

19. Which other tools do you use to keep your online business running?

I keep updating my website so that I get noticed. If I see I’m getting less traffic, I make bigger changes. This may seem old fashioned, but it works.

20. How many students have you served so far?

Thousands, I never kept a record but it just keeps growing so quickly.

21. How much revenue have you created during your first launch, and ongoing?

There was never a time that I made less than 6 figures. 

22. What are you running costs to keep the online course business going?

What I love about my business and online business, in general, is that I don’t have a lot of overhead. I have a webmaster that keeps an eye on things for me which costs a few hundred per month and I also have a bookkeeper who takes care of the billing and admin.  I used to use Google AdWords a lot, but I found I wasn’t attracting the people I was looking for and caused me to get spammed a lot.

23. What are some of the biggest mistakes you made along the way?

I said yes to everything and every one, this just caused me a lot of stress trying to get something done that I wasn’t good at. Now I only do what I know I’m good at.

24. How has your business changed since implementing an online course into the business model?

The online part of it has just snowballed. Because I don’t have to travel to the client anymore, I can take on more clients.

25. How has your personal life changed?

It’s so much better! I have loads of gym equipment at home and I’m constantly working out between classes, I especially love jumping on the trampoline. I spend way more time with my family too. I also feel much better not having to wear stuffy clothes. This sounds like a small thing, but it feels so liberating getting to wear comfortable clothes all day. Not having to get in a car every day has really improved my mood too! Another benefit is that I get to eat at home, no more spending money on bad food in the city center.

26. What’s the greatest transformational story you can tell about one (or more) of your students?

Our students take our courses in order to improve their job prospects or survive in a world where the English language is so dominant. People often come to us because they had a hard time learning English in school. It’s really great to turn them into confident English speakers.

Sometimes we get students who weren’t good in school and don’t have a lot of confidence when it comes to learning new things. But through motivation, or laid back style, and respect for our students, we show them that they can be good learners, they love that.

27. If you could use a time machine and send yourself back to the time before you started out, what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now?

I would tell myself to take more risks, if you make a mistake and lose money, you can always make it back. 

28. What is your million dollar piece of advice to those who are just getting started in their online course journey OR for those who are looking to scale?

Focus on the course, not the business. When you’re giving the course, focus totally on that task, not the money you’re hoping to make. And offer something that adds value to someone’s life. Don’t offer some half-ass garbage so that you can make money without putting in the work. People will see through that. The internet is full of people trying to earn money for doing nothing and everyone knows it. And remember, if you think what you’re offering is great, and I mean truly great, someone else will too!