Running any business successfully has numerous challenges and hurdles for you to face but running one that must follow increased levels of compliance just adds to those challenges tenfold. RTOs (registered training organizations) are a very popular form of business in Australia and can present you with some great profits and success. However, making sure you’re sticking to the rules and are providing your trainees with the right education is imperative to your business’ continued survival. Here we’ve listed some essential steps to ensuring everything goes to plan with your registered training organization.
Create your business plan
As with all companies, no matter the industry, creating a long-term business plan is very important as it will help to keep you on track as the months and years progress. It can be tempting to deviate from the path, especially if you feel as though you’ve had some interesting, innovative, yet risky ideas to how you can change things up but try your best to stick to your original plan unless things aren’t going the way you’d hoped.
Changing direction with your business can be incredibly risky, especially if you’ve committed resources and time to your original plan. Try to make things work as best as you can and only change course once you’ve exhausted your current plan.
Stick to your budget
Similar to your business plan, if you fail to stick to your budget as best as you can, you could find yourself in a spot of trouble. Financially, your budget will keep you on track with everything from hiring costs and salaries to resource purchases and rent payments for office spaces.
If you start spending money outside of what you and your team have agreed upon, you may find yourself being caught short when it comes to paying for essential aspects of your business plan. It’s important then to make sure that everything essential is paid for first, and that you also set aside part of your budget for unexpected costs such as increased energy bills and overlooked fees.
Building strong training and assessment programs
The success of your RTO relies heavily on your ability to provide quality, respectable training to your students to ensure they are prepared for the industry, and you also need to be able to prove that these students have learned what they need to know and can demonstrate their knowledge via assessments.
These assessments you create must follow the evidence rule, so ensure you keep this at the front of your mind when generating your course assessments. For more information about the evidence rule and why they are important to your RTO, check out Cloud Assess’ article. Essentially, this rule dictates how you can prove the learned knowledge and skills of your trainees, showing that they are ready and deserving of the qualifications you are providing.
Hiring a great team
A business is only as strong as the team it is comprised of. Your RTO will be severely hindered by an unprepared, unmotivated, and unskilled team, and this accounts for all areas of the business. You should ensure that you’ve hired the most skilled employees possible, or at least have hired those with great potential and dedication to their role, whom you can then train in the relevant skills they need.
Not only should your trainers and assessors be of high quality and also possess at least a certificate IV in training and assessment, but you’ll also want to make sure everyone from your customer service team to your accounting and legal teams is of high quality to ensure everything ticks along smoothly.
Don’t slack on your marketing
Marketing your business is probably one of the most important parts of any business today, especially with the competition for attention online. Social media’s saturation of marketing has made the task of getting your name out there incredibly difficult. Luckily, due to the fairly niche nature of RTOs, your competition is likely going to be much lower than you think, however they should still not be underestimated.
Even with just one competing RTO business in your industry, they could get the edge on you with their marketing campaigns and be dominating on social media. If they do, then the chances are that anyone searching for training in your industry will find your competition first and there’s a strong possibility they will choose them. Ensure you have a qualified, skilled marketing specialist or team that can really improve your reach and visibility.
Ensure compliance with regulations and the law
Due to the serious nature of education and training, it’s imperative that you follow all the regulations and laws set out for RTOs. Failure to comply with regulations can lead to some serious consequences for you and your business. This is where both first-hand knowledge of regulations and rules and hiring a compliance specialist come in very handy. There is a lot of red tape and rules for RTOs and to keep yourself focused on other areas of running your business, it’s a good idea to have someone taking care of this side of things instead.
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