Close

Choose your country

Or view all businesses for sale

Worldwide

CAN

How to Run a Driving School in Canada

Learn about growing a successful driving school business and standing out from the competition.

Driving schools are important businesses, as they are the 'vehicles' to a sense of independence, and an exciting (but nerve wracking) journey into adulthood.

Driving school industry trends state that in the year 2018, the revenue generated amounted to approximately $406 million. While this is a few years ago, the statistics demonstrate a steady increase in revenue, which is good news for a driving school owner.

Boosting Your Business

Anyone who knows how to drive can set up a driving school, but not everyone knows how to run one. Here are a couple of tips you can use to ensure that your business improves its value proposition.

Use email marketing to your advantage

Email marketing is a staple, inexpensive, and personal form of marketing. Moreover, it has been known to bring in impressive ROI. So, you can use this targeted approach to offer weekly updates, educational resources and tips regarding tests and other useful support.

Be responsible

In this day and age, customers are leaning more towards businesses that display a strong approach towards responsibility - be it social, economic or environmental. Therefore, it is important to build that positioning.

You can do this by attending conferences related to driving safely or conferences that tell you how to boost your driving school business.

In addition, you can garner the trust and attention of your target market by appealing to their concerns. For example, if you are providing driving lessons to teenagers, you can hold workshops related to safety on the roads, or ways to convince parents or guardians that it is important for their children to learn this skill (in a safe, controlled environment).

Features of a Quality Driving Instructor

When recruiting or training driving instructors for your driving school, you need to ensure they possess the following qualities.

Expertise

Along with a stellar reputation, a driving instructor should possess quality course materials. They should be able to work with the latest facilities and simulate scenarios in real life. Moreover, a reliable driving instructor needs to be well-versed in various tools and techniques, such as vehicle control and defense mechanisms.

Licenced and certified

A driving instructor should have acquired their license from an accredited school and certified by the Ministry of Transportation in Canada.

Ample experience

Every instructor should have excellent knowledge of driving, as well as a number of learners. This is how they will know all about the local examiners and test routes.

Qualifications of an Experienced Driving Instructor

You need to ensure that the driving instructors you hire possess all these qualifications, as they are required by law in Canada.

  • They should be at least 19 years or older.
  • They should have a valid license for driving.
  • They should have at least three years of driving experience for the particular class of vehicle.
  • They should have less than 10 points present on their driving record in the last two years.

The Competitive Environment

Entering the driving school market in Canada, you are bound to face competition from various schools, such as AMB Driving School, Globe Driving Academy, Honours Driving School, and many more. But with so much competition in the market, how do you stand out?

First of all, you can offer customized driving packages to your learners. This will allow them to pick the kind of classes they want to take, the number of days in a week, as well as the hours and the instructors they could get.

Consequently, it will be in your best interests to efficiently manage your operations. Driving school business market research has proven that businesses can reap profits by using the right kind of tools and saving on money and time.

This can be done through a reliable driving school software suite. This is where DrivingSchoolSoftware.com comes in. DrivingSchoolSoftware.com provides quality driving education management software to people in Canada to protect the privacy of the learners. It can boost the trust that consumers have in your organization when giving you personal details, as this software is certified for FERPA, CSP, and HIPAA compliance.

Interesting Facts About the Driving School Sector

Below are some driving school business sector statistics that you may find interesting.

  • 88% of Canadians believe that all new drivers, no matter their age, should receive driver’s training.
  • People who attend driving schools can give their G2 road test only 8 months after sitting for their G1 test. Those who do not attend a school have to wait for 12 months.

Ways to Establish Yourself Through Marketing

Below are a handful of ways you can ensure that your driving school business does well in the market.

Perform regular audits

Performing regular audits will help you analyze the failure or success of your school. It is a dependable and reliable system to keep an eye on your checks and balances. Moreover, it helps you determine how close or far you are from achieving your goals, helping you make informed decisions.

Get your website analyzed by a professional

The point of a driving school website is to attract potential customers, as well as convince them to buy your services in the least number of steps. This is why your website, like all others in the industry, needs to be clean, simple, and responsive. It should also follow quality practices for improving URL structure guidelines and SEO.

Focus on automation and paid search

Utilize technology as much as possible, such as using software tools and marketing programs. These could be Google Ad Words, Microsoft Office 365, Google Analytics, and many more.

Financial Options

Below are some financial options for you to explore:

  • Franchising
  • Bank loans
  • Crowdfunding

Exiting Your Driving School Business

Retirement is a significant factor relating to people selling their business. Approximately 40% of Canadian entrepreneurs want to retire in the next five years.

You may also want to exit the driving school business on account of wanting to move on to the next phase of your life. Whatever your reasons are, it is crucial to develop an exit plan ahead of time. You’ll want to make your business valuable, and attract the right type of buyer who will continue to grow it and uphold its brand, clientele and reputation.



Megan Kelly

About the author

Megan is Head of Content Marketing at BusinessesForSale.com. She is a B2B Content Strategist and Copywriter. She has produced multiple articles that rank on the first page of Google SERPS, and loves creating people-first content.

@Be_theBoss