Free classes - best idea ever

[cole31]

i love the idea for this as i have done private tutoring sessions for people. I would love to try to get a group together to have a lesson but fear i would not be able to get a group of people to teach. So id like to ask how it was that you were able to get a group of people to show up. How much marketing have you done for it and what techniques did you use ( flyers, social media, word of mouth, etc) . I would love to hear to some pointers to i could get classes started up in my library or other environment so i can help out some other people. I figured i could get some of the people i privately tutor to go to a meeting but i would be loosing out on some money that way as i charge a small private tutor fee of $15 an hr. I would like to do a public free one for more people. So any ideas please let me know

 

[Rocco]

i love the idea for this as i have done private tutoring sessions for people. I would love to try to get a group together to have a lesson but fear i would not be able to get a group of people to teach. So id like to ask how it was that you were able to get a group of people to show up. How much marketing have you done for it and what techniques did you use ( flyers, social media, word of mouth, etc) . I would love to hear to some pointers to i could get classes started up in my library or other environment so i can help out some other people. I figured i could get some of the people i privately tutor to go to a meeting but i would be loosing out on some money that way as i charge a small private tutor fee of $15 an hr. I would like to do a public free one for more people. So any ideas please let me know

I don't spend my money on this class. The newspaper puts it in the things to do section, the library puts it on their weekly class list, and I post something on my Facebook page.

 

[Toshia]

So for the last 3 months, I have been doing free classes once a month at the library. First month was on internet security, computer viruses, malware. Had 30 people attend, sold 16 copies of Kasperky.

Last month, I did one on the importance of switching from XP. Had 36 people attend, 21 of them I did a data transfer for.

Today they wanted me to prepare more information on internet security, so I did. Instead of the brief overview, I went more into detail. 32 people attended, sold another 9 copies of Kaspersky, and 7 subscriptions to Carbonite. (thank you cryptolocker!)

In the survey, they said they want a class on Windows 8 next month. It was what a lot penciled in. Although I finally bought a laptop with 8.1 on it, I have avoided using it like the plague. Now I guess I have to go and buy a book and become an expert at it, LOL. Other than customer relations, I just don't know how to turn a class on Windows 8 into a sales opportunity. I don't want to get into the business of selling computers, sounds like a pain, and no company I have looked at will allow a dealer to work out of their house, LOL. Or am I looking at this the wrong way? Not every class do I have to sell stuff to? In this case, I can give a good overview of how to do things. Maybe a side by side comparison to an older Windows.

Every class so far has been very successful. I have probably done a computer cleaning on 20 of the customers as well. Maybe a freebie course with no selling points would make me look good, LOL.

What do you guys think, and have you attempted to do similar courses?

We have not hosted classes yet, but we recently got the space to do so. Great tips, and we are really looking to just build relationships, so free or very low cost seems very sensible.

 

[tucsonpc]

What do you guys think, and have you attempted to do similar courses?

I've toyed with the idea. There certainly are several trainings I could give that folks around here would surely want to take (for free!). It's nice to see that you had such an immediate return on investment (in terms of av/backup sales, at least).

How did you approach the library to use their space? Any special considerations for hosting a training event like this?

 

[Thedog]

Im doing the other way around, charge for lectures / classes. Why? More money...

Sure, you can fix the computer for 20 clients and it will take you 20 hours, or you could speak 1 hour to 20 clients....

Many advantages of doing classes / lectures as you can easily calculate the profits, no risk of misadventures (for example doing wrong diagnosis of computer) etc. I am moving my business more towards lectures and classes as I see a huge demand there. Technology is cheap and replaceable but knowledge is not.

 

[ComputerPro]

Great idea! We do what we call a $20 for 20 program at our tech-bar. Which is basically $20 for 20 min of any training / teaching / questions etc. Works great when people have questions that are in depth enough that they will take up your time answering them. We have thought about doing full on classes but did not move forward with that yet. Glad that it's working good for you! I'm looking forward to starting something like that soon.

 

[MikeH]

LOL, most of my sales pitch is subtle. Such as today, towards the end of the session, I demonstrated downloading 3 viruses, with Kaspersky catching each one. Obviously I tested this at home first, LOL, what a disaster that could have been. Reminds me of Bill Gates demonstrating Windows when it got BSOD on stage. Really, in an hour long course, I only use 5 - 10 minutes of it selling the product or services.

I've been wanting to infect my system with viruses and malware. There has been some things I need to try, but I have no idea where to download any. Advice anyone?

 

[Chadhardy]

What I've done in the past is use these files: http://www.eicar.org/85-0-Download.html

And you can visit some of these websites: https://www.malwaredomainlist.com/mdl.php

 

[MikeH]

I'll check it out, thanks