Expenses for Training and Placement

I know what I do seems very easy but I just wanted to give you guys a breakdown on what my actual expenses are so you know that it is not easy to do what I do, especially as a new start up.

Rent	$3,300.00
Salaries	$7,500.00
India Office	$4,000.00
Advertising	$1,500.00
Internet	$200.00
Staff Phones	$500.00
Guest House	$4,500.00
Vijays Salary	$5,000.00*
Gotomeeting	$300.00
Misc Exp	$500.00
Training Exp	$2,000.00
Total	$29,300.00

*Vijay's salary will start from June 1st, 2011. Before this date he has not taken one dollar.

Yes we do spend $29,300 per month for our training and placement division.  This is what it costs me each and every month.  This does not include SAP Server access which costs another $3100 per month, but that expense falls into the SAP Access division so I will not include it here, even though it should be included since it is really an expense.

I believe in team building and all of us acting on behalf of a greater good.  When I work as hard as I do and spend as much money as I do, I expect all of my consultants not to act selfishly but work together with us in this team building.  I will continue to keep spending major money to improve the training and placement division 'til it reaches it's full potential.

To each of you that complains that I charge a lot for training, your training is actually subsidized by all our placements.  There is no way that we are charging you what it should really be costing you.

In the final analysis do I make a lot of money?  Not really for all the work I do, but I will continue to do it, because I know that no one will work as hard as I do for the students that join us.  And this is a big AND, I LOVE what I do.  Yes, I love seeing my kids come into training with just potential and I can take that block of marble and make it into a David.  I am obviously no Micheal Angelo, but really, I love what I do and that is how I feel when I can take a student and train and place them.

If you can say that about a job, then you have found a calling and should continue to work hard to excel in it.

Last Business Analyst (BA) batch all placed

My last student from our last BA batch just got placed today.  This is 2 batches in row of all our BA's students getting placed.  Congrats to all the students and teacher for the hard work. 

Our current BA batch has 10 kids in the class and we still have another 2 weeks of classes.  You guys have a lot to live up to?  2 perfect batches of BA students.  Keep working hard and let us make it 3 perfect batches in a row.

Incident at the guest house

We have students that stay with us at the guest house and we had an incident that happened that I think everybody can learn from.

A recent student had come to the guest house and did not have cash, but had a check for $1000 from some relative of his. Let's call him " the douchebag."

One of the other kids had been working and had money, and was generally a nice guy, said "OK, I will lend you $50 and you can pay me back after you get money again." We'll call him "the money lender" The agreement was done and the douchebag took the $50.

After a week the money lender asked for his $50 back and the douchebag blew him off, saying yeah yeah you will get your money.

Second week comes and still no money had been returned, so money lender asked again.  The douchebag gets angry and takes some money out of his pocket and throws it at the money lender, saying "Here is some money, I will pay you the rest as soon as I cash the check," and shows his check again.  The money lender picks up the money that was thrown and it happens to be $26.  So there are a few more words exchanged and a small fight takes place.  The douchebag locks himself in the bathroom and calls the police.

Here we get a divergence in the story.  The money lender says that there was no real physical damage done, but that the douchebag emerged out of the bathroom with physical bruises and had blood on his face and he went to the police and said that he was attacked. The police ended up arresting the money lender.

The money lender is taken to jail. His boss goes to bail him out, but is told that until he faces the judge the next morning, there is no way to get him out of jail.  The next day goes in front of the judge who sets his bail at $500 and finally the money lender is out of jail.

The court case on this was May 17, 2011 and here is the final outcome.  The money lender was fined $750 plus 35 hours of community service and 9 months of probation.  The lawyer cost was $5000.

So the money lender, who was trying to be a nice guy, ended up losing $5750 plus all the community service hours and the 9 months of probation.

So there are lots of questions that arise from this situation:

1) Would you lend a roommate in the guest house money?
2) If you did and were not paid back, would you confront that roomate?
3) If you knew you could get convicted of assault and it could be determined to be a felony, which would guarantee that you will not get an H1B, how would this determine your actions? Would they change? Stay the same? 

This is a real life story that happened recently. What would you do when confronted with this situation?

IT Market is Red Hot

If any of you were thinking about joining for IT training, this is the time.  The market is red hot, and I mean red hot.

If you need a job and are decently smart, that is enough, we can train and place you very easily.

We offer almost 20 separate technologies, I am sure that there is one that will be right for you.

Even the SAP market is red hot.  If you want to make a career switch, now is the time.  You never know when the market will turn again, but right now would be great time to come for IT training.  It does not even matter which training you come for, almost everybody is getting placed in less than 30 days.

Our SAP Training and the Price

I get a lot of calls about why our prices are so high for our SAP training.  That is a good question, so why do we charge $2500 instead of the usual market price of $1500 for our SAP classes?

Every business has a price point and a reason for that price point.  We never compromise on quality and will do whatever it takes for our consultants to be trained to the highest standards.  We refuse to compete on price and will likely always be the highest priced training company in the market place that we compete in.

For instance in our SAP FICO training we offer, 2 Months of SAP classes for a total of 64 Hours Minimum.  We usually go about 80 hours for our classes though.  We had a student in our current class that had gone to another company in Michigan for SAP FICO training and here is a summary of what she told me about their training.  She told me that they promised the moon, but in the end the teacher was a managerial level FICO consultant and that she only gave an overview of SAP FICO without any real substance.  Any questions my current student asked at the other company would always get the same reply: that work is done by the developers.

This is what we offer for $2500 in our SAP FICO training:

Minimum of 64 hours of SAP FICO Class Hours - Usually we go about 80 hours
In depth Q & A sessions via gotomeeting during the weekday evenings
SAP Premium (If you are selected) - 30 days of daily solving live SAP issues that our consultants have faced.
30-60 Days of Live Project Participation - This is an additional $299 per month

(SAP Premium will be an additional 60 hours of problem solving - But is only available for students that will sign a contract to work for us for 1 year)

This what our competition offers for $1500 in their SAP FICO class:

"Promised hours" of 48 hours  - Usually they tend to do 20-26 hours
No Q & A Sessions outside of class hours
No SAP Premium
No Live Project Participation

Most Indians (my customer base) tend to be very price sensitive, but I will let others compete on price and I will stick with the way I feel that the SAP training has to be done.  If this requires me to charge a higher price, then so be it.

I look at each and every student as an extension of a family.  If I can help that student succeed, I feel like I am helping a family member succeed.

I will keep my price point where it is, because I do not want a lot of students anyway.  I prefer to work with just 4-5 students per class.  This will allow us to give more attention to each of our students. 

My suggestion is that you show up on a class day and talk to any of my current students and ask them about their experience so far and they will give you the best feedback if they are getting their value for their money.  I believe that they will all give you a resounding YES.