Founder and CEO of Two Education Companies in Japan: Basil Tonks

Ben Shearon is a retired university English teacher based in Sendai. He was born in Germany and grew up in Spain but claims to be British. After living in Spain, the UK, and China, he moved to Japan in 2000 and has been here ever since. In 2013 Ben started the RetireJapan website to share information in English about personal finance, investing, and retirement for people living in Japan. It has since grown into an online community with a forum, newsletter, YouTube channel, and a number of publications and courses. In his spare time Ben helps his wife run a children’s language school, publishes a textbook series for Japanese junior high school students (the Fluency Course), and enjoys losing at Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

Marek Kiczkowiak has been in ELT since 2009. He has CELTA, DELTA and a PhD. He currently runs an educational company, Academic English Now, where he helps PhD students and researchers write research papers. He grew the company from 0 to 70k/month and now shares his insights with English teachers who want to start a widely profitable teaching English business.

Alex Hormozi

Blue Ocean Strategy

Crossing the Chasm

Jim Collins

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

Born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1966, Basil moved to Canada in 1969. After graduating from the University of Toronto, he pursued Asian Studies at the Graduate School of the University of British Columbia. Since coming to Japan in 1992, Basil has been extensively involved in education, serving as principal of an English language school, materials developer, teacher trainer, radio host, educational consultant, and more. Currently, he is Founder and CEO at two companies, the Educational Venture Corporation and Maxwell Education Group, and Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at a third company, Potential Plus

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

Originally from the UK, Founder Zoe Smith created Mexico City based BE School when she saw a gap in the market for English Programs that were based specifically on growing Business Skills and Confidence for Mexican Professionals. BE School works with dozens of International corporations with customized courses tailored for individual and industry needs; the ethos is to enhance confidence through effective communication, thereby creating global ambassadors for the companies it serves.

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

In 2007,  Sakurako Oshima set up her own company specialising in English education for adults. Her mission is to provide powerful support to as many people as possible through lessons, consulting, coaching, and books in order to achieve the respective goals of various people who need English, such as those who use English for work, those who want to be stationed abroad, those who want to study overseas' universities and graduate schools, and those who dream of moving abroad.

Since 2006, she has been working as a writer and has published a total of fifteen books.

Website： http://officebii.com/index.html

Blog： https://ameblo.jp/sarahaloha

Facebook： https://www.facebook.com/office.bi.i

Twitter： https://twitter.com/Sakurashinju

Instagram： https://www.instagram.com/sakurako_english/

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

After nearly 30 years of intensive experience in every aspect of test preparation, Mike Bergin knows what works in tutoring and what doesn’t. A nationally recognized leader in education, Mike founded Chariot Learning in 2009 to deliver on the promise of what truly transformative individualized education can and should be. Besides overseeing Chariot Learning’s national programs, Mike is an ACT Certified Educator who trains teachers across the country to implement critical skills and college and career readiness standards.

Mike is proud to be the founding President of the Board of Directors of the National Test Prep Association, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the highest ethical standards and best practices in the test prep industry while advocating for the appropriate administration and use of standardized tests for admissions and assessment purposes. 

Mike is also the creator of the SAT/ACT TestFlip program, founder of the free testing and admissions answer site TestBright, co-host of Tests and the Rest, the college admissions industry podcast, and publisher of Tutor: The Newsletter.

Lastly, Mike is the co-author of the Amazon bestseller Crash and Learn: Lessons in Business.

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

Jarrad Merlo is the principal consultant of Nouns n' Verbs.com where he helps schools, publishers and companies digitise their language learning and testing products, content, assessment, media, marketing, teaching and strategy. 

He co-founded and spent the last ten years building an EdTech company called E2 that specialises in B2C and B2B high-stakes English exam prep that has registered over 1.5 million users. He is also the face of E2's YouTube channels that have over 2.5 million subscribers. 

He has a wealth of knowledge about technology start-ups and scale-ups and all things applied linguistics and technology.

The EFL Magazine Entrepreneur Conference

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

Nicola Prentis started off in ELT as a teacher, bouncing around the world wherever she most wanted to go at the time: Czech Republic, Turkey, Australia, Spain, Thailand. She started writing EFL materials as a way to transition into working from her sofa and settled in Spain around 2012. Once she realised she could sell ideas to magazines, she branched out into writing about travel, food, parenting, even Brxit and Love Island for publications including Cosmo, The Independent and the Wall Street Journal (OK, it was only one article in each of those!).

 After a brief period of speaking at conferences, she realised she wasn't going to earn any more from writing than she had from teaching and the shine had faded from sitting at home not talking to anyone all day. At the same time, she began wondering what she could do with her savings, carefully scrimped over 20 years. The answer led her into teaching herself about investing from a starting point of utter cluelessness. 

That was quickly followed by the realisation that many, many people in ELT had the same lack of knowledge about investing and that all her years of teaching and creating educational materials were about to come in handy... the result is The Chilled Investor. A beginner course on investing that can take anyone from clueless to clued up in 6 weeks. 

www.chilledinvestor.com to sign up to the newsletter to be the first to hear about it.

The EFL Magazine Entrepreneur Conference is taking place on the 27th and 28th of August. Sign up here for the latest news on the conference

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

Jeff Johnson made the break into online teaching almost 2 years years ago and hasn't looked back since. By using his experience in education and aptitude for strategic planning, Jeff has carved out a thriving business within 2 years by being focused, measured, patient and on message with his offering. Jeff has hired a teacher recently, and is seeing his business continue to grow and expand its offerings.

From Jeff:

"I'm passionate about helping students remove what may be their biggest obstacle when it comes to advancing their education or career.
Over the last 10 years, I've helped hundreds of students from over 100 countries improve their English-language skills.
Using a simple step-by-step approach, I help students focus on their English-language learning despite the competing demands of friends, family and work. I also assist them in developing a clear strategy for success on the IELTS Exam.
My greatest joy is celebrating their achievements and seeing them attend the university of their choice or land their dream job."

www.esljeff.ca

Sign up here for updates about the conference

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast

John Hayes is the creator of MyCoolClass Co-operative, a UK based learning platform cooperative owned collectively by its members. He is former private detective from California and has been living in Poland for the past 6 years teaching English online and at language schools. John has traveled to 32 countries and has a background in activism, community organizing, and project management.

As an advocate for democracy in the workplace, John started MyCoolClass to give power back to online teachers through collective ownership. He says that venture capital exploits their workers and teachers are ready for something better.

Main Website: https://mycoolclass.com
Cooperative Website: https://coop.mycoolclass.com
Community Shares: https://www.fundsurfer.com/community-share/mycoolclass-learning-platform-owned-by-teachers-not-venture-capital-help-us-grow

Sign up to our mailing list

https://eflmagazine.com/the-efl-magazine-business-podcast/

https://linktr.ee/eflmagazine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theeflmagazinebusinesspodcast