Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in language education but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Thomas Delany, Founder of English Reservoir, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

The English language is the international language of business, science, and finance, and the go-to language every person on the planet should learn if they want to communicate with others in an international setting.

I founded English Reservoir with the aim of providing the ultimate, intuitive, dynamic, and interactive platform for English learners. In a nutshell, English Reservoir offers a wide array of courses within a subscription-based package.

Method and the student's needs

Based on my experience as an English teacher in Spain and seeing how my students learned best, I decided to create the courses from the bottom up. I implemented a method of instruction for our courses based on what was the most successful strategy with my students in the classroom.

Inspired by the direct method that I had implemented when teaching, I designed my courses around contextual, interactive, and analytical learning.

While we can't replicate a one-to-one lesson with a teacher, we can leverage our interactive platform to serve as a fundamental resource for English learners.

Our intentions and business model

English Reservoir does not intend to, nor could it ever replicate or replace a teacher. Rather, our intention is to serve as a fundamental resource for students, teachers, and educational institutions, which in turn, would be far more beneficial than other, more traditional, complementary resources like workbooks.

Furthermore, we also have an affiliate programme in place and plan to work with academies and educational institutions based on a commission model. This collaborative effort should be a huge part of our business model so that we can expand further.

What's more, our solution is truly scalable because all current and future courses within our package can be made available to many other countries, given that we can change the language of instruction to adapt to other languages.

Our product at this point in time

As part of our current package of courses that we offer to Spanish speakers (as part of a subscription model), we have:

Moreover, all the lessons within our courses are designed to be properly indexed to allow for ease of use for both students and teachers.

We have three more courses in the pipeline for early 2023; Cambridge Advanced, Cambridge Proficiency, and Pronunciación en inglés (English pronunciation).

In addition, what we also have in the pipeline for late 2023 is an entire series of courses based on the Common European of Reference for Languages (CEFR) which shall be less goal-specific (what we currently offer) and shall give the student the opportunity to begin at their level, for example, A1 or B2, and progress from there.

All our courses, no matter what the student is focusing on, be it the Cambridge exams, pronunciation, verbs, or general English grammar, will form part of a subscription plan at an economical price of USD 4.99 per month. Students will have access to all the courses within the platform as part of their subscription plan.

So, in terms of accessibility, pricing, scalability, and content quality, it's not going to be easy to beat us.

Given the complexity of English and the sheer number of specific goals one might have, I feel it's paramount to have a single platform that can meet the demands of students on a global scale.

Tell us about yourself

It was in Spain that I got my first position as an English teacher. I taught one-to-one classes and group classes as well as in-company classes. This teaching experience proved to be vital in that I acquired experience in teaching English and learned the ins and outs of the language.

Moreover, I learned a great deal regarding the language learning process and what worked best in the classroom. This experience, in turn, proved fundamental in how I designed English Reservoir's learning platform.

In the later stages of my teaching career, I began working on the website and course platform. The platform would later serve as a learning tool that takes a very inductive approach to learning because it makes use of the direct method.

I'm motivated by the fact that English Reservoir's solution is truly unique in that the method is dynamic, contextual, analytical, and especially inductive. We are bringing something new to the table, and I want to bring as many people on board onto our platform as possible.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Creating English Reservoir has surely been the largest undertaking ever. Aside from building the courses, I also created a grammar index on our main site in both English and Spanish. Our site has grown in popularity over these last five years, and we now get between 35,000 to 50,000 monthly visitors from across the globe. Furthermore, we complement the resources on our website with our YouTube channels (Both in Spanish and English).

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

I always try to stay as customer-focused as possible. As a result, the hardest part is having to take absolutely everything into account regarding customer needs. If it means tearing everything down and starting again, then that's what needs to be done because, at the end of the day, everything from video streaming speed, the course syllabus, and ease of access, as well as our channels of communication, must all work well. So, I've spent years building the platform, tearing everything down, and honing in on my skills based on a customer-centric ideal.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

I'd say perseverance, knowing your customer, and constantly adapting are the three qualities I believe are essential.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.englishreservoir.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Englishreservoir/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/english_reservoir
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EN_Reservoir
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/EnglishReservoir/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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