Stefan 
GSuite is Google’s response to Microsoft Office selection and can be one of the most useful tools for a new education agency founder that a lot of entrepreneurs out there are taking it for granted. Many well-established unicorns fondly remember using Google Sheets to organise things and keep everything in sync as well as Google Drive for storage when they first put pen to paper.
Launching your first education agency start-up is no easy business, especially if you are not familiar with the international education industry. Sewing together all those bits and pieces of an education agency business can seem a daunting task, especially if you are a first-time founder.
Launching an education agency business will find you managing things like customer services, cashflow, accounting, project planning, team communication, meetings, tasks, … and the list can go on and on.
Thankfully, we live in the information age, and technology start-ups have done the legwork for you by coming up with various tools to make your life easier when starting and managing your business. Most of these tools are free or relatively affordable.
So if you’re an entrepreneur looking to found a new education agency in the international education industry, check out these recommendations:
GSuite – spreadsheets, powerpoints, calendars and more
GSuite is Google’s response to Microsoft Office selection and can be one of the most useful tools for a new education agency founder that a lot of entrepreneurs out there are taking it for granted. Many well-established unicorns fondly remember using Google Sheets to organise things and keep everything in sync as well as Google Drive for storage when they first put pen to paper.
Trello / Jira / Monday – project management
Keeping all your staff in sync with all the projects you are working on can be a tough task, especially if you have multiple offices and branches overseas.
The most common recommendation from established entrepreneurs is to use one of the project management tools under the Atlassian’s umbrella. Atlassian is an Australian team-building software company.
Trello boards are praised for being great for creating personal, business and major projects, as well as keeping you accountable for what needs to be achieved. Trello is great for keeping track of projects and various tasks.
Monday (formerly known as DaPulse) is a great non-Atlassian alternative that is being howled as an amazing visual project management tool. Monday allows you to manage all your day to day projects in a visual way so you can really understand what is blocking the project from moving to the next stage.
Hubspot / Capsule – customer relationship management (CRM) tools
Your education agency is always in one of the two common situations: trying to get a customer and / or trying to retain or manage customers. It is not easy to find a CRM that really works for your business. Hubspot can automatically track your leads from emails or calls, allows you to create email templates to save response times as well as notifying you when people open your emails. Capsule is described as being a light touch CRM by entrepreneurs that used it in their early start-up days.
Slack / Telegram – communication for your team
Slack has become a classic in the tech industry and the application is commonly used by teams to communicate and share documents. It is very useful especially with teams that are spread geographically, such as your education agency branch offices, or subagents you are using to recruit your students.
Appear.In – simple video chat
Skype, Zoom, etc… too complicated. You want simplicity and an application that just works? Appear.In is the way to go. You can create any URL you would like and all your guest have to do is click on that link to join the video chat. If you need to connect with your branch offices overseas in a conference, Appear.In is what you would want to use. It just works.
Canva / Biteable – graphics and videos for your education agency brand
The Aussie company Canva produces beatiful design content for social media, for your website and images.
With Biteable you can make up explainer videos, sales videos and demos. You will get lots of attention and compliments.
inteleagent.io – your agency’s application management system
Your business is growing. Months ago, it was easy to remember each international student application you were sending through to your education providers, because there were just a few of them. It was easy to remember what stage each application is as, what documents are missing, what is the next step you need to take to make it happen, because it was only you with your company. Now, you have loads of applications, staff to manage them, and there is no way you will remember all these details from the top of your head.
In comes inteleagent.io – the only international student application management system you will ever need to improve your education agency operations. inteleagent.io will help you track those applications through pre-defined stages all the way to the end of the application process. Once your application is at the end of the pipeline, inteleagent.io will generate beautiful commission invoices for you, remind you when to send them through to the education provider. It will keep track of your agreements with the education providers and remind you when they are due for renewal. Your team will be able to collaborate on applications, you’ll be able to track actions performed on applications in time with the integrated timeline, and you will be able to generate easy to read reports to help you make better decisions in your business. These are just a few of the features inteleagent.io has packed in for you.
Give it a try now and experience the difference!
