CBTs / DAS. Anyone got any experience of owning, running or working for a motorbike training business?
Been offered a share in purchasing one up in the sticks - so any insights / things to look for / consider etc. gratefully received.
Be prepared for all the spotty faced teenagers who mostly have little or no interest in any of the safety aspects because they just want a CBT so they can be exploited delivering pizza for peanuts on poorly maintained 125’s. You’re better off with the DAS training if you can find enough punters who can afford it, else you’ll struggle to cover your overheads.
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Every single person I know who has worked in one (admittedly not many) has at one point grumbled about how poorly paid it is and the long hours and how little money vs expectations.
Seems like few have potential to earn decent profits / living from it. Being in the sticks has the advantages of low rents but with that comes the issue of having low numbers of clients coming through the door. Also the seasonal effect is likely to be greater in the sticks…
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Dave from DG Rider training is on here some times, cannot remember his name on here. He owns DG might be worth having a chat with him.
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Can only speak from experience of running my own school for many years, but it is bloody hard work for little reward.
For many of us it killed our enjoyment of riding
Kids ona CBT are not interested in learning the required skills, they just want the DL196.
I was an instructor from the old RAC/ACU days, through part 1 as an instructor and examiner and then CBT and DAS. The happiest day of my life was the day I completed my last CBT and DAS course.
I speak to many instuctors past and present and they all say the same thing, and it does not help that the DSA are arseholes to deal with.
I instructed for 30+ years, and only my advanced work kept me sane (and it also paid better 
)
You may enjoy it for a while, maybe a few years, but eventually you will want out as many others will testify to.
Personal opinion I admit and I wish you well if you go down that route.
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Not that it’s particularly relevant but in The Netherlands all driving instructors were extremely well networked and kept their prices high as a result. That still didn’t stop my instructor working all the hours God sent and some from the devil, teaching in cars and bikes days, evenings and weekends. I think even if the pay is ok you still have to put lots of hours in.
Definitely worth giving him a shout.
Mate to be honest you should just set yourself up as a life coach. I know some who are clueless idiots with no corporate experience whereas you could actually deliver some value for their money.
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Fuck off to Nigeria for 8 years and retire.
Job done 
I worked for a mate who ran an MCT for one day. It was very short notice, and he needed me to bail him out and teach for a day. It was back in 2013, an absolutely gorgeous day. My mate was impressed with my teaching, and offered me job, offering to fully pay for all the relevant training to get me up do the required DSA qualification, and he was shocked when I turned the offer down.
Doing that job on a brilliant mid-summer’s day is great. But I remembered was it was like being a despatch rider back in the 80’s, doing 10 hour days, regardless of weather, sometimes in the freezing cold, other times in persistent rain. Definitely not for me.
The other big thing about doing something that you may love as a profession, as I do now teaching martial arts, is that there are two sides to running a business; working in the business, and working on the business. They are two completely separate skill sets. If I had my time over again, I would not have quit a well paid job in IT to run my martial art club full-time. I should have kept the IT job, and the good money that it paid, and simply continued to run my taekwondo club just two nights a week as a hobby. Dealing with advertising, recruitment, examinations, billing/payments, chasing up non-paying clients, to mention a few things, are all essential parts of working on the business, but they are run in the background.
You could always test the water, and just get a job as an instructor for a school, so you are paid by the school owner, and see how that goes for a while. Just listen to your boss when he occasionally lets you know about all the servicing of the bikes, the up keep of the clothing and equipment, replacing the bikes every 2-3 years, the changing policies of the DSA, who are a law to themselves.
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Sorry for the late reply guys had to reset my password again to log in.
So let me get this right, a mate wants you to buy into his business well firstly you would need a complete financial break down and over view of that business.
Costs verses profit.,will it support another instructors income.??
What’s the main income CBT or das ?
How old are the bikes ?
You can’t garuntee passing the instructor assessments so what happens if you fail them ??
Blah blah blah
The list is endless and as mentioned it will kill off all and any enjoyment you have for bikes, i v been teaching now for 20 years I still love it but I’m the exception one of my best mates recently closed up after 30 years and he says he wishes he had done it years ago.
I could go on but I won’t you need to do what’s right for you and post covid I will be surprised if there is a training industry any more ???
Happy to answer any other questions you may have via pm
Dave@dgridertraining chief instructor, tea maker, washer upper and a dozen other jobs I do to run a bike school
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Cheers.
Just told him I wouldn’t be taking it further. The timing is wrong as the guy selling the business wants a sale in the next couple of months. That would leave me as part owner of a business with probably nil custom for the most of the summer, and then we hit the autumn winter.
There is a lease for the premises which would mean a 12 month commitment which is going to be around ÂŁ6k though to this time next year when hopefully it picks up.
So the timing is all wrong I reckon. Reviewed the assets (Mainly bikes) which look reasonable, but no reason why you couldn’t get yourself a load of cheap deals anyway atm.
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Oh their is a guy selling a business that’s even worse. I think you have made the right choice in the current climate it is unlikely that tests of any sort will go ahead for a very long time
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Ask Terry Moto he had to close his down as the site he was using wanted it back.