University Student Becomes CEO with ¥180 Million Annual Sales in English! A Must-See for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Business Owners!

While attending Fukui University, she fell into despair when her study abroad was canceled due to COVID-19, but decided to launch a student venture, leveraging the robust local environment for entrepreneurial support. Initially, she taught English for free on Zoom twice a week to 70-100 people, building experience and courage for a year.

After starting private lessons at ¥19,800 per month, she raised the price to ¥33,000 on the advice of two clients who were company presidents, and all clients continued. Subsequently, she increased the unit price to a ¥500,000 service for 6 months, growing until it became fully booked in 3-5 minutes.

From a frustrating experience during her working holiday where "only words learned by sound could be used in conversation," she developed "Clacel," an app that supports rethinking vocabulary learning. It generated approximately ¥7 million in sales during a 6-day limited release.

After establishing the company, sales trends were: 1st fiscal year ¥30 million, 2nd fiscal year ¥80 million (suppressed for tax purposes), and 3rd fiscal year ¥180 million. The current core of her sales is the school-type community "Osh."

On TikTok, she aimed for virality using heavy editing, but shifted to a strategy of showing her true self on YouTube. She considered virality an "illusion and unnecessary," steadily growing by 50,000 followers each year to reach 150,000 in 3 years.

Engagement increases up to 30,000 followers, but beyond that, a sense of distance emerges, and DMs and reactions decrease. Influencers who only chase numbers tend to feel anxious because followers distance themselves even further after 100,000.

She invested ¥400,000 in a social media school, learning the importance of visual emphasis and community. As a business principle, she should have collected email addresses during free offerings, but initially did not due to lack of knowledge.

Private lessons led to selling her time and nearly burnout, so she quit all her jobs and went on a working holiday. Following a consultant's advice, she re-designed her services, asking herself, "Can I provide ¥500,000 worth of value?"

From the beginning of her entrepreneurship, she held the mission of "changing English education in Japan," and the content written in her business plan remained completely consistent years later. Having a core belief is the key to success.

In Japan's cram school industry, the hiring standards for English instructors were low; she was treated as a professional instructor even when she wasn't satisfied with her own English ability. From this experience, she identified a market opportunity for high-quality English instruction services.