The last time I wrote this column was a year ago. I decided to start writing again, and this time everything will live here on the blog, open to the public.

I see many problems happening in the education market and very few people addressing them. Maybe because, to fit into today's world, you have to worry about being politically correct, and there are subjects people avoid so they do not create conflict. But this column has one rule only: let's tell the truth.

From the outside, this market looks like a shop window: fairs, events, parties, pretty pictures. That is the version. Reality is the one that takes down agencies and schools in silence, and that is what this column is about.

The context

The international education market, from Brazil to the world, has been suffering with frequent rule changes across several governments. That makes it hard for agencies to keep consistency in their recruitment work, and for schools to stay alive in the market.

Every so often the surprise news arrives: another agency or institution has closed, and the market takes the shock. Except none of these closures happens overnight. The reason, most of the time, is lack of management.

There is no point in making excuses and blaming the government directly for changing the rules. A good manager adapts to the new rules and finds a way to keep the company competitive. Below are the problems I identified looking at the recent closures, problems that could have been avoided. It does not mean every company that closed committed all of them.

The 10 problems

1. Lack of a good financial manager. A company needs to know its fixed costs, its average variable costs and its cash flow. Some companies live thinking about revenue, believing revenue defines the business, and end up tangled: revenue, profit and cash flow are completely different things. In the education world, without excellent cash flow there is no way to survive for long.

2. Taking too long to react to change. To this day there are agencies and schools in Canada still focused on immigration, mixing education with immigration, and then complaining that life is hard. If you still have not taken the hint the government gave, and it was given loud and clear, you will keep struggling. In Canada, the agencies and institutions that sold the PGWP, the post-graduation work permit, as the great advantage of studying in the country learned that they need to sell education, not visas. It was getting ugly and tiresome. I know many migrated to master's programs, but, without a doubt, at a much smaller volume, and soon enough the government will act on that too.

3. Sky-high commissions. As long as there are schools trying to pay very high commissions to agencies, there will be no way to deliver quality, and at the first challenge that appears, it will be extremely hard to stay on your feet. Agencies, if you truly want to offer quality, stop asking for high commissions. Be fair and let everyone keep purchasing power to maintain quality. Whoever cares about the student also cares about the institution's financial health.

4. Price wars between agencies. As long as agencies keep fighting price wars to win sales, and schools (which know when it happens) accept it while pretending not to see, the markets that allow this practice will keep suffering and closing schools and agencies one after the other. Win the sale and lose the business: that math never works.

5. Selling to new clients to pay for old ones. This problem is not new; it is old. An agency needs impeccable financial management to give students security. There are plenty of agencies selling new programs to pay for old ones, because the money from previous clients is already gone. It is the easiest way to dig the hole and close the doors.

6. Fear of losing the relationship. Schools are afraid of losing their relationship with agencies and end up accepting everything to please them. The rule is simple: no payment, no study. With that little rule, a lot of schools would not lose money to agencies that close without paying for the students they sent. Want to please everyone? Go sell ice cream.

7. Unprepared representatives. Both schools and agencies have been hiring people with a very low level of international education knowledge, skipping proper training, and throwing them straight into a fight with lions. Months later, they fire the person and say it did not work out. It started wrong: no preparation, no patience, and demands for immediate results.

8. Parties. Many, many unnecessary parties to impress agencies and win the market. You win a market with work, not with parties. Many huge companies try to enter the Brazilian market and that is the strategy: throw parties to get the agencies' attention. An agency with real quality wants support, structure and excellent student feedback. Have that first; the party comes later.

9. Partner selection. It is sad that this made the list. Schools have lowered the meaning of partnership so much that today anyone who sends an e-mail gets a partnership with some school. Did an exchange program once? Becomes an agency. Is an influencer? Becomes an agency. Sells plane tickets? Becomes an agency. Has a referral to make? Becomes an agency. Schools need to call agent only the company that lives on this as its main activity, and that alone already cleans up part of the mess.

10. Direct sales. Those who know me know I am not bothered by schools selling directly. But you cannot compete with your own partner. It makes no sense for a school to sell directly at the same price an agency sells. Want to sell directly? Sell at website price, and leave partner pricing to the agencies. That is how you strengthen a partnership and grow in the market. If you prefer to compete with your partner, do not complain when they turn their backs on you.

To wrap up

None of these 10 problems was born from a government rule. They are all born inside the house, from management decisions, and they all have a fix. The agencies that decided to adapt to the market are still standing strong, without insisting on strategies that worked in the past. And many of the ones that closed never even announced it: they simply stopped operating, in silence.

That is what being an entrepreneur is. It is what I told in my article about the importance of a business plan: the market changes all the time, and the strategy is rebuilt with it. Whoever treats the business seriously gets through the changes, and whoever keeps kicking problems down the road becomes the next closure headline.

This column now lives here on the blog. If you are in the market and disagree, or have a problem to add to the list, the comments are yours. Let's tell the truth.