Spanish on Sea
Spanish on Sea, the town’s new Spanish language school, brings a range of courses to anyone that wants to brush up on their Español or learn a new language in their new hub in Hastings Town’s Creative Media Centre. Owners Lara and Al told Let’s Do Business Group how their new business venture is going, and how they have benefitted from the free support and advice under the free CHART programme.
Native Spanish speakers Lara Alvarez and Al Lois moved down from London after careers in education, spanning from curriculum planning to work in special education, having loved the local culture and coastal location that Hastings boasts. Regular visitors of the towns’ music events, they finally made the move from the capital a year ago and were just waiting for the lightbulb to flicker on what to do next. After creating a free Spanish club at The Common Room on Cavendish Road, they realised they might be able to create a business out of a Spanish class provision in the town, since language schools in the area were few and far between, and not meeting the demand that they quickly realised was there.
After launching the business in February 2022, their student list has only expanded. Students from their original Spanish club at The Common Room remained to have a chance to keep up with their conversational skills, and as word spread about the courses, more and more prospective students popped up.
“We’d never had a business before, but this is great, the response is great. Our students stay with us, we are doing something that they like.”
- Al Lois
Lara and Al’s lessons cater to a wide range of abilities and ages. They have pupils on the books that have relatives in Spain and want to brush up on their language skills for when they want to visit, as well as a large majority of people who just want to learn a new language. From people wanting to learn a new language in retirement, stretching to people of all ages that want to pick it up, as well as children and GCSE and A-Level students that want extra help before exam season.
They run 1-to-1 sessions that focus on conversational skills, and group sessions that cover the basics from beginner abilities to almost fluent. They’ve found that the people of Hastings have a great interest in learning the language, with a lot of pupils hearing about them via their A-Frame sign, flyers dotted around the town centre, growing popularity on social media and word of mouth recommendations, suspecting it has something to do with the Hastings’ beach location and Spain being a popular holiday spot for locals.
“It doesn’t feel like a business or job, we are doing what we love.”
Their rented space in the Creative Media Centre provides them with the perfect amount of flexibility for their lessons; allowing them the ability to run classes in the morning, afternoons and evenings without having to book the room, and setting it up just how they want it depending on the lesson plan.
“The location in the centre of Hastings is ideal, as it’s easy to get to for their students. With the train station and bus links nearby, it’s an easy location to get to for students coming over from Bexhill, Rye, Battle and as far as Eastbourne.”
Their open day in July 2022 was a great success, with locals coming to visit them off the street to sign up for classes and more information. From September Lara and Al plan to offer a new range of courses that will bridge the gap between abilities for their group sessions and cater to children aged 8-11 who are ready to learn more about the language. With their new offering, they hope to fill up more group sessions to around 5-6 people in each, which will help to springboard the business to become more profitable.
Once they’ve got a larger number of pupils at Spanish on Sea, Lara and Al think it’s possible to expand to another room in the Creative Media Centre so that they can begin to run classes simultaneously and double their offering to the community with more available sessions. In the future, they might like to own their own premises if they expand enough and continue to grow at the same rate.
Help from Let’s Do Business Group
When starting up their business, Lara and Al received guidance from the team at Let’s Do Business Group through the free workshops on offer, like Ready for Business and Social Media Advertising, as well as support from Business Manager Rupert Kirby, who was able to assist with any questions they had in the process of setting up the business as a partnership.
Rupert was able to arrange Lara and Al’s meeting with an accountant to ensure their operations ran smoothly and kept in touch to inform them of any opportunities or extra support for their business, like funding available from the government for equipment for their base. He also introduced them to the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce, which Lara says was useful, as they were new to the area, and this helped them in keeping updated on what was going on in the town.
“CHART and LDBG have been great at helping to source any type of funding that we might be able to get, as well as the support and advice.
There are so many new businesses in Hastings that need supporting, and CHART and LDBG have been great at pointing us in the right direction.”
The CHART project came to an end at the end July 2022, but the team at Let’s Do Business Group are still able to offer a range of support to local businesses. Contact us to find out more.
