Schools’ spending declines
School suppliers are in for a tough time ahead as school’s being to reconsider what they are spending, more so than ever before.
In a recent survey carried out by educational resource website Schoolzone, 90% of respondents claimed that the current economic climate was having an effect on their spending decisions.
So what does this mean…?
Well firstly, it means school’s are going to be focussing their spending on ‘core’ or essential expenditure first. This includes things like utilities, maintenance and other essential services.
Where schools will be cutting back is on ‘additional’ curriculum resources, ‘nice to haves’ and non-essential software/products/services. This doesn’t mean to say that any supplier that is selling non-essential items will go bust, it simply means that school suppliers are going to have to work even harder to convince budget holders that what they are selling is good value for money and worthwhile.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Whilst schools main purse strings may be being tightened, they are also allocated a significant amount of funding that is ring-fenced, meaning it has to be spent in specific areas. These areas could include ICT, kitchens, playgrounds, outdoor classrooms & SEN to name a few. In these cases, although schools are still going to be careful as to where they spend their money, they do actually HAVE to spend it.
The test for school suppliers will be to see whether they can adapt to the market, reduce costs and find new and initiative ways to promote their products. Embracing social media is one option which some school suppliers, notably ICT suppliers, are doing particularly well not only to gain branding awareness but to get feedback and responses from end users – teachers and school staff, and best of all it’s FREE – all it costs is time.
So with school’s being more careful as to where and what they spend their money on – it’s becoming quite clear that the market isn’t recession proof at all – as it was once thought.
