As mentioned at the beginning, there are different ways of being a driving instructor. Some prefer to think of it simply as a job and remain to work under a driving school’s franchise. Taking this route typically means you’ll not earn as much as an instructor running their own established driving school, but it does mean you don’t have to put extra time and effort aside for building your own business.
Instructors that decide to run their own school will have greater control of almost all aspects of their career. They can choose what car they prefer to teach in, more control over the hours they work, setting the hourly lesson rate, incentives and discounts plus the general satisfaction of running and maintaining your own business.
Though there’s no franchise fee to pay, there are other costs which include the car, tax, insurance, fuel (which you’d still pay for on a franchise) website costs, printing, business cards, advertising.
Realistically, if you’ve no experience running your own business, then it’ll take two or more years to get off the ground. The best option here is to continue on a franchise until you have enough work coming in that your own business is generating.