A lot of online ESL teachers are increasingly becoming interested in building their own online ESL teaching business. With online ESL companies closing in China, and many outside China not paying well, teaching privately can be a great option for many.
Today, we have an interview with Tim Gascoigne, also known as the Online Teacher Dude from his YouTube Channel, who has built his own business as well as helped many other teachers do the same.
Sure! I started my teaching career in Canada where I taught elementary grade levels for a few years until I had an opportunity to jump ship and head overseas to a 1 year contract at the Canadian International School in Beijing, China.
I loved every minute of the experience and knew then that I was hooked on international travel. That 1 year has since turned into 10 more! After 3 years in China I took a job at an American school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and taught Grade 3 and was the technology specialist in the elementary school.
I decided to take a year off of teaching to do some travel and explore other opportunities to possibly work online and found online teaching through a company called VIPKid.
I was able to build up the online teaching income as well as my YouTube channel and a few other online opportunities to replace my teaching income and 5 years later I am still at it.
My brand online, Online Teacher Dude, really is aimed at helping teachers get started in the industry and build their own business.
I truly love what I do and couldn’t imagine doing anything else right now.
Well prior to the online ESL companies in China phasing out, I already had been teaching privately with a few students that I had accumulated over the years.
In fact, fun story…my first private student was a boy I had in my Grade 1 class in Beijing in 2010. We used Skype, free resources and I used a friend in China to wire the money to me. Fast forward 12 years, I still teach him online and he will be graduating from high school this year!
So, I’ve been at this for a while but I have certainly gotten better at it and put systems in place to make life easier!
After the crash of the online ESL companies in China in mid-2021, I went all in with private teaching. After figuring out all the pieces and doubling my income with private teaching I launched into coaching and subsequently created a course to help other online teachers do the same thing.
I was able to take a few of my students from VIPKid and grow my student base through referrals which allowed me to replace and double my VIPKid income in a very short amount of time.
The students were there wanting classes and it was very easy to convert them into paying students once I figured out the pieces and gained the confidence to turn this into something that would replace and increase my income from the ESL companies.
It really isn’t once you understand who you are marketing to and what you are offering. There are many students wanting to continue taking ESL classes with English speakers.
If you have a current small base of contacts and former students, you can start teaching them and grow your student numbers through referrals and utilizing your current student base.
There are also Chinese social media apps, like Xiaohongshu (China’s Instagram) where you can do some simple marketing of yourself and your classes to create engagement and gain interest in your private classes.
As for the firewall, yes, China does make it difficult for those outside of China to do business in China and to communicate with students and teach them. However, there are lots of ways to do this.
You can use WeChat for communication, an app like Koala Go or ClassIn to teach your classes or you can even just use Zoom. You can also use a business Stripe account to invoice parents through WeChat pay.
To be honest there is so much!
Firstly, I am in control of my policies and I have so much flexibility in terms of when I teach, how much I teach and how I run things.
When you work for a company, you are charged when you don’t show up or you are late and many of the companies had very strict cancellation policies that could cost you your job.
Another major difference is the freedom over what you teach. When you teach with a company, you are bound by their curriculum regardless if the student is a good match for it or not.
When you teaching independently, you can be flexible and bring in your own resources or spend more time on a particular concept if the student is needing more reinforcement.
I love that about teaching independently!
Sure, so just for reference; I used to get paid between $20 - $25 / hour when working with online ESL companies in China like VIPKid and some others. When I really went independent with my Chinese students, I started charging $40 / hour for my first couple of students. I then increased after a few months to $45/ hour and I have 1 student now at $50 / hour.
I currently have 17 students. Some of my students take 1 class / week and a few take 2 classes / week. I generally teach about 10-12 hours / week or 45 hours / month.
My income is usually around $2,000 per month. I don’t teach a lot but I teach a good amount for what my current schedule allows.
Well after working with many teachers and being very involved in the independent teaching community I see a few common challenges that people face:
Once teachers are able to figure out their roadmap to starting and how to make those important decisions, the rest falls into place. More often than not, teachers let these decisions and overwhelm prevent them from starting in the first place.
I think my best tip for someone wanting to go independent is to just get started. I know it sounds a little cliche but, as I said in the previous question, making the decision to start and take action is half the battle.
The online teaching community is so supportive and full of resources. I would really suggest that online teachers who want to go independent get connected in Facebook groups and get support online. There is a wealth of resources out there and you don’t have to do it alone.
I would also encourage teachers to keep a growth mindset. Don’t get complacent in your teaching business. I encourage teachers to have goals and to put things in place to grow your student base and think about how to do this long-term sustainably so that you have consistent revenue coming in.
After I went all in with private teaching, I saw a huge need out there for teachers who needed the support and guidance to do the same.
I created my Launch - Going Solo course specifically to address that need and help teachers who wanted to get started.
The course takes someone from not having any of the decisions made, to making decisions, creating their own unique professional look, launching with confidence and putting in some marketing and scaling techniques to grow their student base.
Thanks for interviewing me - if teachers would like to connect with me, they can email me at: [email protected]
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