I finally finally officially left the English school I was working at part-time (a small part), so now I'm 100% self-employed! Whoo hoO! It's a great feeling.
So where's my money coming from?
*I still sell my pronunciation book once in a while, and I finished my second book-- a grammar book! :D I just printed it up this week. So I've sold it to 6 students so far, and I'm going to start it with others once they finish their current books.
*I still get requests for scientific translations or corrections, but not as many as I got at the end of last year / beginning of this year (I think that coincided with when people turn in their Master's theses / have final exams / prepare papers for conferences?). I make an average of about 250 reais a month on that, which covers my half of the rent and "condominio" bill (like an HOA) (Yup, another benefit of a small town).
*I have one 3-person group at a company 2 mornings a week. That's the only time I need the car to get to work.
*I spend the bulk of my time teaching from home. It's going well. I have 27 hours of scheduled classes a week. About 41% of those hours are with groups of 2 or more (so more than half are still private 1-1 classes). 3 of those hours are TOEFL, and I charge more for my TOEFL classes because grading their practice tests is so time-consuming. I stopped offering reposição (make-up classes), so that helps my schedule a lot. I make plenty of money from my private classes to pay for my relatively simple, childless, small-town life.
The problem is that I have way more people calling than I'm willing to schedule. I currently have a waiting list with 12 classes on it (I say 12 classes and not 12 people because some of the classes are potential pairs). At the beginning of the year, I was saying "yes" to everyone, but I was getting way too stressed out, so for my own sanity, I put a moratorium on new students until someone quits.
But I hate having a waiting list. I feel like it's potential money that I'm just throwing away / ignoring. Also, when I deny people, I also deny all of their potential contacts. But I really just don't know what to do. Here are the options I've considered and the problems with them:
1. Just schedule more people, and teach 10+ hours a day.
Nope. Tried that. Almost had a nervous breakdown. Right now, my comfortable, "I can still teach really well and do other things in life" limit is about 6 hours of actual teaching a day (that doesn't include prep time).
2. Cancel some individual students and accept some of the pairs on the waiting list.
While I do make more money per hour with pairs, not all students are created equal. For example, one pair on the list is a husband-wife team. But the wife is a bigwig surgeon in the hospital, so I know that her schedule's gonna be a mess. Plus, they want to bring their 18-month-old baby to class. The mother said it was because she wants to expose the baby to English (because they're planning to move abroad and she's worried the kid will have a hard time with English), but that's a crock. I'm the linguist, and a baby moving to a new country at 2 years old will have no problem learning the language. I know it's just because they don't want to pay for a baby sitter.
So the point is, so far, none of the couples on my waiting list are worth canceling any single private students at the hours that the couples want.
3. Work a few more hours each day, and hire the maid on for more time.
Right now, the maid comes only 1 day a week for like 4 hours. It's a huge help, but I still do the majority of the housework and house-related things...and when I say "majority", I mean "practically everything the maid doesn't do". (You try living with a 24-year-old Brazilian guy in med school who grew up with 2 full-time maids and see if you can convince him to make a chores schedule.)
So this idea is kind of tempting, except I just still really feel uncomfortable having a maid one day a week, let alone more. But I make much more per hour than my share of the maid, and she cleans faster and better than I do. So I'm trying to balance my personal morals against the country's morals, as well as against economics.
But also, I kind of like being 33% house wife and 66% employed. It's a nice balance. Not sure if I'd like the extra income more.
4. Rent out an office space with more room, and have only group classes (or very expensive private classes).
If we stay in this city for Alexandre's residency, this is my plan. But he graduates in November, and we'll find out about which residency programs he gets into between November and January. Soooo... there's a good chance we'll move to a big city in 5-7 months (yippee!). So I don't want to invest in essentially opening a business that may be around for less than half a year.
5. Hire another teacher as a sort of partner, either just for referrals, or to actually work here from home with me.
This would work if the teachers in this area didn't totally suck. Call it high standards, but I just haven't met anyone here yet who I'd be interested in working with as a business partner. The teachers I've met who are actually well-trained and have good English (and who didn't make asinine comments or ask ignorant questions about America) weren't even interested in teaching private classes outside of their school jobs, let alone branching off into a private business. So I guess being really good at your job is kind of irrelevant if you don't have any motivation or initiative, or if you're scared of taking any kind of risk.
If we do end up moving away, I'll have the problem of where to refer my current students, because so far, there is literally no one qualified who wants the job. Really amazing. I'm thinking about teaching some people over Skype from the new city.
....So yeah. Is that it? Are those my only options? Do you guys have any ideas on how to not let my waiting list go to waste?
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Have you considered how you might "optimize" the time you spend teaching so you squeeze more people into the same amount of time? I don't have anything concrete here. Maybe you spend lots of time outside of face-to-face time that you could eliminate. Maybe instead of grading, the students do that themselves with an answer sheet. Something along those lines.
ReplyDeleteHi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you've heard about this, but Arizona has done it again. :S
The Arizona Department of Education has begun working to remove teachers whose English-language skills are viewed as inadequate. According to press reports, the evaluators aim (among other things) to remove teachers with "accents".
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2365
It's kind of off-topic, but I was curious what you think about this.
Troy-- thanks for the idea! I usually try to correct things in class, but I could do it more and save myself some time.
ReplyDeleteTracy-- Jesus, that new law's ridiculous. Their definition of accent was totally subjective and unnecessary, and goes against so many linguistic concepts (like interference via shift... basically, all the kids have the accent, too, and having an accent doesn't mean they aren't fluent or that their grammar is wrong or anything). Hopefully someone gets the law repealed by using a discrimination argument.
Heya! Here is one for you.
ReplyDeleteRough , tough , bough & dough are pretty much written the same way, but there's no apparent rule to explain why the pronunciation is so different.
And for your list of words a Brazilian can't say:
Feel, Phill, Fill (and the obvious beach & bitch).
No offense but David Mitchell is a funny man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
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I don't know if grading should really even get in the way of the lesson time though... because if you just spent the last 5 mins of every class giving feedback you could take care of that issue of it going over class time. I just really think that feedback and grading needs to be done face to face - it really adds value to a class and lets your students have your full attention during that crucial part.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that unless you are struggling, this is one time in your life that you may not NEED to work a full 40 week. considering that you have to add prep time on top of that, you are really going to lose your personal time. Speaking as someone who used to work 60 hour weeks, I am striving to have between 20 - 30 hours of class time. I think the money is good enough that you don't HAVE to kill yourself. And, the fact is, if you're good enough, you'll always have a waiting list. If they are really interested in learning English they'll see the value of a more qualified teacher and when you have space, they will be there ready and waiting. The other thing you COULD do, is offer one 2 hour conversation class per week where students pay a drop in fee and you just provide them with topics for discussion? Then you could have as many people present as you want, charge less individually but still give the waiting list a chance to work with you a bit. Good Luck!
That's great you have so many students. Can you teach bigger groups from your apartment? My husband doesn't know how to clean anything, neither does my MIL. They use dish soap on the counter tops and all purpose cleaner on the dishes!
ReplyDeleteHere are some thoughts from your lazy, looking to figure out an early retirementish part-time work schedule English teacher friend in Niteroí.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of trading out lower paying students/groups for higher paying same. Adding more hours is a slippery slope. Don't go there.
Put some thought into greater marketing of your books. Publish the table of contents and maybe one chapter online and then let folks buy a pdf file via paypal. This could really take off if you get enough eyes looking at it. (Then you would make money while you sleep!)
Definitely hire the housekeeper to tackle all the household chores. The cost / benefit here is a no brainer. Unless you like your hands in the toilet... ;-) She could even prepare a meal or two - the stuff you like.
You are not letting a wait list "go to waste." Heck, there is more air out there than we can breathe but that doesn't mean you have to go into training to increase your lung capacity.
Call me crazy but I say find a balance and let the rest go. Go for a walk, learn to work with ceramics, write poetry.
I'm sure you will find what is right for you. Good luck.
Oh - and be REALLY careful about any idea to open an official business in Brazil. Do your homework! It is NOTHING like the same in the US. But you are young and ambitious. Maybe you would thrive on the challenge. (I'm the guy looking for a way OUT of the workforce, remember?)
Hey Danielle!
ReplyDeleteGood post.
I agree with you on the couple with the baby.
I think using an answer keys is a good thing. I do that with my advanced students. They grade their own homework and come to class with the questions that come up.
I also support the idea of the book being sold oneline. Given how many people read/follow your blog, you'd definitely sell it. Also, when/if you go to the city, you can use that as a selling point for Weekend English Workshops, which people in the city like to organzie and go to.
Last thing: Starting a business. Brazil taxes the crap out of businesses. An example is one of my clients who owns a cardboard plant and has to pay 48% of his REVENUE in taxes. Not 48% of his profit. 48% of the plant's revenue! Also, there is no tax break for a business that just started and/or makes no money. So, when you start it, be ready to make it bring in some dough.
Okay, those are my 2 cents.
Brazilian love!
It's hard. I drove myself crazy trying to teach English and work out my schedule. I wish you the best:)
ReplyDelete