Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

I don't want to start a thread of let's-complain-about-our-jobs, but, well. . . I'm not crazy about the atmosphere at the language school where I work. And, I keep toying with the idea of just setting out on my own. . .

Who here has done it? What did you do? What would you do differently? Would you do it again? Is all the 'other mess' (billing and chasing after money, finding customers) worth the freedom you get?

Thanks!
-Toby

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

There are a whole lot of factors to think about.

What can you charge per student?
What's your overhead on a place to work out of?
How are students going to come in the door? advertising? what's the cost?
Do you have any connections to get even a few students?
What's the competition like?
How are the other schools in the area doing?
Can you supplement with other part-time jobs? universities? small schools? part-time at some bigger language school?
What's your visa like?

I opened my own place mostly because it seemed silly to just keep working for someone on year-to-year contracts endlessly, but I had decided to stay indefinitely.

I went the cheapest route possible to start a private school. I work out of a room in my house (no overhead.) There was no competiton at the time. I spent about $2k USD to start up, with advertising. I was making the same salary as working for someone else after 3 months. Later, I picked up 2 pretty decent part-time teaching jobs that made a big difference.

Additionally this was in my wife's small hometown. They know everybody and everybody knew I was opening a school. 1/2 of my initial students were word of mouth.

It has gone pretty well and I wouldn't change a thing, except it would have been good to do it sooner. However, having the teaching experience before starting out on my own was also really helpful.

7 years later, all is still good. I haven't advertised in 4 years or so and just word of mouth, plus the school's website keeps the student numbers about even.

Where are you living? (I probably should know.)

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

Germany! And it sounds like for a while ...

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

Wow. . . You did a bit of fast research on me. Yes, I live in Dresden, Germany. And, more or less, for good. (My wife also lives here. . . and I don't think I could do ESL in the States. And I don't have any other experience. . . or want to find another career.)

That said, I guess my situation is a little different from yours. In Germany, it's more normal to hire teachers on a 'freelance' basis, as opposed to a 'yearly contract.' That means that, if my school can sell lessons for €40/40min, I get €13.50/40min. . . but, if they can't sell any lessons, I'm up the proverbial creek. It also means that I'm not getting any of the 'amazing' social benefits that most German employees get.

And, it's really the discrepancy between what the school is paid and how much of the money makes it to me that has me looking at going 'independent.' But, also, because I'm freelance, I can work for the school while setting out on my own. (Though the school gives fewer hours to the teachers who say 'I can't work that day, I have other plans,' so it's not a perfect plan.)

My guess--and maybe you can tell me what you think--is that I can 'undercut' the school by offering lessons for €30 or €35. I don't really know what to ask for from students, because, well, I know a lot of my students see price as a sign of quality. And, besides, if get twice the cost, I should be able to get by with half as many hours, right?

As for a room. . . That's something I'd like to avoid. I don't know anything about it, and, well. . . it makes me crazy. I've thought about teaching at the equivalent of a community college here (they basically rent you their name and a room in their building, you set the course fees, the way I understand it). But, mostly, since I've started teaching in different companies' buildings, I've started wondering if I need a room.

I mean, my school (and, yeah, it's more a business), has rooms, but more and more of the work is going to the company and teaching there. So, why would I need more than a home office?

My questions for you: how did you advertise? Have you 'moved' into a location outside your house?

What do you use for materials?
-Toby

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

I would price your services the exact same as the competition. You can always lower your price but raising it is very difficult.

It sounds like you should definitely do it. Like you said, we can't keep working as contract to contract mercenaries. There are no benefits or retirement plans (maybe the public options like social security.) If this is what you (anyone) are going to do for the rest of your life, you need to make your money now and save some. ... Not that that is easy to do ...

I'm still working out of my house. If it aint broke ...

I could have moved to a bigger, better location, and possibly tried to expand. But, I just don't want to be that busy and I don't want the hassles of managing other teachers. I like having the time to create lesson materials and I'm just not that interested in the business side.

Anyway, if you keep expenses low, you don't need to work as much and if you do get a lot of work, you keep more. Also, staying small means less management hassles.

You should register as a business with the local authority. there are generally a lot of incentives for small business owners - mostly lower taxes (tax breaks) and you can write off more stuff. Again, less taxes means more in your pocket.

For materials, you can see exactly what I use here:
MES-English.com - childrens resources
- flashcards, worksheets, games and activities. I made these resources and there is a curriculum as well to use just this and supplement with other sites below

Hospital English.com - medical English lesson plan resources
-these are materials I made for the technical college and university I work at

Fun Fonix.com - phonics workbooks
- these are the phonics resources I made for kids classes. There are also worksheet makers to make additional resources in problem areas

Tools for Educators.com - make worksheets and games
- reading, writing worsheets, games and more to supplement MES materials or adult classes

123 Listening.com - free listening resources
- free audio and listening tests. Again these match MES materials. There are also worksheet makers for teachers to use to make their own listening worksheets

Anyway, I set out from the beginning to make all of my own materials. I'm still working on it as I try to keep up with my longer running and advancing classes. I also update some things and revise here and there.

For adult classes, I use Interchange. I don't have time to prepare a full set of materials for adults (at this time) and why should I. What's out there is good and reasonable. So, find a series you like and go with that. Of course you'll still need to supplement any course book with materials that interest your group.

I advertised in the loacl paper. I made a flier to insert in the paper. That's the way most place advertise sales and stuff here. Kind of like a coupon insert or supermarket advertisement.

I also found a place that lists new businesses and events for free. That brought in as many people as the newspaper ad.

A website for your school is also a good idea. Just make sure you have all of the area/city names on the main page to get in searches for "English school Dresden" for example.

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

Wow. . . That's a lot of good advice and resources. I'll be back after I have time to check it out and I'll have more questions. I'll throw this into the discussion though: because I'm earning okay now, I'm really interested now in getting a plan in place and sort of preparing myself (that'll mean finding, and learning the material I decide to use, as well as figuring out the business/tax end) for when I make my move. Right now, I'm the only income as my wife can stay home with our son, and until she has to go back to work, I don't want to do anything to 'make' her return early (like, you know, suddenly earn less.)

So, what preparations do you recommend? I'm teaching mostly from the (second rate) materials my school offers. I'll get the first book in the Interchange series and have a look. Further, I've started reading Scott Thornbury's books (I know they're controversial). I'd love to hear about any other books you recommend to better myself as a teacher, in general.

(Don't tell my employer this, but since I've decided to break off at some point, I see my classes here as a laboratory in which I can perfect myself as a teacher.)

Thanks, again, for the great advice. I'll look through your materials and have more questions in a second.
-Toby

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

Toby,

Mark is an expert here. I would listen to everything he has to say, as he's living a very comfortable life, doing exactly what he wants to do, and not being exploited by language companies who set up a revolving door policy for both students and teachers. No envy here... ;)

My only comment would be not to think of traditional brick-and-mortar institutions. A lot of language learning can be done online, and done successfully. I've started moving into this area, and it's not different than a small class of students. All the tools are the same, as well as the classroom opportunities. Plus online means you also have the chance to find students from all over the world.

Good luck.

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

:redface:

I'm not sure that's entirely true ... My school does well and I do much better than I would working a regular contract around here, but it's not going to get me a beach chair on an island resort any time soon :bounce:

One bad side of it is you can't take long vacations and you feel pretty tied to the business. You feel a much greater responsibility in all areas, plus you stress about the business side (which you wouldn't do if you were just an employee.) You also can't complain about management. If it's going wrong, it's your fault.

However, being your own boss is great and I think it would be really hard for me to work for anyone ever again. I really respect my boss, he's a great guy, and he appreciates all my hard work. :drum:

Like Chris explained, there are loads of trees you can bark up for business. I've been fortunate in that I have plenty of ideas still untapped, but right now I'm opting for time rather than more work.

Re: Going Independent. . . Or not?
 

Chris:

I've thought about teaching online, and gone as far as creating an EduFire account and teaching a private student over Skype after he moved away. . . But I don't like EduFire (again, they take a lot of the money that I think I earn, maybe I need to get over that) and with Skype. . . well, I don't know of a good white board application that doesn't cost money. (I'd pay for it, if there were a free 'client' for my students. Don't think I can get them to pay.)

So, I guess my first question is what platform do you teach from?