7 Things You Need to Become an Independent English Teacher

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You've made it past the interview, the demo, and all the paperwork that comes with it. Phew. However, crickets are the only sound you hear because you are not getting any students signing up for your classes.

Being an independent online English teacher can be incredibly rewarding, but you have to treat it like a business. Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash. — Being an independent online English teacher can be incredibly rewarding, but you have to treat it like a business. Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash.

A week turns to two, then three, and before you know it, two months have passed and you have taught five lessons at best. This is NOT what you signed up for. How much longer can you keep going like this? You have bills to pay.

This kind of work uncertainty may get you thinking about teaching independently. But wait! Not so fast, amigo. You need to have certain things in place.

At the end of the day, should you decide to go on your own, your teaching will become a business and you need to approach it as such.

It is important for you to know that it may take a few months to build up a set of regular students on any online teaching platform. It can take anywhere from four months to a year.

However, if you pay attention to the rest of the article, you might not have to wait so long.

Below are 7 things you should have before you decide to become an independent online English teacher:

The Tools
The Skills
The Experience
The Qualifications
The Teaching Materials
The Business Acumen
The Ability to Get Clients and Keep Them

Let’s look at these key points one at a time.

1. The Tools

Any skilled worker is nothing without good tools. These tools need to help them excel at their art and for this to happen, their tools need to be regularly updated, sharpened or changed. The same rings true for you as an online English teacher. Below are tools that are necessary for you to be able to teach English online successfully.

A Good Headset

This is important because without a good headset, how are you and your students going to communicate? It can make the difference between constant technical issues and comfort when you are teaching for hours on end. Check out these options for some teacher-approved headsets.

A Good Computer

A good computer doesn’t have to cost over $1,000. At the very least, you need to have a computer with the following specs:

4GB RAM
Intel Core i3 processor (higher is better)

A Fast, Reliable Internet Connection

Most online schools prefer a minimum of 10 Mbps upload and 10 Mbps download speed.

Remember that lessons generally use video chat and since you’ll be teaching students from all over the world, bandwidth is going to be a thing. Less lag and faster connectivity will help you to have fewer disruptions and smoother lessons, leaving your students satisfied.

Think about YouTube videos that are constantly buffering and ruining your viewing experience. By putting yourself in your students’ shoes, you’ll be better able to give them a wonderful English learning experience that will help you retain clients and even gain more.

Test your internet speed here to see if it is up to par.

2. The Skills

Soft skills are becoming more and more important in the workplace. Employers are realizing just how important these otherwise understated skills are.

Sure, you could have a PhD in English or Education and a string of other certificates, but if you lack discernment or a sense of humour, just how far are you going to go with your students? And just in case you weren’t aware, being able to speak English doesn’t mean you can teach English. That’s why it’s absolutely necessary to get TESOL certified which we’ll look at in a bit.

Soft skills for you to consider include empathy, organization, critical thinking, cultural sensitivity, and a sense of humour.

Are you good with people? Will you bug out every time you have to go over prepositions with a student? Are you patient and kind? This is not the job for you if you are expecting results overnight. Teaching is a lifelong profession and you will understand the importance of this when you begin to teach.

Not to be overlooked are technical skills which we looked at briefly when considering the tools you need to teach English online. You don’t need to be Albert Einstein, but you do need to know how to use:

online teaching platforms (typically those used by online schools)
Skype, Zoom, and other similar platforms for your private lessons
Microsoft 365 (Word and PowerPoint specifically) or the G Suite Collection (Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides)

3. The Experience

If you are going to become an independent teacher, you’ll gain more credibility if you have teaching experience from one or more online schools.

Would you try ice cream from someone who set up shop yesterday or someone who has been selling for a year and had great reviews?

At the very least, you should have six months (preferably a year) at one or more online schools. This will allow you to learn how to deal with irate students, acquire the ability to correct technical issues, learn technical skills, learn how to grade, and meet people from all over the world.

Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash — Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash

4. The Qualifications

Many online schools say you just need a degree (any major will do in most cases) and a TEFL or TESOL certificate, but teaching experience will help give you an edge over others as well as better pay.

A teaching certificate (TEFL or TESOL) is important because you need to be taught how to teach others English properly. Having conversations about Batman and the latest episode of The Office is not exactly English teaching. It is a profession and needs to be treated as such.

Teaching certificates can be obtained for fairly cheap and can be done quickly if you’re a keen learner. Learn more about obtaining a teaching certificate here.

5. The Business Acumen

If you become an independent online teacher, you will become an independent contractor, meaning you need to take care of your own taxes. You also need to think about how much you will charge per lesson.

Beginner teachers can charge from $7 an hour, getting as much as $30 for general English lessons. On the other hand, if you're a business English teacher, you can get as much as $50+.

How's that for finding the perfect niche? Once you have gained enough teaching experience, you can raise your prices till you get to your desired one.

6. The Teaching Materials

Some students prefer to have free conversations where you both talk about any number of topics. Even when you have a free conversation, it's good to have some sort of direction.

Some students need one question to talk at length while others need several follow-up questions to encourage conversation. If you can cater to both types of students, you will have few or no problems.

There are so many online resources where you can get free lesson plans and templates for various levels. Be sure to make mention of these plans when you use them and not to parade them as your own because this is plagiarism and theft.

7. The Ability to Get Clients and Keep Them

Now we get to the good part. How exactly do you go about finding clients? That all comes down to how you advertise your services. Remember that if you want to go out on your own, you need to treat your teaching like a business. This means marketing yourself. So where can you find clients?

Teaching Marketplaces

Teaching marketplaces are somewhere between working for a company and going totally independent. They are platforms that independent teachers can use to market to and connect with students. Typically they are free to use and the company takes a small cut of the fee you charge.

Preply
Preply is great because you get to set your own rates, schedule, and you don’t need a degree or certificate. You can teach English, or a whole host of other topics. There are no mandatory teaching props or backdrops needed and you don’t have to be from any certain country to be approved to use the platform. Learn more here.

Cambly
Cambly is more geared towards English free talk. You should to be fluent in English and have a mobile phone or computer. There’s no experience or teaching certificate required to use Cambly. You’ll can chat with students about whatever topics they like. Sessions are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour, depending on what package the student has purchased. Read more here.

Outschool
As long as you’re a citizen/resident of the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or the U.K, you don’t need a teaching certificate or a bachelor’s degree to teach on Outschool. You can set your own rates and you’ll teach small groups of children aged between 3 and 18 years. Check out this page for more details.

Teachable
Do you feel like students could benefit from your own personal curriculum? With Teachable, you can create your own online course. You can create and sell a course that will serve thousands of students for years to come. Click here for more information.

Networking

LinkedIn is a great place to start as it is a professional networking platform. Make use of the people you know formally and informally. And don’t forget your close network, i.e. your family and friends. They might know a colleague or someone else who is in need of your services. With the world being a global village and more people seeking better opportunities inside or outside their country, the need for English learning is on the rise.

Google

Nothing beats good old Google Search. You can type in search terms like “Where can I advertise as an online English teacher” and “Online English teaching platforms.” Bear in mind that some require you to either pay a fee or the company gets a percentage of each successfully booked lesson you have. However, this option works best if you are starting out and can’t afford your own teacher website which will be discussed below.

Social Media

Yes, you can still find jobs using these time-consuming apps! You just have to be strategic about it and open to the idea of it. Facebook works like a charm here. Make good use of a Facebook page with a contact email and set it up in a way that attracts students to you. Whatever platform you decide to use, make sure it is easy for your client to contact you.

E-mail former students

One way that has helped for me is e-mailing former students. I worked at a huge online school and kept in touch with several of them. Some wanted to continue lessons and others even referred their friends to me.

Be careful with this one though if the online school you work for makes it clear that you are not to contact the student outside the school’s platform. It wouldn’t look good for you to steal the very clients your former company had, now would it?

Referrals, referrals, referrals

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash. — Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash.

If your students are happy with your services, then don’t be afraid to ask them to spread the word about your services with others. You could even have incentives like a discount on a package of lessons or one or two free lessons for the person who gets you a new client.

About 95% of my new clients have been referrals. The power of the spoken word. The truth of the matter is you are more likely to try out something if your friend raves about it than if a stranger told you about it, right? The same principle applies to your teaching.

Create a teacher website

This is probably your best option because you want to have the freedom to control how much you make. You can make it as simple or extravagant as you like but simplicity is key.

Make sure it is user-friendly for all age groups and contains key elements like your e-mail address, booking information, and lesson plans (if you plan on making those publicly available).

You can use scheduling tools like Acuity or Calendly to make it easy for your students to book lessons with you.

On your website, you should also put in a payment method. PayPal tends to work well because most countries can make use of it and it’s fast and easy to set up. You may also want to look into options like Wise or Payoneer.

You Can Do It!

The world we live in is constantly changing and you need to keep abreast with those changes. That goes for teaching independently. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a huge amount of opportunity out there for you!

There are thousands of students waiting for you to teach them English for a variety of reasons. Hopefully, the information shared above has helped you make sense of what you need before you teach English online independently. Please reply below if you have any questions or comments about this topic. Happy teaching!