{"id":4305,"date":"2016-07-20T09:05:32","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T07:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.invoiceberry.com\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2025-01-29T10:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T09:03:21","slug":"how-to-start-freelance-esl-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/how-to-start-freelance-esl-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start Your Freelance ESL Teaching Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across the world, English is expanding while solidifying its unmovable status as the dominant language<\/a> in most major areas: business, entertainment, academics, science, and so much more.<\/p>\n

It is for this reason that there are approximately 1.5 billion learners of English<\/a> around the world, and the number is set to grow.<\/p>\n

This means that there is a huge demand for English language instruction, especially with emerging markets around the world that have either had economic or political difficulties until the turn of the century.\u00a0 These are seeing some of the highest demands for English teaching.<\/p>\n

It is also a trend of the market that teachers teach based on yearly contracts with local private schools and universities, which means that there\u2019s a healthy turnover.<\/p>\n

So, with those two features\u2014high demand and constant job openings\u2014it\u2019s no wonder that there are over 250,000 native English speakers<\/a> working as ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers in more than 40,000 schools around the world.<\/p>\n

With an increasing demand for English, it’s no surprise that there are over 250,000 native ESL teachers working in more than 40,000 schools worldwide.<\/div>
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But going from your native country in the USA, UK, South Africa, or the other English-speaking countries to another country comes with its own dangers, such as getting arrested in China<\/a> or the many other horrors<\/a> that can happen.<\/p>\n

To avoid this, many are beginning freelance ESL teaching, which gives them freedom from sometimes strict and heartless ESL schools, higher earnings per student, and better opportunities for growth.<\/p>\n

I taught English across Asia and Europe for more than 7 years, and today I\u2019m going to show you how not only to get started in freelance teaching, but also how to make sure you succeed.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll look at some of the positives and negatives<\/strong> of going solo in your ESL teaching career, how to start your freelancing<\/strong> in your chosen location, and how to find customers and succeed<\/strong> in your new field.<\/p>\n

The Ups…<\/h2>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

Freelance ESL teaching and tutoring gives you a host of amazing advantages.<\/em><\/p>\n

First of all, as you\u2019re a freelancer, you\u2019re your own boss! You\u2019ll set your own schedules, set how much you want to work, and more importantly for teachers, who <\/em>you want to work with\u2014and no mean and demanding school directors to work for.<\/p>\n

If you want to work only in the mornings and afternoons so you can have your evenings free\u2014go for it. If you like to sleep in, schedule your work to start around 11am. If you want to have some free time in the middle of the day\u2014which is most likely\u2014just go for mornings and evenings.<\/p>\n

Work a lot or work a little\u2014it\u2019s your choice.<\/p>\n

Also, you\u2019ll get nice holidays and vacations, so you don\u2019t have to work through Christmas or Easter. Or, alternatively, you can work through those if you and your students want.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all your choice.<\/p>\n

Secondly, you can make quite a bit of money\u2014comparatively.<\/p>\n

Because you\u2019re not working for some private school, all the money the student pays goes to you.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

Even better, you can set different rates for different students. If you find yourself getting a lot of students for a certain price, you can experiment and see how high you can go. You can work directly with companies or even other language schools as a private contractor.<\/p>\n

The money, you have to understand, is comparatively high based on your location. If you compare it, for example, to US salaries, it will look small, but your local purchasing power will usually be quite nice.<\/p>\n

Lastly, you can work from anywhere. Many freelance ESL teachers work from the comfort of their own homes, but you can work from a coffee shop (I sometimes ask the cashier to turn the music down a bit), a restaurant or caf\u00e9, the client\u2019s office\u2014anywhere. I\u2019ve even had a few classes in parks when the weather was nice.<\/p>\n

What this means is that you won\u2019t suffer from the freelancer work-from-home antisocial syndrome. You can get out there, and seeing as your job is social, you won\u2019t suffer from social isolation.<\/p>\n

..and Downs<\/h2>\n

\"You<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages.<\/em><\/p>\n

First of all, if you don\u2019t actively try to get your clients and do the managerial stuff, you won\u2019t get money at all.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re a freelancer now, and with great autonomy comes great responsibility. You are the only one you can depend on to get your clients, set your rates, arrange meetings, expand, etc.<\/p>\n

Sometimes this can be a bit overwhelming, especially in the beginning where you\u2019ll wish you had a boss who\u2019s set everything up for you.<\/p>\n

Secondly, your income can be quite unstable, throughout<\/em>. I\u2019m not just talking about in the beginning, where you have clients in one month and then none for the next month. This happens.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about the fact that, depending on your clients, you\u2019ll have many forgotten, missed or cancelled classes. Many of my clients were business owners or upper-level management, and even though I charged them a high rate, they would have to cancel classes for this week, and then these next two weeks, and then, oh, they have vacation for the next 5 weeks.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

What this means is, (1) you won\u2019t get money for that, and (2), you can\u2019t go out and get another student for that time because your first student will only be gone for a month or so.<\/p>\n

This instability of income is unpredictable, and I\u2019ve discovered that it\u2019s best not to depend on any future income because none of it is truly guaranteed.<\/p>\n

And lastly, you have no colleagues. You have many students, and you\u2019ll be able to discuss with them about any and everything, that\u2019s great, but you\u2019re seeing 2 or 3 or 4 of them a day and there\u2019s no constant communication with one or two people.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll start to miss actual colleagues, the 9-to-5 forced friendships which actually ended in real friendships.<\/p>\n

Be prepared for it.<\/p>\n

How to start your\u00a0freelancing<\/h2>\n

Okay, now that we\u2019ve got that out of the way, let\u2019s look at what the most important and fundamental aspects are to your new venture.<\/p>\n

Do your research<\/h3>\n

First of all, you\u2019ll need to know the area you\u2019re working in.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re teaching freelance ESL, it most probably means you\u2019re not a local, or you\u2019ve lived in an English-speaking country for a while and are now returning to this location.<\/p>\n

Either way, you\u2019ll need to (re)orient yourself to this location.<\/p>\n

First, you\u2019ll need to understand some basic things about the country\u2014their language, their political system, their famous landmarks, their famous leaders, etc. It\u2019s also a good idea to understand what their major industries are in case you\u2019ll be working the business ESL angle.<\/p>\n

A large part about teaching and class discussions is looking at some problems and ways to solve them.<\/p>\n

One good way to prepare is to get familiar with their most popular news site or web portal and peruse from time to time to understand what\u2019s important there and what scandals are developing. There are always scandals, by the way.<\/p>\n

Get legal<\/h3>\n

In addition to the necessity of getting your research done, you\u2019ll need to check your legal status.<\/p>\n

I know many teachers\u2014myself included\u2014who worked full-time for one company, but because their hours were in blocks either in the mornings or evenings, they used the other times to schedule one or two private classes.<\/p>\n

These worked out fine, but they weren\u2019t actually legal, no matter how you look at it. Nonetheless, you can get away with it when you\u2019re employed fully in the host country.<\/p>\n

But when you hope to switch totally to freelance teaching, you\u2019ll need to see what your options are for legally working freelance. Otherwise, you may face deportation and fines if you are caught working illegally in that country.<\/p>\n

If you work illegally in the country where you’re teaching ESL, you may face deportation and fines if you are caught.<\/div>
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For example, I was working in Lithuania, and for non-EU citizens (a group which bizarrely includes Americans, Chinese, Canadians and Georgians in the same category) it\u2019s quite labor-intensive just to get a residence permit, much less a permit to work freelance.<\/p>\n

However, working illegally could have gotten me barred not just from the country, but from the entire Europe as well.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if you\u2019re doing the teach-from-Skype thing, you can be in your home country and work with non-native speakers at the same time. However, you\u2019ll still need to declare your income and check other requirements.<\/p>\n

In the US, if you have more than the IRS-defined minimum income, you\u2019ll need to declare your income and pay tax on that.<\/p>\n

Doing it now and legally means avoiding any legal problems in the future.<\/p>\n

Get your funds ready<\/h3>\n

\"Make<\/p>\n

This is important too: decide for yourself how much you\u2018ll need to survive, do your research (as above), and decide how many students you need at minimum to reach that level.<\/p>\n

Then do the same thing again for how much you\u2019d like to make, have your research at hand, and decide how much teaching you\u2019d need to do to get to that level of income.<\/p>\n

Again, you can charge higher rates, but if you\u2019re starting out, go closer to the middle.<\/p>\n

However, don\u2019t look at the minimum fees for English tutors<\/a>. If you\u2019re a native teacher, you\u2019ll get paid (sometimes much) more than a local teacher.<\/p>\n

Next, understand that the first few weeks (or months if it\u2019s near summer) will be a bit dry, so you need to have income saved for that.<\/p>\n

Freelance teaching is an inexpensive craft (public transportation\/gas for your car, printer and ink, stationery, etc.) so it will mostly be what you\u2019ll need for food and rent.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be scared to ask close friends and family for a small loan until you are able to subsist. We all have to start somewhere.<\/p>\n

Make a website<\/h3>\n

Depending on what location you\u2019re in, and perhaps whether you\u2019re teaching through Skype, it can be a good idea to have a website where potential students can get information quickly.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not a photographer or visual artist, so you don\u2019t need to have a spectacular website with intense and explosive graphics.<\/p>\n

You just needs the basics so that the potential student can answer these questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • What kind of teaching do you do?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Why are you more special than others?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Where are you located?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Are you willing to teach in offices or meet somewhere else?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • What are your usual rates?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • How can I contact you?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    A good website answers the visitor\u2019s questions before he answers it, or even before he realizes he needs that information. Here you just need basic information, the answers to the questions above, a picture, and some background information about you.<\/p>\n

    Of course, the fancier perhaps\u00a0the better, but it doesn\u2019t need to be particularly updated each three days.<\/p>\n

    Get qualified<\/h3>\n

    I expect you\u2019ll have at least one of these minimum requirements for qualifications: the bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

    If you\u2019ve started working internationally, or have ever applied to some schools, you\u2019ll know that an absolute minimum requirement to starting ESL teaching is to have graduated from a university in a native English country.<\/p>\n

    Most governments would not allow any teachers coming to their country for ESL education without this requirement.<\/p>\n

    \"It's<\/p>\n

    There may be some locations that will allow you to teach without this qualification, but those are very rare and could be a huge scam.<\/p>\n

    The other qualification that is definitely worth investing in is some TEFL\/TESL or CELTA certification. These help in two particular ways:<\/p>\n

    (1) it shows you as a knowledgeable teacher with the proper qualifications, which will set you heads above the other ESL teachers who may only have the bachelor\u2019s degree<\/p>\n

    (2) it provides you with immensely useful and necessary training in how to deal with the development of kids, adults, and everything in-between, to create constructive lesson plans, and the all-important class management.<\/p>\n

    If you have the chance, you should definitely look into investing into those qualifications.<\/p>\n

    They will also allow you to charge more for your services, or alternatively open up more job opportunities if you ever decide to work for a company.<\/p>\n

    How to grow your business<\/h2>\n

    Okay, now you\u2019ve got your business in order, you need to actually go out there and start teaching, right?<\/p>\n

    Here we\u2019ll look at not only how to get your first clients, but also how to expand your base so that you can have a more dependable salary.<\/p>\n

    Get your customers<\/h3>\n

    As I mentioned before, the first few months will be dry, but there are things you can do to lessen that lull.<\/p>\n

    You can start the process of advertising yourself before you even get to the country. There are many online groups, forums, and social networking groups that are available for each country.<\/p>\n

    In many of them, there are students looking for teachers and you can begin to browse through them to find your first students.<\/p>\n

    Besides that, the most common method is to begin working with a company in that country and then start teaching students on the side.<\/p>\n

    \"Use<\/p>\n

    It may be a bit strange or awkward to begin marketing yourself as a freelance teacher, but you can do it\u2014usually when the class is wrapping up\u2014by mentioning that you also do private teaching with more flexible schedules.<\/p>\n

    Students, especially busy ones, are always eager to have more flexibility, and you will probably be able to offer a better rate than the school. You may not get these students, but they may know friends or family in need of a language teacher.<\/p>\n

    Another option, much less used and more old school, is to put up fliers and notifications in and around places where people would logically want or need English teaching. These are usually universities and high schools, but could also be international business areas (I.T. is a big one) or places of international interest (Starbucks, international markets, etc).<\/p>\n

    Set your rates\u2014and adapt them<\/h3>\n

    Now, to the more fun question: how much do you charge?<\/p>\n

    As I mentioned above, your rates depend on your location. You\u2019re not going to be charging the same in San Jose or Harare\u00a0as you are in Paris or Berlin. Their economies are different, their costs of living are different, and their need and English levels are different.<\/p>\n

    Therefore, really, seeing the comparable rates for your location are a part of your research.<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s an example of rates you should be charging in different parts of the world (low end for newbie, upper for experienced:<\/p>\n