Filling the gap
“I think you should be more explicit in Step Two.”
Marketing for teachers
Why marketing and teachers share a love/hate relationship
Marketing for teachers
“I am not interested in marketing! I don’t like it.”
This was a statement from a friend and colleague who has been a freelancer for several years.
I know many teachers in Germany who have become a freelancer “by accident” – either to save overhead costs or the work was “outsourced”. They are skilled and experienced teachers with a pressing need to earn a living, find and teach students – and run a freelance business at the same time. Most teachers new to freelancing are unprepared for this new way of life. They struggle with the ethical idea of combining teaching and running a business – especially when that word “marketing” rears its head.
The ethical problem teachers have with marketing
Marketing! 
Oh yes, I’m aware of the ethical problem teachers have to marketing...
Most teachers believe marketing is either personal selling or advertising – something that is pushy and where you are imposing yourself on others. This is because marketing is often understood to only mean “advertising” and “selling yourself”. Admittedly… 
not much of a recommendation.
However, marketing is an umbrella-term that includes anything a teacher can do to create business. That is, anything you do to reach, to get, or to keep your student or customer. Marketing is the tool which brings you into contact with students or customers.
As you focus on building up relationships and friendships with your students and customers by helping and taking care of their needs, you are marketing your skills and yourself. Depending on your effectiveness and the impression you leave, some of these people are going to hire your teaching service – or refer them to others. Is this ethical?
I think it is. Building up a good relationship with your students and customers is the key to setting up a good learning environment. After all, who can learn well (or teach!) if the chemistry between a student and a teacher is not right?
With this thought in mind, a teacher’s definition of marketing is:
a relationship-oriented service.
You must develop a relationship-oriented service. One that satisfies both parties. And to develop a relationship-oriented service, you need to develop two other areas in marketing: research and education.
Two important marketing areas in a teacher’s relationship-oriented service
Research and education are fundamental to your freelance teaching business and to your relationship-oriented service. Here are brief explanations of both marketing areas:
Research: Student and teacher are both trying to find each other.
There are students who can pay for teaching skills and who want or need them. How do they find you? How do they look for you? Where do they go?
What about teachers? How do teachers (who want to earn their living with their teaching skills) find students and customers? How do they know what the students need or want? And how do teachers make students aware of their particular service or speciality?
Facit: when students realise they need your teaching services, there is no pressure on you to “sell” them your services. But how do you make them realise they need your particular teaching service? By educating them; another often overlooked marketing area.
Education: Depending on your teaching niche, you educate your future students by making them aware how your teaching services can help them. Every prospective student is going to inform himself what is available on the market – and information overload is only one step away. How do you stand out from all the others?
Another reason is that not every prospective student knows exactly what he is looking for. Educate him on what you are doing and the areas of your service may reveal a potential shortfall he has not yet thought about.
What is sleazy about educating people about them and making them aware there is a solution available – one that will help solve or meet their personal needs?
If your teaching services are valuable to others, then you will be doing a disservice by not letting them know about you and your teaching service.
There is nothing dishonest or pushy about learning how to use the marketing tools so your students know you even exist. Neither is it dishonest or pushy to show them your passion and your skills as a freelance teacher. Nor is there a need to be apologetic about marketing yourself as a freelance teacher. Instead, it’s an honest approach to your students and customers as an efficient relationship-oriented service will reflect your personality, your integrity and your ability as a professional in your chosen teaching field.
Inefficiency or Marketing: what happens next?
If we look at the business of being a freelance teacher, there are many ways to look for work and find students, and many of them are incredibly inefficient. But you don’t have the time or the money to be inefficient! So be direct and start marketing your teaching service. It’s the best way to ensure both you and your students profit from the mutual exchange.
Otherwise you are doing your students a disservice.
Conclusion
- Freelancing is a business and marketing is an integral part to running any business.
- Teaching is a valuable customer service.
- Marketing is an umbrella term teachers use to cover their relationship-oriented service.
- Research and education are fundamental marketing areas within relationship-oriented marketing.
- It is a disservice to your students and customers by not helping them to be aware of your teaching services.
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What About You?
What do you think? Do you have something you would like to say about the subject of teaching and marketing? Add your comments and suggestions below…
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P.S. If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.
Any links to your own products or services, need to be done separate from the article itself, so your audience can clearly tell it’s your own link.
And include this at the end of the article.
©2010 Janine Bray-Mueller, www.ft-training.com. All Rights Reserved.
Article written by Janine Bray-Mueller.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon simple, yet electrifying ideas on freelance teaching? Go to http://www.ft-training.com/Articles and judge for yourself.
If you haven’t done so already: Subscribe to the FTT newsletter (FTT Ezine)
(That’s a clue! 
)
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Once upon a time...
Is your customer’s first impression important?
Once upon a time...
Once upon a time, a duck hatched seven ducklings. Six ducklings were beautiful with yellow fluffy feathers. The seventh was much larger than the other six and had grey, shoddy looking feathers. The poor duckling suffered each time it tried to join the other duck families. Rejected and chased away, the ugly duckling heard them calling him names: ugly… different… dishevelled… unwanted…
Unhappy and forlorn, the ugly duckling hides on the banks of a lake until one day he sees a group of elegant white swans swimming not far from his hiding place. Awed by their beauty, he creeps out to watch them until he is discovered by the wild swans and is encouraged to join them. In their eyes, the ugly duckling is the most beautiful and elegant swan they have ever seen…
Do you recognise the tale of The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen?
When you have students, have you thought about the impression your appearance can be making on them? Rather like The Ugly Duckling, is your appearance: ugly… different… dishevelled… unwanted? Continue reading The customer’s first impression →
Here is where it’s going to be All About Me
blah blah
Do these 6 freelancing start-up and running mistakes cost you your livelihood?
Of the 410,000 new companies founded in 2009 in Germany – it’s small businesses with 20 employees and fewer that weather the global crisis best.
I don’t know the exact percentage, but I am sure many small and one-person “Ich AGs” business enterprises out of the German 2004 boom period are a part of these figures.
Quite impressive, isn’t it?
It gives food for thought. “Ich AGs” are freelancers and they are surviving despite a global recession. Yet there are some that don’t survive… why?
What are unsuccessful freelancers not doing, that successful freelancer teachers are doing?
I believe there are six major freelancing mistakes that can cost a freelance teacher their students – and their livelihood.
How 6 freelancing mistakes cost many freelance teachers their livelihood
Most freelance teachers have their core students – not too many, but enough to survive. Enough to give hope – enough to help you believe that you can earn a living from your teaching skills. Yet at the same time, you feel your career as a freelance teacher is going nowhere fast. You are working more and more; your free time becomes less and less, yet your income remains stagnant. How come?
Perhaps you are guilty of incurring one or more of the six most common mistakes freelance teachers make? The first error is the most important and the most significant.
What is the biggest freelance teacher mistake?
The most important and the most significant freelance mistake is not treating your freelance teaching as a business. You are not treating your freelance teaching as an authentic, real business in its entirety. Instead, somewhere in the back of your mind, your teaching career is still regarded as a hobby.
It is a hobby in your mind because your business stops at its administrative (tax, social security, etc.) responsibilities. It remains a hobby in your mind until you learn there is more to the freelancing business than in just finding students and paying your taxes.
A freelance teacher must use a concept – a three-pronged pillar system – to ensure his business strategy succeeds:
- a defined purpose behind your business and teaching activities
(a structured plan to help you and your business keep focused), - managing your students and customers,
(a structured system for your students and customers care, guidance and protection plan) - a marketing and sales plan
(a structured system that answers the how, what, where, when and why in your teaching business, which also plans for reoccurring income).
Without a three-pillar supporting the roof of your teaching enterprise, the business will either stutter until it stagnates, or fail outright. How fast this happens, depends on whether the freelance teacher makes one or more of the remaining mistakes…
Which other four serious mistakes undermine your professionalism and your work
The three-pronged pillar concept to your teaching business is going to change the way you perceive your job as a freelance teacher and the way you see your worth as a freelance teacher in the global market.
Your worth, and how you see your worth on the market, is important to your survival and existence as a freelance teacher. Your livelihood depends on it; your customers and students depend on it too. The one cannot exist without the other. Let’s talk about these four mistakes that can destroy the worth of a freelance teacher in a global market.
Four serious mistakes that undermine your worth and your work in a global market
The four undermining mistakes are:
- Charging too low prices (includes discounts)
- Being too much a generalist and not specialising
- Not gratifying a student-customer’s self-esteem and satisfaction
- Not being a professional (in 3 particular areas).
Charging too low prices (includes discounts)
The most aggressive and insidious is the factor of pricing. Too many freelancers undercharge in the hope of winning a new student. This creates a snowball effect:
- Your services are seen as inferior or sub-standard. The time-aged adage: what’s free (or almost free) isn’t worth anything and not worthwhile to have or hold.
- You can raise the prices once they see the quality of your teaching later.
No, you won’t and No, you can’t. Why? Because you set your maximum price when you made your cheap offer. - You are creating a Lose–Lose situation by undermining the market price.
Nobody wins when a student and customer finds cheaper and cheaper alternatives. Why Lose–Lose? Because the service “freelance teacher” will also have lost its reputation for good, solid, and quality work. - Lost reputation. Some freelance teachers have studied hard for qualifications. Others have long years of practical experience. All want recognition and appreciation for their work and effort. But who will qualify or give honest value for money when there is no reward in sight?
In the long run, it’s the student and customer who will lose out both financially and in lost time. He’s at the mercy of cheap-priced teachers who have to cut corners and costs by giving sub-standard and inferior lessons. And a cheap freelance teacher loses too, as he slips into a soul destroying suction made out of a feast or famine cycle and a work and life balance disharmony. - Discounts. What discounts? Never give discounts. For the same reasons. Instead, add to your service. Your marketing and sales strategy will plan for the times you need or want to add more prestige and quality to your offers.
Being too much a generalist and not specialising
When you have a heart problem you’d make an appointment with a heart specialist, not a general practitioner, wouldn’t you? Do you think your students and customers are going to do anything different? Fact is, people turn to specialists in times of need. And specialists demand – and get – their fees. But there are other advantages:
- Better prices for your work
- More visibility for your work
- More reputation as your experience and knowledge grow together
- More free time as your research is more focused
- Less work (over time) as tools and knowledge of your trade are recycled
- More fun and engagement as you learn and use more and more your specialised niche
Not gratifying a student-customer self-esteem and satisfaction
Nothing can be so devastating for your students and customers as a teacher who delivers run-of-the-mill lessons. And nothing can feel quite so devastating for a freelance teacher if he notices his customers and students think this – especially if he has prepared with his student in mind. So how can you avoid this happening?
- Be a specialist not a generalist
- Recycle student teaching materials
- Individualise student customer materials
Not being a professional
If you are not perceived to be a professional, then your students and customer will not treat you as one. Fact.
- Keep a discreet emotional distance to your students. You will lose your aura of respectability if you become too buddy-buddy with them. Let your students vent or cry on your shoulder, then redirect that energy to the task – the lesson.
- The tools of the trade (equipment): A carpenter can still work well with a large stone and a piece of wood. However, who blames a customer if he starts questioning the quality of the work result?
The tools of the trade do not have to be the most modern, the most “in” or the most high-tech. But they do have to be recognisable as good, solid, tools of the trade, and you do have to show you can use them. - Appearance: Clothes make people. There are several films and books written on this subject. Appearance sends signals and these can signal if the person is successful and organised. Dirty, untidy and uncared-for appearance and equipment reflect untidiness, sloppiness and uncaring work. Your students and customers are quick to take judgement of your abilities as a freelance teacher based only on your appearance and the state of your equipment.
- Self-esteem: How do you expect your student and customer to respect you and your work if you are incapable of doing this yourself? Pride and confidence in what you do and who you are immediately reflects in your work when you believe in yourself and what you are doing.
Why underestimating this mistake will affect your health
John Donne once said “No Man is an island, entire of itself…”. What he was saying was that human beings cannot survive or progress when isolated from others. The sixth mistake is to believe you can go it alone – and this can bring a thriving freelance teaching business to a grounding halt.
Networking is the name of the game, and it’s the best method to keep in touch with others working in the same niche.
Why go to all the bother of networking? What if you believe you can manage without contact to others in your field? Well, yes it is possible to go without networking – but it will take a lot longer to reach that same efficiency or reach that same high-level in standards and of reputation working in a vacuum. It’s also the fastest ticket to a burnout syndrome. 
This is a quote I have taken to heart. It’s African in origin:
If you want to get somewhere fast go alone, if you want to go far go in a group!
You may be a freelance teacher, but you are not alone and you don’t have to be. Find links to clubs or forums where you can contact like-minded colleagues. Here on this website is a forum The Nest especially for Freelance Teachers. In the Nest you can join with others in your field or niche who have decided to take their teaching further – a profitable business with reoccurring income. If you need support or have questions, this is the place to go to. Just remember, you are among others like you and it’s a safe zone. Remember the saying? Trouble shared is trouble halved.
Summary
In conclusion, six fundamental mistakes can bring down a new freelance teacher enterprise, causing a teacher to lose his livelihood. Yet it can be and has been done.
2004 was the boom period for new and budding entrepreneurs – the “Ich AG” enterprise. These one-person entrepreneur businesses, the so-called “Me Enterprise,” were supported by the German government and have an over-60 per cent success rate. After a trial 3-year period they were able to support themselves.
By avoiding six fundamental start-up and running errors, a freelance teacher enterprise is achievable.
Action Plan/Next Step
Your first step is to double check if you are guilty of avoiding any of these six errors, or doing any of them. The second step is to then correct the source of the problem: 
- Not treating your freelance teaching as a business: do you have your three-pronged pillar system in place?
(1) a defined purpose behind your business and teaching activities,
(2) a structure plan to manage your students and customers,
(3) a structured marketing and sales strategy. - Charging too low prices (includes discounts)
- Being too much a generalist and not specialising
- Not gratifying a student-customer self-esteem and satisfaction
- Not being a professional
- Not networking
www.monocle.com/monocolumn/2010/01/17/germans-get-adventurous/
About John Donne
No man is an island, entire of itself
No man is an island, entire of itself
each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thine own or thine friends were
each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind
therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
________________________________________
P.S. If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.
Any links to your own products or services, need to be done separate from the article itself, so your audience can clearly tell it’s your own link.
And include this at the end of the article.
©2010 Janine Bray-Mueller, www.ft-training.com. All Rights Reserved.
Article written by Janine Bray-Mueller.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon simple, yet electrifying ideas on freelance teaching? Go to http://www.ft-training.com/Articles and judge for yourself.
If you haven’t done so already: Subscribe to the FTT newsletter (FTT Ezine)
(That’s a clue!)
Subscribe to Freelance Teacher
Avoiding mistakes
Avoiding mistakes
What is necessary when you start out on your freelance career?
Have you ever mislaid your reading glasses, or your car or front door keys? That book you were reading? How often have you looked for something you’ve mislaid only to find it there before your very eyes?
This often happens with people who dream of becoming a freelancer. They just cannot decide what they need – or not need – to embark on their freelancing career. It’s true, our imagination is the only limit to what freelancing career we choose to follow, but the huge choice of tools or resources to realise this freelancing career makes us blind to what is, or is not, necessary. Not only do the choices seem unlimited, but most are also expensive. And you are left questioning yourself on how to avoid making costly mistakes. Continue reading What to avoid when starting out on your freelance career →
How to start up your freelance teaching business and find students successfully
A website to help teachers start up their freelance business, get more business and find students successfully!
Purpose
WHO does Freelance Teachers – Training help?
Freelance teaching can cover a gazillion niches. Being a professional English trainer (as I am) is just one such niche. The articles you find here will help unfog how you can turn your freelance teaching market into a successful business. FTT job is to show you how to start up, run, market and manage your freelance business.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a freelancer teaching English, or teaching belly dancing; or you are a teacher of martial sport arts, or you’re a music teacher such as a drummer or guitarist, or you work as a computer trainer or life coach…
We all need to know the hows-and-whats of what must be put into place to successfully work and earn our living as freelancers. Only the teaching business changes.
FTT is designed to help all teachers, trainers and coaches who have become freelancers by chance (or by fate) as well as those who have become freelancers by choice.
FTT focuses on giving freelance teachers a structure on how to effectively become successful professional freelancers .
HOW does Freelance Teachers – Training help?
FTT focuses on how teachers can market themselves.
Marketing! Yes, I’m aware of the love/hate relationship teachers have to marketing...
Yes, I know that most teachers think marketing is either personal selling or advertising – something that is pushy and where you are imposing yourself on others.
However, FTT’s approach to marketing your services focuses on building relationships and friendships and on helping other people – your students and customers. When you focus your freelance teaching business to serving them… when you use your teaching skills to help them meet their needs… you are not selling your services! Instead, you are offering a valuable service to your students and customers; one that will help them meet their personal needs.
If your services are valuable to others, then you are doing a disservice by not letting them know about you.
There is nothing dishonest or pushy about learning the tools so your students know you even exist. Neither is it dishonest or pushy to show them your passion and your skills as a freelance teacher. Nor is there a need to be apologetic about marketing yourself as a freelance teacher. Instead, it’s FTT’s aim to show an honest approach to Marketing by presenting methods that will reflect your personality, your integrity and your ability as a professional in your chosen teaching field.
So… go to the top of this page and subscribe to the FTT Ezine to ensure you are kept up todate with the latest articles, templates, and workshops because:
FTT is going to help turn your freelancing business into a professional, viable and thriving business rather than a stressful, unreliable and insecure sideline.
WHAT are the problems most freelance teachers have to cope with?
- Not getting enough customers or students
- Not retaining customers or students
- Not getting the type of customer or student you prefer or want
- Not being paid commensurate to your abilities and qualifications
- Not being visible on the market
- Lack of job security
- Coping with too much versus not enough work
- Loneliness
WHERE does Freelance Teachers – Training help?
FTT reaches out to all freelance teachers, trainers and coaches with ideas, tips, and instructions on running your freelancer teaching business:
- Specialisation:
How to find the teaching area and type of customers you want, etc - Professional Image:
How to present yourself in front of your customers or students - Individualising:
How to individualise the teaching materials for your customers and students - Pricing:
How to charge the real value of your services - Positioning:
How to establish yourself on the market - Brand:
How to create your uniqueness factor to establish your own individual brand - Online presence:
How to set up your online presence and instantly get (and keep) the attention of the customer - Contact:
FTT’s NEST (teacher’s forum) combats loneliness. It’s a safe zone. Ask your questions or give advice, or just keep in contact…
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