Job Discussion Forums

[BELS]

To be self employed or be employed that is a good question. I can see judging from your negative calculations you have seriously looked into being self employed and have decided against it. My guess is that you have become well established as a teacher in Russia and are now on a decent income. Maybe you do a little extra private work to boost your income even higher.

But its not for me, I seriously considered working for a school , and had a few interviews, the offer of income was ridiculously low, but not only that, a lot of the hours were for evenings working till 9pm, and from where I live, I would miss the last bus home. The income I would get wouldn�t warrant the taxi fare home. I would like to explain why I feel positive about being in business rather than being employed. I�ve known nothing else, except working for myself, I have had my ups and my downs, and I am probably unemployable.

At the moment I have 16 clock hours work a week, most of it in the weekend, which I charge $25.00 an academic hour for one to one in there own home. This is on the increase, Russians love to help out and spread the word. Two of my greatest allies is a private art teacher and a headmistress of a school. Admittedly I teach the headmistress�s son free of charge, but with her recommendations it�s paying off. They take pride in phoning my wife up and saying �I have got you another student�. Its great to live in a large residential area with plenty blocks of flats, and with two schools close by. All my students are a five minute walk, I like it, no travelling. And no lost time.

My wife got an offer from the Art teacher, why don�t you share my classroom, $270 a month. She said no, because it would take some time for her to develop the classes of students. � ok, how about I get you the students, some of them from my classes and I will give you time to develop the classes and then you can pay me $270 per month�. Ok, deal accepted, my wife now has two classes of seven and I believe enquiries will increase. Just 5 year olds for the time being, but the other age groups will come along I am sure. My wife doesn�t want me to assist her in classes. �Wait for your Residential visa . She says. �I hope it will be ready by September, but for the time being it�s best you keep a low profile, as it may jeopardise your Residential or you might be deported�. Best stick to private invitations, without advertising, for the time being.

Our headmistress, controls the bigger secondary school, we have been invited to go to different parent�s meetings of for different age groups, I was impressed with my wife giving a good speech , going through the different courses , and preparation for qualifications we had to offer, such as PET. Prices will be $7.50 an hour, based on 10 in a class, if for any reason the classes are smaller then adjustments may be made to the price. I had to make a speech myself, , alongside my wife who did the translation.

Bookings for courses are trickling in every week from the secondary school, courses will start in September, hopefully we should have a number of classes of different age groups by then. With a bit of luck I might also have my Residential visa . After the visa I will be able to register as a Proprietor or sole Trader. I have to be honest, I couldn�t have done any of this in Moscow without my wife.

To be self employed or not to be, I had only one choice, to be self employed. Maybe we will have some form of company and officially open a school, if and when we develop.

[zaneth]

When I first saw this thread I thought "Here's a guy that just doesn't know the realities of life here."

But obviously he does know a thing or two. This has turned into one of the most interesting and informative threads in a lot time. Thank you to all of you for your contributions to this topic. Very informative and refreshing.

Best of luck to you, OP. And best of luck to all the rest of us trying to settle in, make a living, and have a real life in this country.

[bobs12]

Ditto Zaneth, sounds like you're more or less already doing what you're talking about. Unlike many of us in here

If I were you I'd keep the low profile altogether - if you went official everything would get much more complicated, especially the agreement with the room in the school. If you wanted that to be figured in your taxes, it'd likely have to be official too, in which case the school would have to take a reduction in funding (at least in St. P. I believe that's the case) and expat income tax is around 30%

"$25.00 an academic hour "

Blimey! If you can charge that, and $7.50 for a group of ten, you're laughing all the way to the GazPromBank. I've always wanted to do a study of school prices vs. wages vs. private tuition. Will get round to it one day.


You're right in many ways in your guesses about me, although I don't do any private lessons - I'm hopeless at taking money. I do the occasional translation or editing job, but it's more for the variety than the cash. It can work out at a pretty miserable hourly rate.

Going back to your plans- are you really sure you want to invite another expat into your deal? English teachers over here are a pretty cranky bunch. I mean let's face it - how many English teachers have you met that aren't here to escape something

I think you have an advantage in not having worked for any of the schools- less prejudice and maybe less bitterness about the whole thing.

[BELS]

For all those interested in doing business in Russia, whatever product or service you plan to do , hopefully this news article from Moscow Times might be of interest to you
Also includes an interesting story about Khodorkovsky who registered as a PBOYul

http://russianlaw.com/publications/id/21/

I have a wife who has a thing about doing things the proper and legal way, well,, as much as possible. And as my partner we must compromise with each other. Much investigation has been made on the legal side, and we have received advise from current Russian self private teachers. Small business�s have a good choice of tax systems, like 6% of gross turnover or 15% of net income. There are also some areas of expenses where you can claim, not sure of the details yet, visiting a legal adviser this Monday. I read an article in Moscow Times some time last year that there are tax benefits on companies inviting Ex-pats to work, and that the companies will have tax benefits on providing these employees with accommodation, maybe that�s why property rent is higher than what you would expect for Moscow.

The tax rate I believe you are talking about is for Expat employees, but after so many days, its reduced to 16%. I saw a thread in the Expat forum asking for some advise on this subject, asking if he could get a rebate now that he was on 16%. The answer to that one is no, not in Russia.

School ! No ! according to our investigation the mention would send alarm bell to the authorities, we would not be allowed to register as proprietors, PBOYul or whatever. And we would need to accredited, registered and licensed as a school , lots of money and time consuming. we would like to eventually open a school maybe one day, if and when we do well. A little acorn to a big Oak tree I like to say. Yes! We are private teachers. Again checking up legal advise, what is our activity to be written on our business registration?.

Classes ?? Cost of rent?? I would have thought that this would be classified as expenses, certainly in UK there would be a claim against our tax payments for this, but we are checking these details up.

Costs of rent, this was the first piece of research I asked my wife to do , before I had written a business plan. I couldn�t find one myself , not a lot advertised in English. My wife decided to pretend to be a potential student, her findings were typical $10.00 an academic hour, but some were cheaper, but she personally would have gone for the ones for $10.00, just her intuition here. For those who thinks we might be too expensive, we normally say �Look at what time you are saving, by not going to Central Moscow, we are here, in your neighbourhood.�

And the $25.00 an academic hour, I believe me that�s the lower end of the market, many are charging more. Think of the time travelling that could be done for one to one, ok , I avoid the travelling . If you want to check up the prices, get a Russian friend to pose as a potential student and get the enquiries for you. But cost of living may be lower in St Petersburg than Moscow. I do believe it is , is it not ?

My plans, times have changed in such a short period. We have knowledge we did not have before. The general idea was a shortcut from my residential visa, discovering the expense of a company and licensing a school , a lot of money I could not afford alone. But situations have improved. And the enquiries some were good , some were bad. My wife and I discussed this. She said � Do you really want these people who simply want to join us in a company, because they are not happy with the school they are working with�? And what about the profits that we will have to share, and the greed , we will end up becoming a money making machine, and that is not my original dream plans for this school�. This idea of a school was originally my wife�s, and I would like to help her get this dream. Teachers who accepted the terms of a school, and then later decide they are not happy with these terms? Not a good idea, what if they agreed to the joint plans of the company, and then a year later they are not happy, want to quit with their share of the company.

That�s why I asked for self employed teachers, ones who would have some experience to contribute in a company, got some groups doing exactly what I am doing, one group even has their course books designed by themselves. But now we have decided to go on our own, and not be a company unless demand makes us bigger. I will group the good ones together, if they are interested.[/u][/b]