Job Discussion Forums

[climber89]

Anything and everything to do with teaching English Independently (Self Employed).

Legalities?
General Tips?
Income potential?
Finding Students?
Anything topic related?

What's your experience?

[climber89]

So I started this topic because I am business minded and I will be moving to Mexico in January to be with my fianc�e (she is Mexican). I will be teaching English for sure but I am looking for information about teaching independently.

[Guy Courchesne]

Do you know where in Mexico you plan to set up? Posters in that particular area may be more helpful as there would be large differences in the answers to your questions across the country.

[climber89]

I will be living in the area of Cuernavaca, Morelos.

[leslie]

Some rules that I use are:

1. $150 pesos an hour
2. at least 3 hours a week (to show any progress) - 5 per week is better
3. students must buy the book and workbook
4. option to get honorarios (official tax receipts) - so that would be $150 pesos + the 16% IVA (service tax) on top of that.
5. Students must pay for classes even if they miss a class due to travel or sickness or whatever reason. It doesn't matter if they phone the day before.
6. To be fair, if I cancel or am sick, then I don't charge.
7. I give classes out of my home because travel time eats up my time, money, and energy. Also, it's better to wait at home for a late or absent student who doesn't phone because then you can watch TV or have a coffee, or do whatever instead of wasting your time waiting. I also found that when I gave classes in people's homes, there were distractions like maids, children, husbands, phone calls, etc.
8. I offer coffee, water, or refreshment.
9. I supplement the class with e-lessons from Inside Out and other sites.
10. I don't teach children. Motivated teens and adults are okay.
11. I don't teach groups because they are never the same level, and they miss classes and then they are not on the same page, so to speak.

Also, once I had a student who asked for a monthly set amount, which I kind of liked.

Also, buy a nice CD player. Those cheap ones have horrible sound and can ruin a lesson.

Everyone is different. I hope you get more responses.

Hope these ideas help you set up your "clases particulares".

By the way, why not check out the Mextesol chapter in your city. They often have good connections, and it's a nice way to connect with other teachers.
www.mextesol.org.mx

[MotherF]

I'm the one who voted that I have not taught independantly, which is not entirely true.
About 8 years ago I arranged a class that was contrary to some of leslie's advice. I taught a group of kids in one of their homes.
I have expirence and training in teaching young learners so that helped.
I taught a group of 6 children from 5 to 8 years old for two 90 minute sessions a week. Each child paid 50 pesos a session. They brought their pencil case from school with colored pencils, scissors, glue, etc. and I asked each parent to get a folder with one of those two prong clip thingys. I provided all the other materials in the form of photocopiables. We played games and did crafts.
I was making enough money to pay my rent and a large percentage of my other living expenses and just letting the money from my day job pile up in my bank account.

I'd do it again the same way--but now I have my own children to go home to in the evenings.

[climber89]

Hello,

Thank you both so much for your advice.

Leslie, what kind of visa do you need to teach independently like that? Is it difficult to obtain the visa? Does anything need to be done with regard to the taxes?
Well thanks a million!!!

p.s. charging monthly seems it would be a great idea if enough students are interested. How many students at a time would you teach?

p.p.s. as for teaching children, I would certainly not mind giving it a go. I'm sure it can be great fun

[Tretyakovskii]

[climber89]

Thank you for your input!! How much did you charge per student? How long were your sessions?

[Tretyakovskii]

Sessions were one hour and a quarter long. I charged $6.50 USD per hour, per student, but this was a number of years ago, and in a different country. I don't know if Mexicans would pay that much. Here, I've charged 50 pesos per hour per student, with groups of up to 25, but I don't consider that generally duplicable. It's not been easy to get any institution or business to agree to 1,000 pesos per hour, here, in my experience. I suspect you're doing pretty good if you can consistently get 500, or more.

[Guy Courchesne]

Did you ever have trouble billing when students were charged individually? Years ago, we tried it that way with groups but every month was an accounting nightmare as there were always students missing classes. We moved to sliding hourly rate (2 students at X pesos/hr, 5 students at Y pesos/hr and so forth). Had much more success on the accounting side that way dealing with companies.

[Tretyakovskii]

Guy, the students paid every four weeks, in advance, with no reductions for missed lessons, unless they were going out of town or were ill for an extended period. Collecting was not generally an issue, as they understood they'd be out if they didn't pay.
________________

I don't think I can say I understand the Mexican market, at this point. Here, students are paying 75 pesos/hour of instruction to study at Harmon Hall, and I see some students paying 100 pesos an hour to join large groups (up to 25) at schools teaching ESP, making what I charged for the same thing seem relatively modest (which is what the person in charge of setting up my classes said at the time).
________________

If you work privately, at any profession, there is a serious limitation on what you can make, because what you are doing, essentially, is selling your time, a very limited resource. This makes getting paid the most you possibly can, per hour of your time, crucial.

For a teacher doing private work, getting the best opportunities seem more a matter of luck than about any special qualities as a teacher. Being at the right place with the right offer is not an outcome anyone can boast about: it's just the luck of the timing, in many cases. My practice has generally been to go to the biggest institutions, and most successful of companies, first. They've usually got the training budget to allow them to pay better, and are accustomed to paying more for training than many others. Multinational companies, international organizations, and government, at all levels, are mainly what I'm talking about. It takes some courage to walk in and present yourself, but getting rebuffed by them is no more painful than getting rebuffed at a mom and pop store.

[mejms]

[mejms]

[Tretyakovskii]

mejms, you haven't stumbled upon something new in your thoughts about smaller classes having the potential of being more effective.

When you teach in institutions, whether it be a corporation or a university, you don't typically get to decide the size of the classes. It's up to the teacher to make the classes as effective as possible, under the conditions presented them. This is the point at which the skill and professionalism of the teacher will be tested.

When growing up I rarely had classes, whether in school or in university, that were any smaller than 25 students, but they could not have been characterized as "ineffective". I was lucky enough to have good teachers, often times, along the way.

Working privately, as you do, you're free to set class size at anything you find you prefer: that's the beauty of it, and one of the reasons I enjoyed it.