Job Discussion Forums

[KaiFeng]

I'm going to post some thoughts in this thread about things I did over the years to maximize my income. In this first post, I am quoting what I said already, just for logistical convenience.

/begin quote
In a sporadic series, I'll be posting some comments about how I was able to build a strong income in Taiwan over a 19-year period in the ESL business. I'll be posting these also in my blog, the-esl-life.blogspot.com.

1. Change how you see yourself

Why mention this first? Because if you don't do this, nothing else I say will work for you.

It works like this. If you think of yourself as "an English teacher", that is what you will always be: an interchangeable commodity. Instead, you have to think of yourself in a more distinct, high-end, less commoditized fashion. Over the years, I identified myself as:

- Language consultant (my favorite, and the one I put on my business cards, English on one side and Chinese on the other)
- Language trainer
- Executive coach
- Corporate trainer

This is important for three reasons:

1. If you think of yourself in terms of a higher professional identification, you will grow into that role. This is extremely important for your success. Mark my words: you will grow into what you describe yourself as. So aim high.

2. It makes you stand out from everyone else. For example, when you go to American Chamber of Commerce networking events (and you _do_ attend these, right?), you introduce yourself as a "staff development specialist", and explain that you "help business professionals communicate better for their bosses". This presents you entirely from saying "Oh, I teach English at LTTC/ELSI/Hess/Gramm/whatever".

3. I save the best for last. When you are talking to a prospective client, and you say "I'm an English teacher", the prospect immediately pegs you at NT$500-NT$700 an hour. You're pigeon-holed. You have to negotiate upwards. However, on the other hand, when you say, as I always did, "I'm a language consultant", the client has no fixed expectation. Then, when I said, "This is very specialized training you're talking about, and usually I charge NT$1500 an hour for work like this", you make it easier for him or her to say yes. Because (and forgive me for repeating the obvious), they're not thinking of paying for an English teacher, and this frees you to charge more.

That's my point for today. And next time you are talking about some training for a new prospect, try this approach out. It worked for me 85% to 90% of the time. It helped me book more than 10 billable hours a day.

/end quote

[KaiFeng]

Maximizing Income 02: Make the Most of Opportunity

We all know the old saying: There are two kinds of people: those who watch things happen and those who make things happen. It�s true in business, and it�s true in ESL. What�s more, it�s especially true when it comes to filling your schedule with well-paying clients. Let me explain.

We all know the type of ESL professional who watches things happen, but let me focus on a couple of salient characteristics:

1. Most people in our business think of themselves as �English teachers�. So when they have a 20 or 25 hours a week, most weeks a month, and have a few privates, they think they have it made. They save a few hundred US$ a month and they�re high on life. If they�re happy, more power to them! But they could do more�.
2. When private students come their way, they tend to take whatever they get.

Does this characterize you? It characterized me for many years, I�m ashamed to admit. But to meet the needs of my clients, I started reading business magazines and newspapers, and started thinking differently. I started thinking of myself as a consultant, responsible for creating my own business, and not waiting for someone to arrange everything for me. So, how did I make this metamorphosis?

I have already discussed one key mental breakthrough, which was to stop thinking of myself as an �English teacher�, and to identify myself as a �language consultant�.

But the second step was to become keenly aware of opportunities. Let me tell you about the one that changed my life. Calculating though I am, this one happened totally by chance!

One day I was sitting in my office at the training center I helped run, perusing the day�s mail. One item caught my eye: a letter from one of Taiwan�s leading business magazines, written in bad English, soliciting our participation in a survey. Like many of you, I could have laughed and tossed it. But that�s not what I did. I saw it as an opportunity.

So, I re-wrote it in perfect professional diction, and sent it back, with a letter describing my services. Out of this I was hoping for an editing gig, maybe ten hours a week. Sure enough, they called me and asked to meet with me. Alas, they did not want an editor. Instead, they wanted someone to teach them! But I accepted it. However, that�s not all I did. This is what I said (paraphrasing from memory):

1. �I have extensive experiencing in teaching writing (from cram schools and from the University of Iowa), and I would be happy to work with you.� Note: I took what I could get, hoping to leverage it later, and affirming my premium qualifications.
2. �At the same time (I never said �but�) this is very specialized training, and usually I ask for NT$700 an hour for work like this (this is back in the 1980s), so I hope you won�t mind if I ask for my standard rate�. Note: In fact, this was my first time at this pay level. But I knew I was selling exactly what they needed. And since their company was paying, the premium rate would not hurt them. And by explaining my special strengths, I had made it possible for them to justify this to their manager.

Sure enough, they agreed. And I taught these three people for five years, eventually reaching NT$1000 an hour in the early 90s. Over the years I taught a couple of dozen editors and staff. I edited letters to their foreign business partners. I wrote a few speeches for them. Basically, I expanded my range of services as their needs grew. Besides the good money, two other things came from this.

1. I could give them as a very high-profile precedent when working with other prospects. This made it easier to justify my premium rates, again and again.
2. Through word of month from them I got work at numerous other high-profile clients, from TV stations to consumer goods companies. In fact, one of these clients still pays me US$5000 a year for emailed editing!

Now, why do I share all this? Because anything I did above, you could do as well. The biggest things to learn from this are to be alert to opportunities, and to negotiate your arrangement optimistically/aggressively. And anyone can do that. This is what is known as making things happen.

Or you can watch things happen. It�s up to you.

Next: preparing yourself for success

[clark.w.griswald]

Thanks Kaifeng for such a positive post. It is a shame that boards such as this one become so negative and it is good to see something inspiring.

[KaiFeng]

[kuberkat]

YES!

You have so absolutely got the right idea. I wonder who is going to pick up on this little goldmine of yours?

(As to me, these are basically the principles I am using in my Life After TEFL project, but as they say, the fundamental things apply.)

AttaConsultant

[KaiFeng]

Maximizing Income 03: Look Like What You Want to Get

This entry is the hardest for me to write. I mean, it goes most against my grain. As I sit here on a sunday afternoon, barefoot, in cargo shorts, wearing an old Grateful Dead T-shirt, I feel happy. There's nothing I like less than dressing up for _any_thing. Now I work at a "business casual" venue where lots of people wear blue jeans MTWRF, and I love it.

But. I do not go to work to be happy. And when I oh-so-slowly realized this in Taipei, I started watching my rates raise easily. And here's what I did. There is an inner and an outer and an inner component. Hold on and you will see what I mean.

Inside #1: On the inside, I set my target. In Taiwan, there are generally three venues which pay really, really well:

- Teaching children
- Teaching business professionals
- Teaching the affluent

For me, business professionals were the easiest to reach, and I set the corporate training world as my target. You might choose another, and I'll try to make my comments general enough to be useful to you, even if you teach children.

Once I knew this, I knew how to answer the other two.

Outside #1: I started dressing formally. Oh, how I hated it! But I remembered what lawyers do. They practice in a sumptuous, expensive environment, so they look like the hundreds of hours an hour they charge you. That's what I did over a couple of months. I got a couple of formal suits (my wife was thrilled), some good shoes, retired my cheap-ass Casio watch, and got some very spiffy business cards made (English on one side, Chinese on the other). They said "language consultant". (If yours say "English teacher", throw them away and get new ones this week.) I got a leather bag, and retired my old-style glasses.

Key concept: If you look like an English teacher, people will treat and pay you like an English teacher, like the franchises do. On the other hand, if you look like a professional, a "language consultant", then that's how people will look at you and pay you. It's always your choice what you want for yourself.

Inside #2: After I had a market and I looked the part, I had to do more. I had to be accepted as a member of the club. Here's what I did. Every time I entered an office building, I looked at the front desk to see what newspapers and magazines were being delivered (lots of Asian Wall Street Journals, International Herald Tribunes, Fortunes, and very few China Posts, and no China News). I started reading them. Now I have to say, this also went against my grain, since I had gotten my BA and MA in comparative literature. But no one was going to pay me to talk about semiotics or post-modernism! So I learned the language and concepts of my target audience. For my Big Pharma clients, I learned about clinical trials and drug research and development. If you like to teach children, read up on childhood development and psychology, so you can communicate with parents and peers.

In short, when I learned a lot about the things my target clients cared about, they started to view me as a peer and not a commodity resource. In fact, when one of my clients merged with another, I was brought in to help the senior management team plan their presentations, questions, and communication strategy. Why? Because I was a management consultant, not an English teacher.

For clients like this, in the mid-late 90s, I chaged NT$1400-NT$1500 an hour, and simply submitted timesheets every two months. I set my rate. I raised it annually. Not one was ever challenged. Why? Because I created such value for them. In many cases I had helped them keep their high-level jobs.

When I started posting about my experience making money in Taiwan, some were skeptical, a couple frankly unbelieving. Quite understandably! But these are the basic principles I used. Nothing esoteric, nothing any of you could not do. But you have to have some ambition, tenacity, customer intimacy, and creativity, and not just wait for your school to give you a plate of students ever 8-12 weeks.

[andrew_gz]

Thank you!

[MomCat]

KaiFeng,

Thanks! All good points for a newbie like me.

I'm curious, how good was your Mandarin and do you think it made a difference (assuming it was good) in how you were perceived or what you were able to charge.

Thanks,
Cat

[KaiFeng]

Good question!

My Mandarin was always pretty good, especially after the first few years. Here's how it helped me:

1. Getting work like translations.
2. It helped with classroom management with groups. It was harder for them to run little conversations on their own.
3. It helped me tremendously to understand the troubles they were having. Knowing their language helped with this. And the fact that I had already learned their language gave me great cred when I told them how to learn mine. This was very important, strategically.
4. It also showed my respect for them and their culture, which is also an invaluable business asset, all the more so because it was heartfelt.

In getting clients, #3 made a big difference. Having said that, students didn't respond well to my using the classroom as a chance to practice my Mandarin and I never did.

Clients were consistently impressed when I could speak Mandarin with them, though, so this was always a good thing. But it was never _necessary_ to getting a client.

Hope this makes sense! Post or PM with questions.

[KaiFeng]

I've been afk, but not away from topic. Life's just been cluttered.

So, anyway, here's an incredible suggestion which:

1. I never saw anyone do
2. Would have yielded someone an awesome client portfolio when I left.

In your work and leisure, you should work to met some people at AIT and their spouses. Same with thr UK and Australian representative offices. Go to national day celebrations, cultural events, etc. Besides the general networking and self-enrichment opportunities these present (and great stories!), it gets you exposure among a professional elite for whom networking is everything.

Then, cultivate a few good contacts based on mutual interests (sports, politics, kids, whatever). Then, let them know that you're a training professional, and if any AIT (or UK office or whatever) spouses are leaving soon, and would like to give their students to a qualified person, you'd be happy to help. After all, these folks rotate every few years, and most of the spouses look for some sort of gig like ESL. Naturally, they command premium rates, and are a great source of kuan-hsi! And all too often, these portfolios are yours for the asking!

In fact, when I left Taiwan, I looked long and I looked hard for someone to take over my corporate clients. But I couldn't find anyone professional enough. In fact, often you would _sell_ a successful consulting practice, and I was willing to give it away, just to get the best possible person for my clients. Yet as the emails came to me after I came to the US, no one had been able to bring the right talent, personality, knowledge, and background to my former clients.

So, bottom line: Look for people leaving the country, especially those with high-end clients. And don't ask for their furniture! Ask for their clients and introductions!

[MomCat]

I'm just bringing this post to the top.

[mookieb]

very practical information.

thanks for bumping it up.

[Taylor]

Thanks again!

I have upgraded from a Casio to a Seiko!

I even wore my fake Rolex a few nights ago for a one-to-one class with a businessman!

Like my late Grandmother told me, "If all you're selling is your time, at least make sure that you're getting paid enough for it!"

Best wishes!

Taylor
Kaohsiung

[Aristotle]

[SanChong]