Teachers see many opportunities for freelance work but… Is it really possible to make a living as a freelancer in the long-term?
Janine has encapsulated the key lessons on pricing she learned during her career as a freelance language teacher:
- In a competitive market, pricing is problematic, particularly in uncertain economic times. She explains how to balance your business on three pillars: consultancy (one-to-one teaching), training (seminar workshops) and leverage (information products designed to be sold). This will enable you to build up a sustainable teaching business.
- Understanding why many teachers are trapped in a position of underearning is the first step to escape. Your price should never fall below your ‘resentment number‘, the lowest price you will accept without resenting it. Many teachers can be their own worst enemy if they lack self-confidence or undervalue their skills.
- Familiarity with local market conditions and competitors’ prices is important, but the
‘going rate’ is not necessarily an appropriate rate to charge.
- You may be under constant pressure to discount prices, and don’t know when and how to increase prices to avoid a return to underearning.
- Value-based pricing is an approach that Janine has applied very successfully to freelance teaching and this is explained fully with valuable practical advice on how it gives a more flexible approach to pricing.
- Step by step instructions are given on how to identify both your personal and business costs. With the aid of this book, you can calculate your available teaching time and establish your resentment number and price range.
Charts and calculation examples are available as MS Excel worksheets (Windows only) on request. Contact links are in the back of the book.
The book is full of lively anecdotes and analogies which get to the heart of the problems that freelance teachers face and force you to confront them. She is on a mission to help freelance teachers create and run successful businesses, and that certainly comes through in the book.
Helen Strong, MELTA
If you are thinking to make the jump from teaching to freelancing and financial independence, this is the book for you.
Written by an experienced teacher and businessperson, it identifies the common pitfalls, such as the three-year death cycle, why many teachers undercharge for their services, and what to do about it.
The book takes you through a sequence of easy-to-follow steps to set up your business on firm foundations and is packed full of useful templates for costing, pricing and managing your finances.
Becoming a freelancer is an important step in your personal and economic development but there’s no need to go it alone with The Teacher’s Guide to Pricing Matters by your side. It tells you everything you need to know and more.Janet Sandford
