1. Recognise that you are a business owner now.
Perhaps you started working as a freelance English teacher almost by accident? Maybe you lost your job, or just wanted some extra cash.
If you want to be a successful freelancer, you need to take running a business seriously. Quite often freelancers tell me, ‘but I don’t have a business, I just teach online.’ If you are charging people for your services, believe me, you have a business, and need to be ‘business-like’ in your approach.
2. Develop a strategy to attract the right clients.
As a business and mindset coach for ELT freelancers, people often say to me, ‘I don’t know where to find clients’, or ‘I can’t find clients.’ But it’s not exactly about finding clients, it’s more about helping them to find you.
There are thousands of freelance English teachers out there, so how is a student supposed to know who to choose?
You certainly don’t want those who are simply choosing on the basis of the cheapest price.
The students you want are those who are serious about their studies, and who want to find the right person to help them achieve their goals. They’re looking for someone who really understands exactly what they need, and someone that they trust has the skills and experience to help them overcome any challenges.
Your job is to find out as much about your ideal client and their needs as you possibly can, and then show them:
how well you understand their situation, and the help they need.
why you are exactly the right person to help them.
This is basically what we mean by ‘niche’.
If you can get your niche right, and get the message out consistently and clearly, you will magnetically attract clients to you.
3. Adopt a strategic mindset
A business is a kind of organic life-form. Things change constantly, and the strategy that worked to get clients last year, might stop working this year. Or you might find that the clients who really want to work with you, aren’t exactly who you imagined they might be.
You need to allow time to step back and look at what’s working and what isn’t, and be willing to keep trying things out, and adapt your plans as you go along.
Remember how you tell your students that making mistakes is all part of the process of learning? As a business owner you need to take your own advice.
It’s half the fun of having your own business, but it’s not always easy.
4. Develop consistency and patience
Most businesses are not an overnight success. Particularly if you’re trying to build your business through organic marketing (without paid adverts) and word of mouth.
People imagine that success looks like a straight upward line from A to Z, but more often success is about going backwards and forwards. We can only see the progress we have made when we look back at where we started.
5. Create and maintain healthy habits
Lots of people will tell you that to build a successful freelance business you have to be prepared to put in long, long hours.
Of course, setting up and running a business requires effort. However, it’s up to us to create a business model which is sustainable.
Decide what healthy habits will support you to make a success of your business. Maybe it’s about always getting eight hours of sleep, or always getting out for a walk, or not working weekends.
Build those into your business model and make them non-negotiable. Learning how to prioritise is key to running a successful business. And what’s more of a priority than your health and mental well-being?
6. Stop giving your Inner Critic all the power
We all have an Inner Critic. It’s that little voice in our head that tells us that we’re not good enough, or that people will judge us, and so on. It’s basically trying to protect us, but often ends up holding us back.
Here are two key Inner Critic messages I often hear about in my work as a coach:
‘There’s too much competition.’
Find your niche, get visible, be patient and those clients who are looking for someone just like you will find you.
‘I don’t know if my students can afford that.’
All too often we make assumptions about what our students are willing to pay. Sometimes we may be right, of course. But that just means we need to look again at our niche, or at our business model. Most of the time though it’s just our scared Inner Critic making up stories again.
Don’t get angry with it (or with yourself). Just notice the stories, question them, and decide to take the action you need to take anyway.
Which of the six tips do you think are the most important to help you move forward as a successful freelance English teacher?
Rachael Roberts,
Published 09 April 2023
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