More and more independent English language teachers are working mainly one-to-one, particularly online.

Yet many of them have never actually been trained in how to teach one-to-one effectively. And perhaps even more importantly, they haven’t really considered how to make it a profitable way of working.

Instead, they look at the rates being charged on platforms such as Preply and Cambly, decide that’s roughly what the market will bear, and end up with a diary full of relatively low-paid lessons.

Meanwhile, they’re spending hours preparing individual materials, dealing with last-minute cancellations and wondering why they’re working so hard for so little.

Which is a bit ironic, because one-to-one teaching has the potential to be a highly valuable, premium service.

But you need to approach it rather differently from group teaching, both in terms of how you teach and how you run your business.

What makes one-to-one English teaching so valuable?

Here are some of the concerns I regularly hear from freelance teachers.

They find themselves talking far too much during lessons because their student is shy and they’re desperately trying to fill the gaps. Or the student doesn’t want to do any grammar, reading or writing, so the lessons gradually turn into conversations that don’t seem to be going anywhere.

And then there’s the preparation. Every student is different, so they spend hours searching for resources and creating something new for each lesson. By the time they’ve finished, their effective hourly rate is peanuts.

None of this is particularly satisfying for the teacher, and it isn’t necessarily doing much for the learner either.

But one-to-one teaching offers an enormous opportunity to provide something that’s very difficult to replicate in a group class: a service that’s genuinely tailored to one person’s needs, circumstances and goals.

That’s potentially very valuable indeed. The trick is making sure you’re actually delivering that value, and that your business is structured so you can earn a decent living from doing so.

Establish a clear niche

If you’re taking on absolutely anyone who asks, you’re making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself.

One week you’re preparing someone for IELTS, the next you’re teaching conversational English to a retiree, and then you’re helping an engineer prepare for a presentation.

You can probably do all these things perfectly well, but you’re constantly having to get your head around different kinds of clients and different needs.

Having a clear niche allows you to develop a much deeper understanding of the people you work with. You start to recognise the problems they commonly face, the situations they need to handle and the approaches that tend to help them make progress.

This means you can offer a much more specialist service, and you can communicate that expertise to potential clients.

And once you’re offering something that meets a particular need exceptionally well, you don’t have to compete directly with teachers offering general conversation lessons at bargain-basement prices.

Of course, there still needs to be a market for your specialism, and clients need to understand why it’s worth paying more for. But a clear niche can make both your teaching and your marketing considerably more effective.

Base your lessons on what each student actually needs

In group classes, the coursebook often ends up becoming the syllabus, whether that’s really appropriate or not.

Working one-to-one gives you the opportunity to throw that approach out of the window.

You can start with a proper needs analysis, finding out what the learner wants to achieve, where they’re currently struggling and what would make a meaningful difference to their lives or work.

And this needs to be an ongoing conversation, rather than something you do during the first lesson and then forget about.

I think it’s helpful to see one-to-one teaching as a partnership. You’re the expert in language and learning, but your learner is the expert in their own circumstances, experiences and goals.

The better you understand their world, the more effectively you can help them.

And that might mean going beyond the obvious.

For example, someone might tell you that they need to improve their speaking skills for meetings. But when you explore this more deeply, you discover that what they’re really struggling with is finding an appropriate moment to interrupt, disagreeing diplomatically or responding when someone puts them on the spot.

Now you’ve got something much more specific to work on, and something that can make a real difference to their professional life.

But don’t reinvent the wheel every time!

This is where having a niche can make an enormous difference to your profitability.

Although every learner is an individual, people within the same niche often have similar core needs.

As you work with more clients, you’ll begin to notice recurring challenges, useful activities and resources that can be adapted for different people.

Over time, you can develop a core syllabus and a bank of materials that provide a starting point for your work.

You can then personalise these according to each learner’s circumstances, rather than beginning with a completely blank page every time.

This doesn’t make your teaching any less personalised. In fact, you may find that it improves the quality of what you offer because you’re building on approaches and materials you’ve already developed and refined.

And it can save you an enormous amount of unpaid preparation time.

If you’re charging £50 for a one-hour lesson but spending another hour preparing it, you’re effectively earning £25 an hour before allowing for admin, marketing, expenses and everything else involved in running your business.

That’s probably rather less impressive than the original £50 suggested.

Make the most of the individual attention

The real value of one-to-one teaching lies in what you can notice and respond to when you’re working closely with one person.

You can identify the particular sub-skills they need to develop, observe where they’re getting stuck and give really specific feedback.

And I don’t mean interrupting every three seconds to correct mistakes!

It’s about noticing patterns, helping learners understand what’s getting in their way and providing opportunities to practise and improve.

You also need to resist the temptation to do all the talking.

In a one-to-one lesson, it’s quite natural that you’ll talk more than you would in a group class. But if you’re spending most of the lesson explaining things while your student sits and listens, something has probably gone wrong.

Imagine hiring a ski instructor who spent the whole lesson telling you how to ski, or demonstrating how brilliantly they could do it themselves.

You’d probably be rather disappointed!

You want someone who watches you, notices what’s holding you back and helps you develop the skills you need.

One-to-one language teaching should be much the same.

And make sure you’re charging for the service you’re actually providing

If you’re doing all these things well, you’re offering something considerably more valuable than an hour of general conversation.

You’re providing specialist expertise, careful analysis of individual needs, tailored support and feedback, and a service designed to help someone achieve results that matter to them.

So why would you automatically charge the same rate as someone offering informal conversation practice?

I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone should simply double their hourly rate tomorrow. You need to understand your market, who your clients are and what they’re willing and able to invest.

But you should also be thinking about how you’re presenting your services.

Perhaps instead of selling individual hours of English teaching, you could offer a programme designed around a particular outcome, with a clear process and an appropriate level of support.

You also need to have sensible policies around cancellations, payments and the amount of additional work included in your price.

After all, there’s not much point in charging a premium rate if you’re constantly giving away extra hours or losing income because clients cancel at the last minute.

So, how do you make one-to-one teaching profitable?

Ultimately, it comes down to four things.

You need to identify the right people to work with, understand what they really want to achieve, develop a service that helps them get those results and communicate its value clearly enough that they’re willing to pay an appropriate price.

And you need to deliver that service in a way that’s financially sustainable for you.

If you’re constantly preparing from scratch, working evenings and weekends, and squeezing more and more students into your diary just to earn enough, it’s worth asking whether something needs to change.

One-to-one teaching can be incredibly rewarding, both professionally and financially. I’ve worked with freelancers who’ve built successful businesses around highly specialist individual services.

But the fact that you’re providing individual attention doesn’t automatically make your offer premium. It’s what you do with that opportunity, and how you structure your business around it, that makes the difference.

Is your current business model working for you?

Perhaps you’re beginning to realise that your one-to-one teaching could be much more profitable. Or maybe you’re wondering whether there’s a different way to use your expertise without having to fill every available hour with lessons.

I’ve created a free Business Models Guide to help you explore different ways of working, including specialist one-to-one services, group programmes and digital courses.

You’ll be able to consider which approaches might suit your clients, your expertise and the kind of business you want to build.

Get your free Business Models Guide