As the number of independent online teachers continues to grow exponentially, more and more teachers are finding themselves mainly teaching one-to-one. 

Yet they’ve probably never actually been trained in how to do this. 

As a result, teachers can easily overlook the fact that actually one to one is a high value offering, and should be charged at a premium rate.

Instead, teachers charge ‘the going rate’, which, based on platforms such as Preply and Cambly, is often super low, and muddle through weekly lessons which are often cancelled last minute, and which give little satisfaction to either party.

Here are some of the concerns I often hear from teachers about one-to-one classes: 

• I hear myself droning on and on in the lesson, because my student is really shy and I’m just trying to fill the gaps.
• They don’t want to do any grammar or reading or writing, so it just turns into a conversation, and who’s going to pay top dollar for that?
• I spend hours creating new materials for every individual student, and it means that my hourly rate works out at peanuts.

The key to success with one-to-one classes

The key to success with a one to one offer, and to being able to charge more, lies in understanding the differences between group and one-to-one classes, and that one to one is an opportunity to provide a tailored, premium service that the right people will be happy to pay more for. 

Establish a clear niche

If you have a clear niche, as opposed to taking on anyone who asks, you’re going to make your life a LOT easier. And provide a better service to your clients. 

Over time, you’ll develop a much deeper understanding of their needs than if you’re trying to serve a dozen different types of client. This kind of one-to-one service is something which is super valuable, and can help clients get results they’ve never achieved before. 

If you can crack niching, you don’t need to worry about competing with people on Preply or Cambly offering lessons for $5 an hour, where they just turn up and speak English. 

Base lessons on each student’s needs 

Group classes usually have a coursebook which becomes the syllabus. Working one-to-one blows that wide open. 

Everything needs to be relevant to that specific learner which means deeply understanding those needs. Carrying out needs analysis at the beginning can help, but it really needs to be an on-going partnership between the teacher and the learner. 

In this partnership, the teacher listens carefully and encourages the learner to lead the way. The teacher is the expert in terms of the new language and, maybe, learning strategies, But the learner is the expert in terms of truly knowing what they need (even if they don’t know they know it). 

But build up a re-usable core syllabus

While every student’s needs are different, students in the same niche are likely to have similar core needs. Working with these specific students, you’ll discover what these are. You’ll be able to create a re-usable, core syllabus and materials.

Identify sub skills

What sub-skills do they need to develop? For example, maybe for speaking, they struggle with breaking into a conversation. The work on those sub-skills in class.

Provide personalized feedback

Make the most of the fact that you can give individualized feedback. This doesn’t mean interrupting them every three seconds! Instead, take note of any difficulties (not just errors). Then give clear and helpful feedback, and provide opportunities to practise the language. 

Let the student speak more than you

In a one-to-one class, it’s natural that you will talk more than you would in a group class. But if you’re droning on and on, you’re doing it wrong. Imagine if you hired a ski instructor and they just told you to keep skiing until you improved (or to just watch them ski).

The 4-step formula for well-paid one-to-one classes

If you’re doing these things in your conversation classes, then you’re actually providing a highly-skilled service, which is totally different from just ‘having a chat’. 

And that means you can charge more than whatever the going rate is for conversation classes. Once you’re doing that, these four steps to charging more will become a lot easier.

1. Identify the right people.
2. Offer them the right service, aimed at getting the results they badly want.
3. Make sure they understand how you can help them.
4. Charge a price that reflects the value they’re getting. 
   

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Freelance language teachers… do you look at your calendar and dread your day full of calls?

Every client seems to need something different, you’re constantly re-inventing the wheel, and it feels like there’s a (pretty low) ceiling on what you can charge?

Something needs to change, but you’re too busy serving clients to even have time to work it out.

I’ve created a detailed guide to help you figure out how you could change your business model to grow your business, be able to serve more of the right clients, in less time, while making more money- without needing to be on social media 24/7.

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Follow this link to get instant access to the guide (hint – the first 2 are my personal favourites)

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