The marketing of private (and one on one) teaching

This book began as a dairy of a private teacher, then it changed. I thought that my general ideas about education, school, educational systems, students, teachers would not be extremely interesting for my collegues, so I changed it’s title and most of its content.
I believe that my fourteen- year experience in private teaching and my permanent obsessive desire to improve my activity enables me to give some ideas or advice to all those who would like to start or are presently doing this kind of activity.

Considering the fact that teachers don’t have too much experience in business , they may be too tired after the teaching program at school, some of the ‘ready to use ‘ ideas could be useful. On the other hand the parts presented as a ‘diary ‘may help you understand the problems of private language teaching better - if you’re a beginner-, or possibly find out a colleague’s and his students’ opinion about different aspects of modern teaching. I believe there are a lot of aspects in this book that can be new, interesting for you and can be useful and maybe entertaining too.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy teaching, would like to teach efficiently and in a profitable way. It may be an interesting one because in most countries the role of private teaching-especially of English- is increasing- under changing conditions and in a changing environment of course.

Paraphrising an aphorism’’ teaching is making people discover that something is possible.” I would like if this book could help you believe that succces is possible, and you could make your students believe this too.

The marketing of private teaching

Motto: “ Vision without action is a dream with open eyes, action without vision is a nightmare.”

Marketing- SWOT analysis

Marketing- this word couldn’t be translated to other languages, not even under the effect of different language protection laws. Its meaning is known more or less- in the simplest way it means to discover the needs of people and try to satisfy them. And this can be the definition of the recipe of success too.
The first step though, for a beginner private teacher is not this, but something which in marketing books is called the SWOT analysis. Before we plan our activity concretely, we must be aware of our STRENTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, and THREATS.
Why is this so important? As any other enterprise, private teaching can only be successful if we are aware of these and apply them. As far as the strengths are concerned , for example, with a medical background and 6 years of experience in marketing and sales, I can focus on these , Medical and Business English not being taught by many teachers. Other strengths in my case could be a comfortable study furnished and equipped properly for high-level teaching, with a computer, video, tape recorder, board and lots of new ELT materials. Naturally every teacher should find his strong points. These could be longer experience in a native English environment, experience in school or group- teaching, job as a school- , college- or university teacher, competence in a specific area ( informatics, etc.) , knowledge of other foreign languages, etc. As we shall see later in the Promotion- Advertising part, these Strengths have to be the starting points of our activity and in the organization of its promotion.
We should also clarify our Weaknesses. If for instance, I don’t teach in school, I shall not invest my energy in preparing students for high-school final exams, because this big effort will not pay for itself with only one or two students per year. At the same time, if equipment is my weak point, and I observe that a part of my teacher- competitors use modern, efficient videos, CD roms, I have to do everything to keep the pace.
As far as the third element- the Opportunities – is concerned, this means the analyzing of future situations that may be favourable for us- with one condition: to not to be taken by surprise. These may be linked to our strengths, or appearing with no connection to these.
Competence in informatics or IT, a new job with new colleagues, new school, a larger new, better situated house, collaboration with a colleague for renting a flat or room for teaching, eventually cheaper possibilities for advertising, and others can all mean opportunities that we have to exploit. As the famous Texan businessman-politician Ross Perot has said your success or failure will not depend on your plans but on how quickly and well you move to unexpected opportunities. The faster we foresee them though, the better..
What can we say about the last label-Threats? A planning businessman, in this case a private teacher, should try to foresee these too: it can be the growing role of informatics , or group education in language teaching, new, as well as the appearance of well prepared young generations of teachers, are all examples of threats for a private teacher that should be prevented or treated- by continuous learning, Specific education, tending towards group-teaching also, and what’s the most important factor, keeping your soul young.


From "The Thoughts of a Private Teacher"
Copyright Dr.Peter Szabo, 2003