Bowei Strategy

Transforming Teachers to Entrepreneurs

What credentials do I need to charge over $100 an hour?

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Download your ebook: How to Get Your OWN Students Online and Charge What You’re Worth?

“How many years of experience should I accumulate before I can go independent?”

“What degrees and certificates should I have to get my own students?”

“What credentials should I build to charge over $100 an hour?”

To answer these questions, you need to first understand one concept.

When I was a consultant, I helped companies price their products and services. We didn’t just look at how much other companies charge or come up with a number. We conducted market research with potential customers to understand their perceived value of the service because:

People’s willingness to pay is determined by their perceived value of the service.

In other words, how much your students want to pay you is determined by their perceived value of your service, how they feel about your service, and how much they appreciate it.

With traditional marketing, independent teachers get students by asking them to book on their website. Sales is not involved in the student acquisition process.

Students have to make the purchase decision based on the information they see on your website.

All your experience, degrees, certificates, and reviews are super important because that’s all you have to build your students’ perceived value of your service, and it’s all they can rely on to determine how much they want to pay.

However, it is extremely difficult to boost students’ perceived value using simply a website with traditional marketing.

I’ve talked to nearly 500 teachers, and rarely see teachers charging over $50 an hour following traditional marketing. Teachers who can do this are always the ones that have been teaching for years and have certificates and tons of reviews.

Whether you have those kinds of credentials or not, if you want to charge more than $50 an hour or even over $100 an hour, you should do it differently.

You need to integrate sales into your student acquisition process.

You need to conduct sales sessions with your potential students in a one-on-one conversation. Why?

You need the conversation to build trust and help them fully understand the value you deliver, aligning their perceived value with the true value of your service.

Trust me, when you convince your potential students that your program will help them and that you are the best person to help them, they won’t care what your credentials look like.

Unfortunately, most teachers dislike and underestimate sales.

Sure, you can ignore sales and just accumulate more experience, degrees, certificates, and reviews, hoping you can charge $50 an hour one day.

Or, you can learn how to conduct sales to build trust and improve your students’ perceived value of your service so you can charge what you are really worth, instead of the rate limited by your experience, degrees, certificates, or reviews.

Which option are you going to choose?

Join the Teacher-Entrepreneur Challenge and get your OWN students at more than $100 an hour in just 21 days.

COVID-19 crisis: What should ESL teachers do?

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Download your ebook: How to Get Your OWN Students Online and Charge What You’re Worth?

Lately, many teachers have reached out to learn my views about the impact of the current global crisis on online teaching and on their future as ESL teachers.

My answer is rather simple:

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.

I have 3 reasons:

𝟏. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬.

According to teachers working with me, the market has been split into two groups based on students’ reactions.

One group is overwhelmed by the crisis, concerned about their job or business, and believe now is not a good time to improve their English.

In fact, they are waiting for someone stronger than them to lead them and tell them what to do to get through the crisis. Emotional overload and panic are not the solution. Improvement and preparation are.

The other group stays vigilant in the crisis, also concerned about their job or business, but they believe now is a good time to improve themselves and get prepared for their uncertain future.

Both groups are concerned and both need you to step up and help them.

𝟐. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲.

Unfortunately, the economy is going down.

Many people will lose some of their income or even their job. Their families will suffer.

Instead of fighting to keep your current job/income, you should take a look at the online teaching industry.

Because of the crisis, the whole world has opened its door to online teaching, and it’s never been more popular.

All the schools are launching online courses.

All the companies are conducting online meetings, training, and events.

All the businesses are considering moving online if they haven’t.

What does this mean for online teaching and for you?

Online learning will be more acceptable to students than ever.

Online learning infrastructure will be significantly improved.

Online learning habits will be developed and enhanced by more students.

There have never been more opportunities waiting for you to explore so you can support your family and secure a better life for your loved ones.

𝟑. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟.

How many times have you told yourself to step up and take the plunge?

How many excuses have you found to successfully stop yourself from doing it?

Now the crisis has pushed you into the SAME corner again to make the SAME decision.

What are you going to do this time?

No more excuses.

No more preparation, research, and planning.

No more fear, concerns, and worries.

At some point, you need to put them all aside, focus on taking massive action, and just DO it.

Only then can you reach your full potential and become the best version of yourself.

Trust me.

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡.

Join the Teacher-Entrepreneur Challenge and get your OWN students at more than $100 an hour in just 21 days.

Understand the transformation from teacher to teacher-entrepreneur

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Download your ebook: How to Get Your OWN Students Online and Charge What You’re Worth?

I have met many teachers who are skeptical about the fact that they can charge over $100 an hour or that they can make a decent living teaching ESL online. They have surrendered to the reality and the $20 an hour price ceiling nobody seems to be able to break.

They’re skeptical because they can’t imagine charging over $100 an hour doing what they are doing right now.

And honestly, I can’t imagine teachers charging more than $100 an hour doing what they are already doing, either. Why?

When you are able to charge over $100 an hour, you will be a totally different person. You will be doing things a lot differently. You will have transformed yourself from teacher to teacher-entrepreneur.

To charge over $100 an hour, you need 3 skill sets:

1.   Teaching Skills

You need to know how to teach and deliver the results your students expect.

2.  Marketing Skills

You need to know how to do marketing and how to get yourself out there, develop leads, and generate prospects.

3.  Sales Skills

You need to know how to build trust and convert students into paying clients at over $100 an hour.

“I’m a teacher,” you might say, “I only know how to teach.”

Most teachers might only have the first skill set to start with. But the truth is, if they just want to stay right where they are, just do whatever they’re doing right now, they won’t be able to charge over $20 an hour. In fact, it’s going to get worse and worse due to the competition.

You don’t want to be one of them. You need the transformation, and you need to understand the transformation.

The transformation is not simply about switching from teaching with companies/schools to teaching your own students.

The transformation is truly about improving your teaching skills, developing new skills in marketing and sales, and shifting your mindset to think like an entrepreneur.

And this transformation is only for teachers who are ready to learn and open to developing the new capabilities that are so necessary for them to succeed in their own business.

This transformation is the only way you can change your life, charge a higher rate, have your own business, and work with the best students in the world.

Many teachers are now charging a much higher rate because they understand the true meaning of the transformation and committed to it.

You can do the same. You just need to trust yourself that you can make the transformation.

●    Don’t undervalue yourself and think you are not good enough.

●    Don’t accept a rate of $20 an hour and tell yourself you can’t do better.

●    Don’t fear sales or marketing because you have never tried.

When you succeed, your transformation from teacher to teacher-entrepreneur is going to be the most beautiful journey that makes you smile every time you look back on it.

Join the Teacher-Entrepreneur Challenge and get your OWN students at more than $100 an hour in just 21 days.

Do you need a website to get your own students online?

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Download your ebook: How to Get Your OWN Students Online and Charge What You’re Worth?

I totally understand why a lot of teachers believe so.

It’s straightforward.

If I want to get students online, I need a website—an online presence—so students can find my information online and work with me.

But the reality is, you just added one more website to the 1.5 billion websites already online (as of January 2019).

If you don’t direct traffic to your website, nobody’s going to see your website.

It’s like you opened a store in the middle of the desert.

To take people to your store, you need to build a highway (build a sales funnel), rent a bus (run ads), and get people from the city to your store.

After you spend endless time and money finally getting people in your store, they tell you they don’t need your help because it’s no different than the stuff they can easily find in the mall (online ESL companies/platforms). 

And why do they need to spend 2 hours getting here when there’s nothing different? 

That’s exactly how people feel when you have a website but aren’t differentiated enough from others. And it’s also why teachers who have had websites without a niche never actually get students from it and have to take down the website after a few months.

So, instead of opening a store in the desert, what you want to do is go downtown where all the people already are, look for those from your niche who might be interested in what you have to offer, go on to say hi, introduce yourself, offer your help, and get students.

And these downtowns are social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

You just need to find the right downtown where your niche hangs out.

After you are able to get students just by hanging around downtown, get your proof of concept, and establish your business, you will have the resources to afford a better location in the city to open your store and scale your business with a website.

You don’t need a website to start a business. You need a website to scale your business.

If you just started or want to start getting your own students online, don’t waste your money and time on setting up a website.

Find where your niche hangs out online and introduce yourself to them to help!

Join the Teacher-Entrepreneur Challenge and get your OWN students at more than $100 an hour in just 21 days.

For teachers who DON’T want to charge over $100/hour

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The other day, a teacher told me that she didn’t want to charge over $100/hour and would like to charge only $20/hr so she can help as many students as possible.

I was deeply touched.

The fact that teachers would rather make a sacrifice themselves instead of “taking advantage” of their students is the exact reason I have devoted my career to helping teachers.

They deserve my help.

Unfortunately, this same fact is also the reason teachers have been taken advantage of by the market, companies, and even students.

 

So, as a teacher, how can you help as many students as possible without sacrificing yourself?

I’m not talking about hundreds or thousands of students that you can teach over 20 years of your career at schools or with companies.

I’m talking about millions of students around the world, every year.

The good news is:

Charging over $100/hour is actually what allows you to reach that scale.

It might seem contradictory, but bear with me and let me explain.

When you charge $20/hour, you hope that more students can work with you because the price is more affordable.

But you might already know that it is not true.

 

The truth is, when you charge a low rate, you throw yourself into a vicious circle.

Students don’t appreciate your service and only choose teachers based on the rate.

The fierce competition with other teachers, companies, and platforms only makes things worse.

How can you help any students when you can’t even survive yourself?

 

When you charge over $100 an hour, you put yourself into a virtuous circle.

You get the most committed students in the world.

You differentiate yourself from others and stay away from the competition.

You build your own business.

 

What about the students who can’t afford your service at over $100/hour?

You didn’t forget them.

Your own business allows you to scale and cover students with a wide range of affordability.

You first offer one-on-one sessions at over $100/hr.

You accumulate resources and continue improving your service so you can launch group sessions at $50/hr.

Eventually, you will offer your own online courses at $20/hr with the best service in the world for your students.

With the combination of one-on-one sessions, group sessions, and online courses, you will be able to help millions of students around the world every year.

 

This is how, as a teacher, you are supposed to do it so you can help as many students as possible.

And you help yourself, your family, and your dream.

You charge over $100/hr not because you “need” it.

It is because your business needs it.

It is because your students need it.

 

Make sense?