The first (big) mistake I made as an independent teacher

Being an independent foreign language teacher means flexibility and autonomy, but also means hard work, uncertainties, mistakes, and lots of learning.

When I decided to become an independent teacher in 2009, I thought about the autonomy in choosing approaches, trying methods, and searching for coursebooks that were interesting and modern. I thought about work-life balance, flexible schedule that would allow me to spend time with my son.

The only part I failed to take into account was the clients’ needs. I didn’t stop to think about what they needed. Instead of it, I assumed I knew what was best for them.

Before listening to any potential student, I devised a detailed business plan: my target public would be adults who had faced several failures in the attempt of learning English. I would offer a special “salvation” plan. I got in contact with an educational psychologist to back me up, I read a lot and I have learned a lot.

Finally, I had everything set: a logo, a name, personalized stationery, printed leaflets, business cards, a blog, a room. The only thing I didn’t have: students.

Talking about it today is easy but, at that moment, what I felt was frustration and pressure for financial return. It is not easy to be creative and open-minded in a scenario like that.

Guess what the problem was. The word choice I’d made.

No one wants to be reminded of their failures. Nobody wants to be approached by their problems. Having classes with me would mean accepting the label of “incapable of learning”.

After some months, working with 2 or 3 students only, I started to be contacted by people that wanted to improve their English although they were level A1 (beginner).

At that time, of course, I didn’t have this clear view that I’m sharing here today, but I could roughly understand that what I was offering was different from what my clients needed, even if it was only a matter of word choice.

“Improve” means you already have something to be improved and it sounds positive. Although, attending a course focused on people that have some kind of difficulty to learn do sounds negative.

At the end of the day, my work was/is offering personalized lessons that meet the students’ needs. This was, in fact, exactly my very first idea. My mistake was creating an ideal persona and putting words into its mouth. Despite having listened to several people saying they had problems in learning English, this was not the way they would like being approached.

After some months, I gave up my speech of “monolinguals salvation” and opened my eyes, ears, and heart to understand my potential clients. Some students appeared and brought their friends. And I learned the lesson: listen more than speak. It’s all about what they need not what I want to offer them.

In a future post, I’ll talk about the two questions I made to understand my client and shape my business. 

It would be a pleasure listening from you. Email-me!