Freelance teachers, who have relied on 'the going rates' only to find
out they have continuously undercharged their students and customers,
can now work out an acceptable pricing rate for their teaching services
to overcome the three-year death cycle causing many freelancers to give
up their teaching careers. Teachers see many opportunities for freelance
work but is it really possible to make a living as a freelancer in the
long-term? Janine Bray-Mueller has encapsulated the key lessons on
pricing she learned during her career as a freelance language teacher.
Janine explains how to balance your business on three pillars:
consultancy (one-to-one teaching), training (seminar workshops) and
leverage (information products designed to be sold). This will enable
you to build up a sustainable teaching business. In a competitive
market, pricing is problematic, particularly in uncertain economic
times. Understanding why many teachers are trapped in a position of
underearning is the first step to escape. Your price should never fall
below your 'resentment number', the lowest price you will accept without
resenting it. Many teachers can be their own worst enemy if they lack
self-confidence or undervalue their skills. Familiarity with local
market conditions and competitors' prices is important, but the 'going
rate' is not necessarily an appropriate rate to charge. You may be under
constant pressure to discount prices, and when and how to increase
prices to avoid a return to underearning. Value-based pricing is an
approach that Janine has applied very successfully to freelance teaching
and this is explained fully with valuable practical advice on how it
gives a more flexible approach to pricing. Step by step instructions are
given on how to identify both your personal and business costs. With the
aid of this book, you can calculate your available teaching time and
establish your resentment number and price range. Charts and calculation
examples are available as MS Excel
