From Teacher to Teacherpreneur

Teacher Trainer and Podcaster, Shélynn (Shé) Riel explores what it means to be a teacherpreneur and shares insights on how teachers can transition to entrepreneurship and leverage their skills to build flexible, impactful careers

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Key talking points

What is Teacherpreneurship?
Shélynn describes a teacherpreneur as an educator who leverages their teaching skills to start and run their own business. This can include freelancing, consulting, creating educational materials, and more.

Essential Skills for Teacherpreneurs
Teachers already possess numerous skills that are useful in business, such as communication, organisation, flexibility, and empathy. Shé shares how these skills can be applied to tasks like marketing, lesson planning, and managing a business.

Paths to Teacherpreneurship
Shé outlines common paths, such as:

• Online Language Company Freelancer: A structured entry point where teachers work for language companies that handle logistics and curriculum.

• Marketplace Tutor: Teachers set their own rates and create course content while using tutoring platforms like Preply or Cambly to connect with students.

• Independent Teacherpreneur: Teachers establish their own brand, market their services, and have complete control over their business and teaching methods.

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About Shé

Shélynn (Shé) Riel is Bridge's Expert Series Webinar Moderator and IDELTOnline instructor. She holds a Master of Education in TESOL and over fifteen years of experience in education. Throughout her career, Shé has held positions of leadership in curriculum development and program administration at universities and non-profits in the U.S., served as a facilitator for various digital exchanges for global English teachers, and delivered professional development to teachers on the ground in Argentina, Bangladesh, and China. Her interests include holistic teacher development, learner identity, and decolonial ethics in the language classroom. She is the co-creator of The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast, which focuses on reflective practices for teachers around the world.

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References & Resources

Bridge's Teacherpreneur Academy. Available here. Accessed on 12/11/2024.

Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:20:22

Laura

TESOL Pop, Season ten, episode eight. Hello and welcome to TESOL Pop the mini podcast for Busy Teachers. My name is Laura and joining me today to talk about becoming a teacherpreneur is my guest, Shélynn Riel. In today's episode, we're going to talk about this trending term. What exactly does it mean and what can it look like? So let's join the conversation where I asked Shélynn to share

00:00:21:03 - 00:00:22:22

Laura

what does Teacherpreneur mean to her?

00:00:22:23 - 00:00:45:20

Shélynn

A teacher who is using their skills to start and run their own business is considered a teacherpreneur. Now, Laura, we know Edupreneur have existed for a very long time, right? Taking on many different forms, whether they are side gigging, I like to say side questing as teachers, you know, working in materials development and doing consulting work, editing services.

00:00:45:22 - 00:01:08:21

Shélynn

For example, I am an international travelling educator. You know, working with universities all over the world. But my primary goal and gig when I'm in the States is as a teacher trainer and a webinar facilitator for Bridge. I also write, I also consult, and I have a podcast about reflective pedagogy. So all of my work centres around developing language learners and language teachers.

00:01:08:24 - 00:01:24:15

Shélynn

But no two days look the same for me and I like it that way. That's one of the biggest perks, I think, of being an edupreneur or a teacherpreneur. So teacherpreneurs wear many hats as well, but I think their primary hat is that they are teaching, they're working with learners.

00:01:24:17 - 00:01:37:15

Laura

When you started this journey, I think a lot of listeners will be keen to hear this. What skills did you find that you already had in your repertoire as an educator that really helped you transition to this new role and navigate this new kind of challenging space?

00:01:37:15 - 00:02:09:04

Shélynn

I think that teachers are super human. So we have so many skills that really are easily transferable. But I'll highlight a couple. So think communication skills. You know, we we sell our students on the content that we're teaching them. We also sell ourselves in you know, marketing and networking. So this sort of clear communication can really be helpful in, you know, creating compelling course descriptions and creating engaging marketing content, delivering lessons.

00:02:09:06 - 00:02:30:02

Shélynn

If you are still teaching, I think organisational skills is one of the most important things that a teacherpreneur or an edupreneur can possess. You know, we wear a lot of hats as a business owner or even just, you know, as a freelance teacher. You have to manage a lot of different tasks and responsibilities. So I think teachers have that.

00:02:30:02 - 00:02:57:19

Shélynn

They have managed classrooms, they've managed schedules, social emotional needs of their learners. So I think that that is a very easy transfer. Another really large one would be the flexibility that teachers have. We are used to sort of acting, ad hoc, really recognising what our students needs are and then pivoting when we notice that something's not working or they need a bit more.

00:02:57:21 - 00:03:18:03

Shélynn

And I think that treating your, your growing business as you might treat a student in your class is sort of a good way to approach it. Right? What are the needs of this business and how can I be flexible? Based on, you know, the, the needs of the market and the needs of, of any sort of business task that I'm working on.

00:03:18:05 - 00:03:41:17

Shélynn

And then, of course, creative problem solving. Teachers are problem solvers. Business owners need to constantly approach, you know, that anything that comes up in in the day to day and they need to, be creative in their approach. And then the last one I'll highlight, Laura, because I could go on and on, is really just empathy and patience.

00:03:41:19 - 00:04:02:07

Shélynn

Teachers are patient beings with their students. And I hope that teachers who are, you know, looking to begin this teacherpreneur journey can hold that same patience for themselves because it's not always easy. There are challenges along the way, but I think that is something that we, we possess that can be really useful in this.

00:04:02:08 - 00:04:11:10

Laura

I do wonder, like, because teacherpreneurship is so varied, there's no one size that fits all. And you've mentioned like your own journey of how that's kind of come about organically.

00:04:11:13 - 00:04:36:11

Shélynn

That's that's the beauty, Laura, is it really gets to look like anything that teachers want it to look like. They have the agency to decide for themselves. So at Bridge, we first encourage teachers who are thinking of beginning this, this teacherpreneurship journey to ask themselves about their why. Right. So what is it that is driving them towards this path?

00:04:36:12 - 00:04:56:01

Shélynn

What is it that's making them consider this as an as a viable option for themselves? Is it, you know, that they have a partner and children and they need a flexible work schedule. They want to be present for, you know, the chorus, concerts and the athletics, for their children. Do they have an interest in generating more income?

00:04:56:03 - 00:05:20:03

Shélynn

Do they have maybe a desire to work within a very niche area of English language teaching that maybe isn't a normal or a regular offering? By, you know, language schools in their area? Do they want to work with a very specific student population? So all of these questions, are are worthwhile, in, in deciding sort of what path they want to go down.

00:05:20:05 - 00:05:51:15

Shélynn

So Teacherpreneurism can look like anything, but there are sort of, at Bridge we have outlined, sort of paths to a path to independence. We have sort of three, let's call them avenues for really embracing this, this teacherpreneur mindset. So the first is working as an online language company freelancer. And so I'm using very specific language here because I think within ELT we we're just so full of we've got acronyms and we use words interchangeably.

00:05:51:15 - 00:06:21:01

Shélynn

So an online language company freelancer is essentially, so some examples would be Bridge English which offers corporate language training for individuals over across the world. We have, you know, EF Teach Online, there's Lingoda. So all of these are a great starting point for teachers who are new or, new to online teaching or considering, you know, independent online teaching as an option for them.

00:06:21:03 - 00:06:46:13

Shélynn

Students range from children to adults. The courses might be one on one, they might be small group. But essentially these these language companies handle all of the business side of things. So they handle payment transactions. They provide the course curriculum. Often they will give their teachers access to, continuous professional development or CPD. And so of course, there are a lot of pros there, right?

00:06:46:14 - 00:07:10:18

Shélynn

There's no lesson planning. You don't have to market yourself. You don't have to recruit your students. It's fairly easy to start. There's low pressure. And everything on the business end is is handled by the language company. But there are of course some cons there. Right? You don't have the autonomy that maybe you want. This is really great for beginners because you get that sort of structured environment.

00:07:10:20 - 00:07:39:01

Shélynn

But you don't have to worry about, you know, sort of the, the nitty gritty of business operations. Often you get to see what a well-oiled machine looks like, both from, you know, the user experience and, and also the teacher experience. Because if you are thinking about starting your own online language school or, you know, hiring people, scaling in the future, you want to have an idea of what the the teacher experience is like as well as the user experience there.

00:07:39:03 - 00:08:07:16

Shélynn

That really is the sort of easiest point of entry for someone looking to work independently. Teaching online is the online language company freelancer. The next sort of step along this pathway is as a marketplace tutor. And so at Bridge, we consider this sort of the sweet spot between freelancing and being a fully independent teacherpreneur. So marketplaces, some examples might be, Preply, Verbling, Cambly.

00:08:07:16 - 00:08:31:13

Shélynn

I know that I use, but marketplaces provide technical support. They, they do all of your payment transactions, but the difference is that you're setting your own rate and you are developing your own courses. So you create as a marketplace tutor, you create a profile that showcases your services. And you are then in the game sort of trying to attract students.

00:08:31:15 - 00:08:54:12

Shélynn

So there is more autonomy there. You're setting your own rates, your own schedule, you're deciding what to teach. What's nice about a marketplace is that this platform means that you're already working with a pool of what we call bottom of the funnel leads, and that means that they're qualified leads. These are students who are already interested. They're already in the system.

00:08:54:12 - 00:09:16:13

Shélynn

They are ready to settle in with the teacher and learn the language. So that is really great for someone who doesn't want to go out and and recruit their own students. They have this great pool of of possible students waiting for them on these marketplaces. Of course. There's sort of the other side is that, you know, the platform takes a percentage of whatever you earn.

00:09:16:15 - 00:09:40:18

Shélynn

And there is a lot of competition with other teachers just thousands of teachers on these marketplaces for any given language. There is an algorithm that you have to learn to sort of work with on these marketplaces so that you are differentiating yourself from the beginning. And it can be kind of hard to break through with these algorithms.

00:09:40:20 - 00:09:59:01

Shélynn

And that's why the Bridge Teacherpreneur Academy uses this is one of the topics that we look at, in supporting teachers on their teacherpreneur journey. How is it that you differentiate yourself from the rest of the teachers on these marketplaces, and get students for the rates that that you think are fair for you?

00:09:59:03 - 00:10:04:08

Laura

What's the third option you said like it's like the, the next and like maybe kind of more intensive level.

00:10:04:08 - 00:10:31:06

Shélynn

Yeah. And so I think intensive is a great way to put it. So we have to recognise that, that not all teachers who are looking to become teacherpreneurs want to be a fully independent teacherpreneur full time. And so we sort of consider these pathways to, to becoming a teacherpreneur. But we know that there's a lot of, there are a lot of different, considerations that teachers have as they're entering the space.

00:10:31:08 - 00:10:57:10

Shélynn

So an independent teacherpreneur, is someone who sets up a website or subscribes to an e-learning platform on which they're they're hosting their courses. And this is essentially you are you have dived into the pool of teacherpreneurism, you are on your own. You need to, you know, activate your floating devices. Right? All of the things that you've learned over over the years, it means that you are developing your own brand.

00:10:57:10 - 00:11:21:22

Shélynn

You are doing your marketing, you're using social media, you're developing your courses, you're doing all of the business things. So you're handling client interactions, you're doing accounting taxes. You have all of that that you're thinking about. And of course, the perk is that you are in full control of your business, of your instructional methodology. You're setting your own rates, your flexibility.

00:11:21:24 - 00:11:47:10

Shélynn

You get to choose your target audience, your niche. Right. There's just full flexibility there. And I think that's that's really alluring. But you also have, you know, responsibility for for all of those things that I've mentioned, you know, there is a possible lack of stability in this. A lot of people do mix and match. So, you know, many people will combine sort of these three options to meet their unique needs.

00:11:47:10 - 00:12:08:20

Shélynn

Maybe they really like working with, a language school because they appreciate having, a developed curriculum and having all of the support and, and a network of colleagues and CPD. But maybe they also, are sort of experimenting with a new niche. And that's something that they get to do on the marketplace. They're finding their clients there.

00:12:08:22 - 00:12:19:20

Shélynn

So I think that there is a lot of opportunity to sort of not even transition through the three paths if that's not what you want to do, but sort of pull the best from from each of these opportunities.

00:12:19:22 - 00:12:29:05

Laura

I wonder, as a parting gift, is there anything else you'd like to add that can really help to, support listeners of this podcast to go on this, teacherpreneur journey.

00:12:29:06 - 00:12:59:08

Shélynn

Bridge has been around for 35 years. So we have long recognised this trend in independent teaching. And so back before 2020, we actually came out with the first iteration of what we call the Teacherpreneur Academy. We saw that teachers were taking a lot of different paths to independent online teaching, and we wanted to take advantage of, you know, the post-Covid investment, in edtech and more teachers getting online.

00:12:59:10 - 00:13:29:14

Shélynn

So we recently updated the Teacherpreneur Academy to be more robust and really focus in on the areas that teachers struggle with as they're transitioning from classroom teacher to teacherpreneur, with Bridge’s Teacherpreneur Academy participants have 12 month access to a self-paced course, and each module is designed to really support participants in their path to teach apprenticeship, whatever that may look like.

00:13:29:16 - 00:13:54:05

Shélynn

They have access to multiple workshops and networking sessions each month, and they have a chance to work with a supportive coach who has been there and colleagues who are trying to do the same or similar things as they are, and they get to receive feedback along the way. And really, our goal at Bridge is to give teachers a practical roadmap to being an independent

00:13:54:11 - 00:14:17:10

Shélynn

teacherpreneur we're giving them foundations on how to create a business plan, strategy, product design, you know, recruiting students, whatever it is, whatever those topics are that teachers are really nervous to approach. And we know that there are several. Our goal is really to say, yes, teachers, you can do it. There has never been a better time for you to become a teacherpreneur

00:14:18:07 - 00:14:23:09

Shélynn

and this is true for teachers, for wherever they are in their teacherpreneur journey.

00:14:23:11 - 00:14:26:07

Laura

It's been a delight talking to you today. Shélynn, thanks so much for your time.

00:14:26:07 - 00:14:26:24

Shélynn

Thank you Laura.

00:14:27:00 - 00:14:58:18

Laura

So to find out more about Bridge’s Teacherpreneur Academy and all that Shélynn has mentioned in this episode, all those links are in the show notes, so you can find those easily. If you've got a question or an idea that you'd like to pitch to the podcast, and you can go to the website tesolpop.com.

Finally, you can support the work we do by leaving a rating, a review wherever you listen to the podcast, by sharing today's episode with your teaching community, or by even buying as a coffee, by going to ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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