Side Hustle

7 Reasons Why You Should & 7 Reasons Against Teaching English Online

There are many reasons to teach English online, there are also an equal number against it. Most blog posts paint a rosey picture of online teaching and hardly ever mention the disadvantages. However, if you’re going to start a side hustle it’s better to be well informed before you jump in and commit your valuable time and energy. So let’s dive a little deeper into the mirky world of online English teaching.

English is the number one language for business, which ensures that it continues to be important as well as popular. This ensures that there is always a demand for English online. But does that make it a good side hustle? Before you opt in consider the pros and cons first.

1. Rewarding — Teaching brings you joy and connections

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of teaching English online is the fact that you are making a valuable contribution to society by helping others to reach their goals or expand their minds. Whether you’re teaching kids or adults, it can be a really rewarding and joyful experience. You get to help people learn a new skill and if you’re lucky, make new friends from all over the world.

I personally love this part of teaching English. Getting to interact with people from around the globe is a real bonus. If you’re teaching adults, you also get a better understanding of what’s really going on in different parts of the world.

“Those who know do. Those that understand teach.”

Aristotle

2. Work Anywhere Quiet

Teaching online means your needs are simple. All you require is a decent laptop, with a good mic and headphones and reliable internet. This means that you are not tied to your home and, in theory, the world is your oyster.

However, you have to be sensible about this. Conducting your lessons from a noisy Starbucks won’t do you any favours and is likely to lose you students or cost you your job.

You also have to bear in mind that if you are working for an online school, there may be restrictions as to where you can teach and what you can teach on. So you may want to think twice about using your mobile phone whilst sunbathing on the beach!

3. Easy Entry For Beginners

Unlike many other jobs and side hustles, you don’t need to undergo extensive training or spend years learning the ropes. You can start teaching English online with just a few weeks of preparation.

Teaching English online has a relatively low entry point in comparison to other side hustles. On some platforms, you can sign up as a conversation partner. You don’t have to be a qualified teacher, but you do have to be a native speaker.

Nearly all the big online schools and platforms insist on you having a professional teaching qualification or a Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate. The good news is you can sign up for an online TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course at a very low cost and it won’t take you long to complete it. You’re then good to go.

4. Reasonably Flexible Schedule

If you’re working from a platform such as Preply, then you are free to fix the hours and days that you want. However, in reality, students like stability and consistency and you may find you have to choose times that are convenient for your students.

5. Work As Much Or As Little As You Like

Teaching online gives you the flexibility to choose how much or how little you work. If you have your own students, you can decide what days and how many hours you want to work. It can be more restrictive with schools who may insist you are available for a set number of hours per week or that you are available at certain times for a specified period.

6. Work & Travel

This is another great benefit of teaching online. As long as you have good internet and a quiet place to work from, you are free to travel the globe and work as you go.

If you want to take a break from teaching, you can simply take a few weeks or months off and go explore. And when you’re ready to start teaching again, you can do so from anywhere in the world.

7. Combine It With Other Work

There’s something to be said for not having all your eggs in one basket, especially in today’s economic climate. Teaching is one of the side hustles that you can easily combine with other options like writing, editing or being a VA.

Summary

Online English is an easy entry side hustle when compared to other side hustles. It is a very rewarding experience. You get to help people learn a new skill and make new friends from all over the world.

Against

As I said earlier, there are disadvantages which you need to think about before you jump in, so let’s have a look at some of them.

8. Can be hard to get students

The online teaching business is highly competitive. When you first start out, it can be difficult to get students. It may take you months to build up your list of students.

You will be facing a lot of competition from other teachers, and students know how to play the system to get the most bang for their buck. Pitch too high and you won’t get any. Too low and it’s really not worth your time or effort. Just to give you an idea, a friend of mine has been trying to get her own students for the best part of a year. She has not been very successful and has only managed to get a few.

9. Restrictive If Tied To A School

If you get accepted by an online school, you may find that you are tied to working a set number of hours at specific times. Working for schools offers a little bit more certainty in terms of income but they can be ruthless. You will be let go if you don’t comply strictly with the rules and regulations. Don’t expect caring, sharing employers. You are always a very disposable asset.

Even if you have your own students, you should be prepared to set a regular schedule and keep to it, otherwise you won’t be able to keep going.

10. Highly competitive

Although there’s a lot of demand for English, there’ are also a lot of teachers. Most of them compete on price. You can actually find teachers selling lessons for $1. Making yourself stand out from everyone else can be difficult, so be prepared to learn extra skills such as marketing and branding to give you that edge.

11. High platform fees

There are a number of platforms that you can join to promote your services. However, you have to watch out for the small print as all platforms will charge you a commission. For example Preply charges up to 33%. You have to be careful, otherwise you could end up taking home next to nothing.

12. Fluctuating Demand

Expect demand to decrease at major holiday times such as Christmas and New Year and throughout the summer holiday period. Unless you have students all over the world, you are going to notice large swings in your income.

13. Exchanging Time For Money

When you teach English, you exchange time for money. For the majority of teachers, the money isn’t that great. Most people will never get rich teaching because it is difficult to scale. It is possible to establish yourself and charge a higher rate for your services otherwise, the only way to make more per hour is to stop teaching 1 to 1 and go for classes.

“Teachers have the hardest and most important jobs; they’re building our nation. And we should appreciate them, respect them, and pay them well.” — Jim Hunt

14. No guaranteed income

Whether you treat teaching English as a side hustle or a full time job the fact is you don’t have a guaranteed income. This can make planning your budget difficult. Platforms come and go, so do students. Just because they enjoyed your lesson is no guarantee they will keep coming back for more.

It’s Your Choice

So there it is, 7 reasons for and 7 reasons against, which way are you leaning?

I’ve been teaching English online for a long time now. I do get a lot of joy and satisfaction from it. Over the years, I’ve experienced the good, the bad and the bloody ugly. I’ve tried it all, been there, done it and got the t-shirt. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from having a go. The only thing I would say is, nothing is as easy as they say it is. Avoid the get rich quick schemes and if you’re going to try it, be prepared to put some effort into it.

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