Online Literacy Tutoring Proves Profitable

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Sidus Hill School. So glad you're tuning in today. Thank you for being out there. I'm excited to bring you this episode, just as I'm excited to bring you every single episode, every single day.

In fact, for more than 1,800 days and counting, all because we have an amazing community out there of listeners, people who are enjoying the podcast, hopefully sharing it with their friends, but also taking action and pursuing your own ideas. That really is very motivating for me to hear about. So thank you for being you. Hopefully we're gonna help you along the way. In today's story, a literacy teacher feeling frustrated with the low ratio of teaching to administrative work.

In other words, she had to do lots more administration than teaching. I'll tell you about that in a moment. She was feeling frustrated. She decides to strike out on her own path. And she does this by pioneering in the world of online education.

Initially for a topic that many people were skeptical about. Now you probably know these days, people were skeptical about all kinds of online learning until the past couple of years. And the side hustlers and small business owners, people like the woman I'm gonna tell you about here, those who had made great strides in that area, before the pandemic in particular, they were well positioned to thrive. So she's been doing this for a long time. It's really cool.

She's built up a multiple six figure business through online literacy teaching. I'll tell you how she does it and what she's learned along the way after this quick message from our sponsor. Stay tuned. [Music]

If you're a K through 12 teacher, the idea of making multiple six figures as an educator might sound impossible. But for Joanne Kameninsky, this is her life.

And she's still pinching herself because it's hard to believe, but the journey to get here was one that took her 12 years. So how did she seize the day? How did she seize those 12 years? Or at least how'd she get started? To find out we need to go back to school.

In 2010, Joanne left her longstanding job as a literacy teacher because she no longer wanted to work where she felt undervalued. She wanted more flexibility, more money. And it didn't help that her job duties back then were 20% teaching related, which she really enjoyed, and 80% everything else. Things like meetings, observations, conferences, paperwork, which contributed to stress as well as took up so much time. After walking away from the role, Joanne then made a number of earnest attempts at starting her own business before things started to pay off.

Attempt number one, selling used clothes on eBay. As she puts it, she arrived late to that party. Attempt number two, she tried selling jewelry on Etsy, but sadly no one bought anything. Attempt number three, she even conceptualized a travel education business, one where she would take kids on trips to give them hands-on learning opportunities. But that didn't work out either.

Still, Joanne liked to dream big and she didn't give up hope. So one night, lying in bed, her best idea to date popped into her head. Maybe she thought, I can teach kids how to read online. No more eBay, no more jewelry, back to her first love, which of course was teaching. Now this was the pre-Zoom era, before the days of widespread remote learning.

And in fact, the only common platform was Skype. Would the kids even be able to see the words on the screen? She wondered, but she tested it out in her living room using two computers and it worked just fine. The next puzzle of course was clients, where to find them. Not sure where to start, Joanne posted signs around her neighborhood, which actually brought her her first student.

And to start, Joanne's rate was $40 an hour. She thought that was a good rate, but it wasn't long before a combination of more signs and some old-fashioned word of mouth helped her to completely book out her work week. So she raised her price and she was booked up again and she raised her price again and finally settled at $100 an hour. This was a lot more than she had made as a teacher. It was also a rate that parents were happy to pay because Joanne was good.

Their kids were reading. They were catching up to grade level in a matter of weeks. And for the first time in a teaching role, Joanne felt like her expertise was valued. Now before long, she had another bright idea. I should teach other teachers online to tutor their kids online.

Like a Russian doll, Joanne was able to spawn a side hustle within her side hustle. She called it online tutor coach. Online tutor coach provides people with strategies they need to book students and see gains quickly, giving teachers the confidence they need to run a successful business at home. And the cool thing about this is just how cheap it is to start. Like a lot of projects that we've seen, if you already own a computer, you're basically ready to begin.

No real startup costs. These days, Joanne spends half of her time coaching adults and the other half teaching children. She recalls one of her first adult students who ended up earning $30,000 in their first three months. This was a landmark that took Joanne almost a decade to achieve, but of course she got there too. Over the years, Joanne created online courses, formed groups on Facebook, ran YouTube ads, and even wrote a book called How to Start an Online Tutoring Business that's now available on Amazon.

She tried a lot of stuff, she focused on what worked, and today online tutor coach hasn't stopped evolving. When imagining what it might become, Joanne's description is reminiscent of one of her past missteps, online travel teaching. Except this time, it's 2022, and technological advancements in virtual reality, you might have heard of that metaverse thing, mean that this concept might actually be possible soon. She envisions a classroom where kids attend lessons, not as themselves, but as an avatar. A history lesson about Versailles, for example, takes place in a virtually augmented version of the palace that kids get to explore all from their living room.

Anything is possible, at least with the right idea, and the hard work it takes to bring that idea into reality. [Music]

Pretty cool story, I hope you enjoyed that one. I don't know if we've ever featured online literacy tutoring before. It's always fun to discover new topics, and also to look at these case studies of how someone has gone from idea to income, right, over time. Now Joanne has some advice for us before we wrap up today.

She says, "The formula for luck comes down to five things. Make the right choices, maintain the right behaviors, practice the right habits, and stay consistent." Who knows, maybe if you get three out of five, you're at least on the right track, okay? So keep that in mind. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to online tutoring coach, anything else I mentioned in the episode, you wanna go check it out yourself, just come to sidehustleschool.com/18791879.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for tuning in. Take care of yourself wherever you are in the world. I hope you make some progress toward a goal that you're excited about, and I hope you'll come back tomorrow. New episode coming up.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.