Teaching Online – A Three Month Update!
(My Current Teaching Background Above)
There are so many ways I could’ve titled this post, including “Side Hustle Turned Passion” or “I Never Knew How Much I Would Enjoy Getting Up At The Crack Of Dawn” but one sentence simply won’t do to convey just how much I like my new job. So here it is in one carefully condensed article:
I stumbled across online teaching a few months ago, as I wrote about all the details here, and it’s been such a pleasant surprise ever since. I never realized I would enjoy it so much, especially when the majority of it happens during the early morning hours while my family sleeps. I am not a morning person, but this job has turned me into one. It energizes me to get out of bed to teach cute kids, and make a bit of extra spending money on the side. How much extra spending money, you ask? Well I am about to get very honest, because I want to be completely transparent and upfront about potential earnings in online teaching. Because as cute as the kids are, your time is precious and there are a lot of other ways you could be spending it (i.e. sleeping).
Before I tell you exactly how much I have earned in the three months I’ve been teaching, I want to share the goals I had set out for myself when I first started this gig in late December 2018. As many of you know, I am about to have my third baby. So I set some goals I wanted to achieve before I went on “maternity leave” in mid-March. I also set some longer term goals of what I would like to have achieved with online teaching in one year. So here they are:
A few realistic goals I had set for myself was:
- Teach 150 classes before baby comes
- Make $5000 by the end of 2019
- Refer 5 friends to become teachers by the end of the year
I also set a few stretch goals if I decided to teach more than 10 hours/wk:
- Teach 300 classes before baby comes
- Make $10,000 by the end of 2019
- Refer 50 friends to become teachers by the end of the year
Fast forward to the week of March 15th when I decided to officially stop teaching, here are my actual statistics:
- I have taught 283 classes
- I have made $5064
- I have referred and coached 6 friends to become hired teachers
So not only did I achieve all of my realistic goals, but I achieved my financial goal of making $5000 by the end of the year within a three month period. So even if I take three months off from teaching entirely once baby arrives, I will still be on track to meet my stretch goals by the end of 2019.
Referring friends to become teachers is definitely what helped me achieve my financial goals more quickly than I expected, since I receive a small referral bonus each time ($100USD and up with each new referral) a new teacher is hired. I have just not been able to contain my excitement with this “job” which has made the sharing and coaching come so naturally to me. Many of my friends who have started teaching with VIPKID and GOGOKID have not all taught in a classroom before. Some are Sunday school teachers, or have lots of volunteer experience with children, which was enough to get them hired. So if you’re hesitating to apply because you think you lack enough teaching experience, just do yourself a favor, and give it a try. You can go through the links I have included above, or e-mail me at mrsjewelslovely@gmail.com to ask me more questions, as I am happy to coach you through the whole application process.
Now you might be wondering if I got any sleep these past three months. The answer is yes! I rarely taught more than 2 hours in one sitting, because I learned that is sort of my max capacity in terms of energy level. I also took every Sunday off, without fail. I taught only occasionally on Friday and Saturday evenings. My teaching never got in the way of mine or my family’s social calendar. Sure, I was getting up at 5:30am most weekdays, but I was also in bed by 9pm most weeknights, meaning I always got 8 hours of sleep. Whenever my husband traveled, I would adjust my teaching time to ensure I was finished my last class before the boys got up. Otherwise, my husband would get the boys up while I taught my last couple classes. Then I would be done teaching for the day by the time he had to start his workday. We were a well-oiled machine these last few months. It was important to me that I find a side hustle that didn’t negatively affect or alter my family’s schedule and routine too much since my main gig is still being a stay at home mom. So I have loved stumbling across a job that not only doesn’t affect my daily routine too much, but also pays well and consistently.
Enjoying the fancy tools of online teaching a bit too much 🙂
If you’re honest with yourself, could you see yourself getting up a couple hours earlier everyday to make an extra $1500-$2000 every month? You may need to go to bed earlier, but your daily routine wouldn’t need to be adjusted in any way. No need to get childcare for your kids, or quit your day job. If you’re not interested in teaching as many classes as I do, or referring and coaching new teachers, you could teach only 8-10 hours a week and still make close to $650 USD a month, which for Canadians is closer to $865 CAD (as of today’s exchange rate). The point is that this is a job is as flexible as you want it to be. So if you’re just wanting to save up for an upcoming big expense like a vacation or wedding, then teach during all your free hours, and stop once you’ve hit your financial goal. Or if you could use a steady, reliable supplemental income to pay for your kids’ ever growing hobbies each month or you want to pay down your mortgage faster, then online teaching could be the flexible answer for you. Teach as little or as much as you want. One week, you could teach 25 hours, then take the next week off. And of course, there are some people who teach online full-time making $5000 each month. But the beauty of this gig is that there are never any minimum hours to teach. It’s up to you!
So if any of this resonates with you, or you know someone who might be a good fit, I would love to help walk them through the application process to be a successful hire. E-mail me at mrsjewelslovely@gmail.com or apply directly at the teaching websites below:
My referral code for VIPkid is: JEWEL0009
My referral code for Gogokid is: ZASGYXYA
Also, let me know if you have any questions or comments! I’ll be continuing to coach during my maternity leave 🙂
