Today’s Feature Friday guest is a member of our FIRE community. This person wakes up at 4AM each day to teach English to kids across the world.
This teaching side hustle brings in over $1,000 per month. I can definitely appreciate the hustle and know that it will help them get closer to early retirement.
If you have a side hustle (or have paid off student loan debt) and want to be featured on Millennial Boss, I’d love to interview you: Get Interviewed For Millennial Boss Feature Friday
1. What is your business?
I teach English online to Chinese kids. I also recruit and coach potential teachers for free, and make a bonus per referred teacher who gets hired.
2. What did you do before you started your own business? If you are still employed full-time, please share a little but about what you do in your day job.
I still work full time; I am a public educator in the Midwest, and have taught English & History from 6th through 12th grade. Previous side jobs have included IT work, Wine sales/ winery tours, and cooking.
3. Who were some influencers in your decision to be an entrepreneur?
Some of my influencers are Joe from Retirebyf40 blog, Brandon from the Mad Fientist, and the guys at ChooseFI. All of them pursued online side hustles to great success.
4. How did you prepare to take the leap both financially and in your business? Please reference what you saved, if you learned new skills, if you moved, etc.
I knew how to teach, and had been involved in ‘flipped classrooms’ from my time both in IT and as an instructor. When I discovered this opportunity, I crafted my resume to highlight all my web and teaching experiences, so as to best snag an interview.
When it came to the actual teaching, I always tell myself “I can do this for 25 minutes.” Knowing I’m getting a set pay for such a short timeframe helps remove the uncertainty of other side hustles.
5. If you quit your job, were you already making money on the side before you decided to quit your job? Tell us about that. If you are still working full-time, what would make you leave your job?
To leave my job, I would need an offer that provided benefits; since I have three kids and a preexisting condition myself, going solo at this time is not ideal. In addition, my state has a good Teacher Pension Plan. once fully vested, and if my income makes it feasible, then I might pull the plug.
6. Who else works on your business with you? Did you hire anyone to help? When did you decide to bring that person on and how did you find them?
I don’t have any hired staff; however to optimize this job for my family life, my wife, kids, and even inlaws have helped solve some unique challenges. One of these challenges has been alarms. A traditional alarm at 4:00 AM to teach was not working for my wife for some reason. We decided to try a fitbit, which would wake me up with a vibration, leaving her to sleep.
7. Can you share any financial details about your business?
8. What was your worst day so far as an entrepreneur and what was your best day? What happened on those days?
9. What is one small “trick” or piece of advice that you have learned about reaching customers or making sales? Please be specific and provide something actionable for us.
When it comes to succeeding teaching online to kids, it’s best to have fun. I remind myself (while waking up) that I’m about to enjoy the next 25 minutes with some kid across the globe, and get paid to do so! I get to read books, play simon says or tic tac toe, and just talk to and get to know some amazing kids 13 time zones away from myself. And they want to be there! Besides mindset, practicing enunciating, varying pitch or intonation, and looking into your webcam are crucial. Remember that you are talking to someone who is learning your language; you need to help them in every way possible.
10. Give us two truths and a lie about yourself so we can get to know you better personally!
I moved in with my inlaws
My Father in law teaches 9 mos out of the year in Malaysia, and my mother in law retired this year. Instead of renting an apartment year round and traveling a lot, they decided to buy a house in my hometown, and we moved in with them. It is a nice space. My wife and I then rented our our primary residence, making an extra $300 on top of our house payment. We pay for utilities at the new place, my inlaws pay for the house.
I based my college career off of pop culture icons.
I was super impressionable, and my favorite authors during my preteen/teen years was J.K. Rowling. I devoured mythology, fantasy, British literature. In addition, the vocalist for my favorite musical act, AFI, had gone to college as an English major. So when the time came to decide what to do, I said… “well, if English is good enough for them, it’s good enough for me!”
My best subject in school was English
Even though I gravitated towards English, during all standardized tests I excelled most in Math. However as a teenager, I had a chip on my shoulder with Math as my father was a Math professor. Fast forward years later, my wife is a math teacher, her mother is a math teacher, and I’m always mistaken for one.
Have you taught English before? What are your side hustles?
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Great read! Shared it with some of my colleagues and friends who are in want for a side hustle. I’ve never thought English.
Currently, my side hustles are blogging and selling unwanted stuff on apps such as Craigslist or OfferUp. I would like to make blogging my fulltime income so I can stay home with the new baes.
Hi there! This was a really interesting post to read, thanks! Would it be in any way possible to connect with this interviewee? I’d be really interested in possibly becoming an English teacher online and it seems like he recruits potential teachers for this job? Are these teachers only from the U.S.? (I live in Switzerland but grew up in Canada and in the USA and my first language is English). Thanks in advance for your reply! Michelle
When I was teaching English abroad in Thailand, I would work a side job tutoring kids on the weekends. It paid around $300-500 per month and was fun to do. My weekends were lost but I did get to earn some more money for travel!
Very cool side hustle, I had no idea this existed. Making $1,200 a month must mean you’re doing 40-50 hrs per month or about 10-12 hrs per week? Is that right?!