HOME
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The
2-Second Commute
Based
on the
highly-successful Virtual Assistant training programs Chris Durst and
Michael Haaren developed
for the US Armed Forces and the US Department of State, The 2-Second
Commute:
Join the Exploding Ranks of Freelance Virtual Assistants
brings
you the
knowledge without
the classroom!
Training
program
participants have billed
over $30
MILLION since our training programs started in 2002. Now YOU can learn from Chris
& Mike,
too, and start your own successful VA business!
2-SECOND
COMMUTE
CHAPTERS
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1
Why
Become a Virtual
Assistant?
- personal & professional
reasons to
explore this
industry
Chapter 2
Exploring
Virtual
Assistance
- virtual assistance defined
- industry demographics
- services, fees, and trends
- why businesses work with VAs
- international outlook
Chapter 3
Reality
Checks &
Self-Assessments
- exploring important considerations -
motives,
lifestyle,
family, children, etc.
- entrepreneurial self-assessment
- VA readiness self-assessment
- Spouse With a Mouse™ -
from our
Department of State
and US
Armed Forces training programs, a special section to help your
"significant other" understand what it will be like to have a business
in the house.
Developing
a "Service
Menu" That You Can Live and Grow With
- inventory your values, interests,
and
skills to
determine
your most marketable skills
Chapter 5
Estimating
Costs and
Setting Fees
- projecting your costs, picking your
"salary", setting
your hour, and our special formula for calculating a reasonable
baseline fee
- comprehensive fee survey (see what
other
VAs are
charging)
- getting paid -contracts, credit
cards,
invoices,
retainers, etc.
Chapter 6
Setting
Up Your
Business and Your Office
- naming and registering your business
- forms of business ownership
- permits and licenses
- insurance
- home office setup
Chapter 7
Building
a Healthy
Foundation for Your Business
- defining your ideal client,
interviewing
clients,
partnering with clients
- the art of virtual communications
- SWOT analysis - discovering your
Strengths,
Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats
- the benefits of "niche marketing" -
identifying your
target
market
Chapter 8
Let
the Marketing
Begin!
- image is everything
- talking about what you "do"
- marketing and email
- your Web site - your "global
billboard"
- press releases
- harvesting the local "business crop"
- leveraging the media
- guest lecturing
- our 5 favorite marketing techniques
- the Strategic Marketing Plan - your
blueprint for
building
a successful business through effective marketing
Chapter 9
Pulling
It All
Together and
Keeping It There
- a collection of tips, tool,
techniques,
and pointers
for
making your business a success
Chapter 10
The
VA Toolbox:
Resources and Information
- VA trade groups, email lists,
certifications and
training
programs
- specialized resources for
homeschoolers,
"trailing
spouses", work at home parents, and people with disabilities
- resources and other information for
the
"frugal VA"
--
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Work from home
Teaching English As a Second
Language
[Contributing Expert: Sue Swift]
 The niche in a nutshell:
With an
estimated 2
billion people now needing to learn and speak English as a second or
foreign language, the ESL teacher has no shortage of potential clients.
Given the size and immense variation in the market, many teachers
specialise. You may choose to work with one particular age group
–
children, teenagers or adults – or to work in a specific area
which
requires content knowledge as well as knowledge of ESL methodology and
the language itself – English for Business, Medical
English,
Legal English and so on.
Top 5 Services Provided in this
Niche
- Face-to-Face teaching
- On-line tutoring
- Homestay tutoring
- Performance coaching
- Materials writing and
consultancy
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Top 5 Hiring Markets
- Individuals
- Corporations
- Small and Medium sized
businesses
- On-line tutoring companies
and providers of On-line Courses
- Editorial companies
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Pay Range for this Niche
ESL teachers may be based all over the world, and fees obviously have
to take local conditions into account. The degree of specialisation
required by the course will also play a part, as will the
qualifications and experience of the teacher, and whether you are
dealing directly with the client or through another
organisation.
Some indications::
- General Purpose ESL
teaching, face to face or on-line : $25-50 per hour
- Specialised Courses or
Performance Coaching, face to face or on-line : $40-100 per hour
- Homestay Courses, with 25
hours tutoring per week : $900-2,000 per week
- Materials Writing and
Consultancy : Royalties paid to authors differ from country to country
and even for the type of book written – you may be offered
anything
from 2-10% of the end price. Alternatively, you may be offered a flat
fee.
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Recommended Skillsets
- Excellent people skills and
cross-cultural skills
- An in-depth knowledge of ESL
methodology
- An in-depth understanding of
learning styles and the learning process
- Native speaker or
near-native speaker competence in English
- Knowledge of the
grammatical, lexical, phonological and pragmatic functioning of English
and how these compare to other languages
- Marketing and customer care
skills
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Niche
Overview
Most TESL
teachers
have traditionally worked in and for schools, whether based in their
own country or living abroad. But TESL also provides ample opportunity
for free-lance and home-based work.
1.
Face-to-face teaching
The main opportunity for home based face-to-face teaching is with
private individuals. If you are living abroad, one of your largest
markets may be younger learners who need additional tutoring to help
them with your schoolwork, while the adult market may range from
clients who need English for tourism purposes to someone whose daughter
has just married an American and needs English to talk to her
grandchildren. Many clients obviously also have professional reasons
for wanting to learn English, and you may want to exploit this by
offering courses to local companies who have overseas clients and
suppliers and need English to operate effectively.
If you are living in an English speaking country such as Britain or the
States, there will still be various groups of overseas nationals who
may need language training. Some of the possible categories are :
recently arrived permanent migrants, ex-patriot managers on a two or
three year secondment to their company headquarters, and overseas
students. You may also consider offering homestay courses,
where an overseas
client lives with you as a paying guest for one or more weeks,
receiving between 10 and 25 hours of tuition per week.
If you are considering doing this type of course, you will need to
decide where you are going to teach. If you are providing homework help
for local children, your front room and dining room table may be
sufficient. But if you have the space, a dedicated teaching room
creates a more professional image – and also means you
don’t have to
frantically clear up your kids’ toys and last
night’s dinner dishes
before the client arrives.
Inviting clients into your home has obvious disadvantages from the
point of view of safety, however, and for this reason many teachers
prefer to hold their classes outside the home – whether in a
local
café or the client’s office – at least
until they get to know
the person better. If you want to exploit the company market you will
almost certainly be asked to teach on their premises.
2. On-Line
Teaching
The same disadvantage does not, however, occur with on-line teaching.
On-line courses have been in existence for several years now, but since
VOIP software has started to become commonly used, on-line tutoring has
become more and more popular. Some courses, such as those which my
company Business
Talk runs in conjunction with Netlanguages,
involve the student working on a set course of on-line materials which
are backed up by Skype tutorials and written assignments sent and
corrected by E-mail. Other courses may involve only regular VOIP based
lessons, either for individuals or for groups.
3.
Performance
Coaching
Performance Coaching may be offered face-to-face or on-line. It aims to
prepare the client, in a limited number of sessions, for a specific
task which s/he has to face – for example an important
presentation in
English, a job interview in English, and so on. It differs from
“straight” ESL in that the trainer needs to be an
expert not only in
the language and in language teaching, but also in communication skills
– you need to know the principles of effective presentation,
effective
interview performance and so on. However, it therefore also commands
higher fees.
4. Materials
Writing and Consultancy
If you are a fully qualified and experienced ESL professional (which
means having passed to the second level of training – the
Cambridge DELTA
and/or a Master’s Degree in TESL or Applied Linguistics),
opportunities
will also open up in the field of materials writing and consultancy.
Sadly, we can’t all write an ESL best seller and become
millionaires,
but there are many other opportunities which may not make you
world-famous but do bring in a steady income. And not all the work
comes from large international publishing companies. In the past ten
years or so, some of the projects I have worked on include : a cassette
and booklet based course English for Medical Conferences commissioned
by a pharmaceutical company for use as a promotional tool; an intranet
based course, English for Call-Centres, for the Italian branch of a
multinational telecom corporation; a video and booklet based course for
beginners, commissioned by an editorial company and sold via newsagents
in weekly instalments, and a course for Italian elementary state school
children published by a local educational publisher.
The other option, if you don’t want to write the course
yourself, is to
become an editorial consultant. Many local educational publishers
publish books for the state school market written by local teachers.
They frequently need qualified native speakers to advise on the
soundness of the methodological approach and/or the accuracy of the
language used.
How do I find
my clients?
- If you are
looking
mainly for local clients, and focusing on the individual market, you
may find that many of them arrive because somebody who knows you
“knows
somebody who knows somebody who wants to learn English”. This
is
particularly true if you are living abroad. Or if, for example, your
target clients are the parents of the neighbourhood children, a simple
notice in a shop window may do the trick. There may also be a local
newspaper which carries small ads for services like private language
training.
- If you are
looking
for on-line work, then the obvious place to advertise is on-line. There
are various sites which aim to match students with on-line tutors, one
of which is listed in the Resources Links. This site will also lead you
to others.
- For both on-line work and
homestay courses, you may prefer to work through another organisation
which will do all the marketing for you. You’ll find examples
of these
if you google ESL on-line tutors or ESL homestay tutors.
- However, if you want to create a
more professional image, and particularly if you want to contact
corporate and other professional clients, you will need a website,
business cards, and possibly brochures to back up your initial contact.
How that contact occurs will depend on the culture in which you are
living : there are some cultures in which “cold
calling” may be
effective, others in which you will need to be introduced by someone
who the company already trusts.
- In my experience, a lot of work
–
and most of the materials writing work which I’ve done
– comes through
personal contacts and networking. This may be because I live in a
culture where “who you know” is important in every
sphere, but it seems
logical that the more specialised the work, and the more the client is
paying, the more sure they’ll want to be that the person can
deliver.
And in this context personal recommendation is probably as effective as
slick marketing in a variety of cultures. So don’t neglect
networking
opportunities. Conferences, local Chamber of Commerce events, and just
frequent contact with others in the same field can all lead to work
opportunities. Contacts like these are also important in terms of
professional development. One of the disadvantages of home-based work
is that you lack the stimulus of exchanging ideas on a daily basis with
other teachers. Networking opportunities can also be learning
opportunities.
What training
do I need?
If you’re a native speaker, can you teach English without any
further
training? Well, a lot of people do, whether teaching privately or
working in schools or on homestay schemes. If you are serious about
becoming a professional English teacher though, just knowing the
language is not enough. You need to have at least a basic knowledge of
English language teaching methodology, the psychology of language
learning, and the grammatical, lexical, phonological and pragmatic
systems of the English language. If you just want to see if TESL is
right for you, there are various on-line courses on offer, but
ultimately you will need a more substantial course which includes
teaching practice and leads to an internationally recognised
certificate. The best known and most widely taken of these is the CELTA
(Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) exam, administered
by Cambridge
ESOL.
Or, if you want to specialise in teaching children, the CELTYL
(Certificate in English Language Teaching to Young Learners). There,
are however, many other schemes, and you will need to find out
what’s
on offer near you.
Recommended Reading
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Tools of the Trade
- A good library of textbooks
and methodology books.
- A computer with internet
connection.
- A scanner
- For home-based face to face
teaching : a teaching space equipped with CD player and preferably DVD.
For group classes, a whiteboard or flipchart.
- A bank of teaching resources
– lesson plans, worksheets, flashcards etc
- For on-line teaching
– a
computer with VOIP software such as SKYPE.
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Organizations &
Associations
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Resource Links
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 About
Sue Swift
Sue
Swift has over thirty years experience in the fields of ELT, teacher
training and communication skills training. Originally an English
graduate, she also holds the Cambridge ESOL DELTA and an MA in Applied
Linguistics. She has lived in countries ranging from Finland to the
Middle East to Japan, and has worked in companies, universities and
private language schools. She is now permanently based in Italy where
she runs Business
Talk, a language training consultancy which provides both
traditional and on-line training for companies in Italy and abroad. She
is the author of a number of ELT textbooks aimed at primary, secondary
and adult learners, and has most recently completed the series
Playtime, Storytime and Kidstime (Sn@il
Publishing)
for the Italian Scuola Primaria. She runs An ELT Notebook,
a website
for ESL teachers, and is also an assessor for the UCLES DELTA scheme.
Married with a teenage son, Sue’s interests are reading,
horses and
gardening – quite a challenge in the land of apartment
blocks. She also
admits under duress to being an avid Star Trek fan. Her
gardening
(mis)adventures can be found on her blog The Balcony Garden.
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