How did you start out? Lost teacher here!

[FiveFloofs]

I am not sure whether COVID did it, but I can’t continue teaching any more. I work 12 hours a day 6 days a week & it’s never enough to feel like it’s “enough”. I work with people who feel the same which is soul destroying, or don’t because they’re lazy & incompetent. Not to mention after all of this, I’m poor. With pay freezes & increased living costs, I think I’m probably 20% worse off than I was 9 years ago.

So, new beginnings. I’ve tried applying for other jobs however it’s either; overqualified & don’t get the job, or don’t have the “exact” experience & don’t get the job.

Which brings me here. What relatively low investment start-up could make £30k-£40k a year? I don’t even know where to start. How did you start? What process did you go through to find that “thing”?

I’ve thought about interests; I’d love a cattery - but can’t afford a house big enough to house it. That could be the “next business”? Then thought small scale, dog walking or pet sitting, but it’s saturated & just can’t see the money is there. I thought online pet store, but again quite saturated & the costs for initial stock would be high.

I don’t think I’d really enjoy working with people all day, teaching has turned me into a recluse. When I’m not working & surrounded by 35 humans at a time, I’m working alone in a dark room planning/marking/sleeping! The thought of doing something similar is a no-no but maybe if I wasn’t a teacher I wouldn’t mind it so much?

I live in the South West so tourism is popular, but not sure how I could utilise that.

I’d like to think I’m relatively switched on so could have a stab at anything really...

Can you tell I’m lost?

 

[AllUpHere]

What do you teach?

 

[fisicx]

Private tutoring plus exam marking, proof reading and similar can easily generate a decent income. Maybe add on some OU work and adult education.

All without the pressures of teaching. I’ve done all the above plus technical authoring and made enough money to live comfortably. It will then give you time to develop your own business.

 

[Fagin2021]

I think @fisicx nailed it with his suggestion of employing your existing knowledge and skills to generate an income in a less stressful way then using your spare time and (hopefully) income to develop an alternative business.

It's amazing what you can put up with in the present if you can see a path to a better future.

You sound like an animal lover so a cattery would be great - and could fit in with another work routine, (but don't expect to make a fortune).

You don't need big house - but you do need a bit of land for cages and runs, so an 'out-of-town' location is best. I don't think the regulations are too onerous. Once established you'll get a regular, repeat clientele with word-of-mouth recommendations.

Good luck.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I have a lot of respect for teachers but if you knew the hours I have put in you might think again

You are right about the boom here in the South West and it would be good to tap into to it . We do need to appreciate that this mostly due to the pandemic and previous years have been turbulent as most people travel to the sun

I started this along time ago as my teachers said I was a waster and would end up working up the slaughter house

 

[paulears]

I started my career doing technical services for entertainment as my real career, radio, radar and electronics turned out to be deadly boring, and I was young. Eventually I became a teacher in colleges, then after 12 years felt like you. I carried on for the exam boards and doing teacher training, but it’s seasonal in income. I the tried supply teaching in schools and discovered how awful schools are. Back to entertainment, self employed again. Covid wiped it out so I went back to selling radios to marine, amateurs and a bit of clever stuff. Examining is pitifully paid now, so that went too, and when I tried to change subject and board, I’d not got the required three years currency, so that door shut despite schools and colleges still teaching what I had written in my time working for the boards.

I’m good with radios but it’s dull, and retail is full of idiots that annoy me. Giving people money back because they have plenty of money and no brain cells sticks in my throat. Maybe that’s also a effect in the school system? Many simply cannot read technical instructions.

I started back in entertainment too, juggling both, but it’s been a killer this summer finding crews - so many got out of the industry, and those I can find travel and can ask for and get better money. My clients want to pay what they used to pay. Turnover up, margins down.
if you have a knack with animals, find something people want, and supply it. Education is broken badly.

 

[Deleted member 335660]

I am not sure whether COVID did it, but I can’t continue teaching any more. I work 12 hours a day 6 days a week & it’s never enough to feel like it’s “enough”. I work with people who feel the same which is soul destroying, or don’t because they’re lazy & incompetent. Not to mention after all of this, I’m poor. With pay freezes & increased living costs, I think I’m probably 20% worse off than I was 9 years ago.

So, new beginnings. I’ve tried applying for other jobs however it’s either; overqualified & don’t get the job, or don’t have the “exact” experience & don’t get the job.

Which brings me here. What relatively low investment start-up could make £30k-£40k a year? I don’t even know where to start. How did you start? What process did you go through to find that “thing”?

I’ve thought about interests; I’d love a cattery - but can’t afford a house big enough to house it. That could be the “next business”? Then thought small scale, dog walking or pet sitting, but it’s saturated & just can’t see the money is there. I thought online pet store, but again quite saturated & the costs for initial stock would be high.

I don’t think I’d really enjoy working with people all day, teaching has turned me into a recluse. When I’m not working & surrounded by 35 humans at a time, I’m working alone in a dark room planning/marking/sleeping! The thought of doing something similar is a no-no but maybe if I wasn’t a teacher I wouldn’t mind it so much?

I live in the South West so tourism is popular, but not sure how I could utilise that.

I’d like to think I’m relatively switched on so could have a stab at anything really...

Can you tell I’m lost?

Well whatever you do it is not going to be easy when your working 72 hours a week. Furthermore any new business will take time to get off the ground.

So I think the first step is to do something that will give you some money but more time. Supply teaching, Further education College, University teaching might be the answer. I was also approached by a company to produce teachers materials.

As others have said, any business should be something you have knowledge on. You could look at writing online courses for platforms like Teachable.

I started my first enterprise buying things from wholesalers and selling them to guys in my RAF station. My second one was when I was a computer salesman and recognized a gap in the market. My latest one was very similar in that my wife’s recognized there was no decent gift shop for miles around where we live; but that needed our savings.

 

[Jeff FV]

As a fellow teacher, I fully understand what you are saying. I agree with your suggestion that Covid has played its part, those months of remote teaching were tough, tough, tough and I think we all spent some time reflecting on what we did and why. The return to physical classroom has been good, but things are different from pre-covid times. I think over the next few years there will be considerable churn of staff as teachers re-evaluate their role.

Anyway, to try and answer your question, this is what I would do (I’m currently quite happy in role, so not looking for a change right now.

Yours is a common refrain - a teacher who wants to leave the profession, but doesn’t know what to do. Here’s an idea:

Go out and get a different job, any job. Perhaps by signing up with a recruitment agency. Perhaps a work from home job. Working in recruitment might be a good shout (for reasons I’ll get to in a minute). You’ll probably have to take a pay cut, but making that first step out of the classroom will be the hardest.

Teachers have many transferable skills - we are great organises, we have well developed people skills as we have many, many interactions - at different levels - every day. Sales - every day I’m trying to sell the beauty of algebra to teenagers!

You may stumble into something you love, in which case brilliant.

But here’s the plan. There are thousands of teachers out there like you who want to leave the profession. Do it, work out what works, what doesn’t. What is a good fit for a teacher, what isn’t. How they can find those jobs. You learn all this by doing it yourself. Then you set yourself up as an expert/consultant/coach that helps teachers transition out of the class room. You’ve walked the walk, you have all the knowledge and credibility to be a success. Perhaps even set up your own recruitment business, specialist in ex-teachers.

Thank you - this has been a really useful thinking exercise for me - as I say I’m currently happy with my lot, but maybe one day I won’t be, and this is a germ of an idea that I may just nurture.

Best of luck - and keep us updated with what you do.

 

[fisicx]

Totally agree with @Jeff FV, resigning was hard but a huge relief once I’d done it. For the first 6 months after I did night shift filling supermarket shelves. This gave me the day free to work out what I wanted to do. Now I’ve found my niche I rarely work more than 10 hours a week.

 

[The Byre]

What relatively low investment start-up could make £30k-£40k a year?

Define 'relatively low'!

In business, it's like this - to start a business, you need either skill or money. To start a SUCCESSFUL business you need to have both skill and money! And of the two, skill is by far and away, the most important!

Skill - two skills actually. Firstly and most important - you need to have business sense. You must know how many beans make five. In a restaurant, you need to know the food costs and the labour costs of each and every plate. You must have a working knowledge of contract law and be able to read a leasing agreement without getting a nosebleed. There are 1001 things you need to learn to run a small business - bookkeeping for starters!

Second Skill - This is where you need to pay attention! This is your primary skill, your trade, your core competence. This skill is what people are prepared to pay for - so it better be in short supply and it better be for something people really, really need. Plumber. Gas fitter. Programmer. Auto mechanic. Ninja-level CGI designer in Maya. Diesel and agricultural machinery fitter. Something where the job-ads far outnumber the candidates available.

You are a teacher. That (at the moment) is your core competence. If you are a secondary teacher, you will have a subject and you could start an evenings-and-weekends school for that subject. Music teachers start music schools. Dance teachers start dance schools. Teachers for creative subjects like music, dance and drama do well in those fields, teaching kids and young adults all the things that regular schools do not. Failing that, evening classes in Maths and English, or whatever!

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

 

[Financial-Modeller]

A couple of quick thoughts, partially reinforcing what others have said:

Use your your existing skillset if possible; it is much easier to persuade people to pay for expertise that is demonstrable, than to pick up a completely new skillset and attempt to monetise it.

To answer your original question, I decided that I could earn more selling my skillset on a PAYG basis, than I could as an employee of a Corporate Finance company, so made the leap. I haven't regretted it.

An aside though; if you're routinely working 72 hours per week as a teacher, you're doing something wrong! Perhaps try to take a step back and divide your tasks into those that are helping to educate your pupils, those that are helping you with your career, and those that are not doing either because they should be completed by the headteacher/administrative support/lab technician/cleaner/parents. Stop doing those!

If you can reduce your workload a bit, you'll find some thinking time to plan your next venture, which you want to do whilst the state is paying your bills if possible.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Asked by someone earlier, what do you teach?

A mate of mine, former Maths teacher does online tutoring by Zoom at £40+ an hour. Goes on holiday, lives abroad for a while and still works an hour here and there to cover the bar bills! The wonders of the internet.......

Over 20 years ago we paid £20 an hour for tuition for our 12 year old daughter as one of a class of 3 at the tutors home. Paid up front, paid if we missed a lesson etc.,

 

[gpietersz]

Use your existing skillset, obviously for teaching, but there maybe less obvious options as @Jeff FV said. I do not know whether you can find a suitable source of carers advice, but there is probably something out there that could help you think up more options.

A friend went from being an RE teacher to a school chaplin.

Another friend, now retired, went from English teacher to school IT - obviously that would require some learning and retraining, and more now than when he did it.

My home educated daughter goes for weekly classes run by former teachers. £15/hour each for a class of five or six. They also run classes out of school hours for school going kids. They do rent a building but the two of them teach quite a lot of classes between them.

I know of a business that just marks papers. ANother that primarilly runs private exam centres.

You might be able to do other school and education related jobs: adult education, admin, something in a local authortity's education department, etc.

 

[MBE2017]

My daughter is a teacher so I am aware of teachers workloads.

I think the hardest thing for yourself is leaving a well paid career, that largish cheque at the end of the month, regular as clockwork. Try to imagine doing just as many hours, if not more, with no guarantee you will be paid. That is the self employment reality for many.

Some make very good money, most earn less than an employee for several years, many go bust. You might find you are swapping one stressful situation for another. Have you considered a break to begin with?

 

[FiveFloofs]

In response to a few requests of what I teach, the irony is Business, a little Economics when asked & also a little ICT. Being regimented to a specification for nearly a decade I rarely ‘think outside the box’ any more which is why I asked about the entrepreneurial journeys taken by you wonderful experienced folk!

@Financial-Modeller Unfortunately it’s just not possible to “stop” doing the tasks. I wish I could. I could not plan lessons, not mark work, not complete the admin... but someone would eventually come knocking with a big stick to metaphorically hit me with!

It’s been absolutely wonderful to hear your beginnings and has developed some items in my mind I’m going to find time to ponder over in more detail. Back to the drawing board for now & see where that takes me.

 

[Free Stuff For Startups]

Congrats on surviving in teaching ( I'm married to a teacher, so deep respect) - The skills you have to present complex concepts in an easily digested format to an audience that would rather be somewhere else is extremely valuable to any corporate who would gladly pay you handsomely and treat you as a valued asset. Pitch yourself for senior roles and dont be humble about being a teacher - its a rare gift.

 

[MattRumbelow]

I used to work in a sector that was marketed towards schools (publishing and selling kids books) and I would say that there is a reasonable market for former teachers.

For instance, the publishing house would want former teachers to write books and resources, consult on curriculum and help with book grading.

I also know of a good few tech companies that sell resources or softwares to schools. I'm sure a company like that would be interested in someone with a mix of teaching / business / IT know-how.

And if you can think of a service that schools need, maybe that could be a business venture you move in to. It's an interesting market because schools have a budget that they have to spend every year.

 

[SillyBill]

If you have a little tucked away (for training/not earning until you get a start) and are desperate to leave teaching, why not HGV driving? You sound like you need out and perhaps even if it is not forever you'd do well to do something completely different for a bit. I think with the hours you are working it is not like you'd be too much put out even despite trucking being long hours too. Certainly get you out the classroom. And perhaps even time to think in your own cab. Better to think and get a plan together on someone elses' dime.

My first business was leaflet distribution, I started by walking the streets for 8+ hours a day delivering them personally until I had staff to do it. So I went from being a radiochemist to a paperboy.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

One area that has massive growth potential is CNC software teaching, if you can spare a year learning something like "Fusion 360".

3D software now covers a massive amount of areas from CNC to electronic designing. and growing all the time. there must be many opportunities in industry to teach the subjects within companies to people who want to learn

 

[Mr D]

If your job isn't worth doing any more then go elsewhere.

May find pay and conditions are worse, may find hours are not great. However won't be as bad in most jobs.

Move away from the public sector. Don't expect decent pay rises there.
For best pay rise you should go for a minimum wage job. For best wages find a job utilising your skills. Lots of competition though - lots of teachers leave every year and only so many get employed by training providers.
Some employers do a mix of in house and external training. Though the in house bit tends to be where need specific skills that likely you would not have to start with.

As for business .....

A low cost business to start in your spare time will tend to be rather crowded. There appear to be far fewer people wanting to set up a bank than there are people wanting to set up as dog walkers.
Would likely take years to reach the income level you want - without putting a load of your own money in first.

And business owners starting out, not uncommon to do more hours. 100 plus hour weeks.... for say 50p an hour. There's time making money (such as selling stuff) and time not making money (such as marketing or admin).
To get money out of the business costs the business, you using the money to live on means the business cannot use that money to invest and grow. So need a fair size business with decent turnover to be able to afford the level of income you want.
Invest £100k of your own money (not borrowed) and its somewhat easier than starting with £100. However most businesses fail.
`Can fail and take your £100k...

 

[Maverick77]

I am not sure whether COVID did it, but I can’t continue teaching any more. I work 12 hours a day 6 days a week & it’s never enough to feel like it’s “enough”. I work with people who feel the same which is soul destroying, or don’t because they’re lazy & incompetent. Not to mention after all of this, I’m poor. With pay freezes & increased living costs, I think I’m probably 20% worse off than I was 9 years ago.

So, new beginnings. I’ve tried applying for other jobs however it’s either; overqualified & don’t get the job, or don’t have the “exact” experience & don’t get the job.

Which brings me here. What relatively low investment start-up could make £30k-£40k a year? I don’t even know where to start. How did you start? What process did you go through to find that “thing”?

I’ve thought about interests; I’d love a cattery - but can’t afford a house big enough to house it. That could be the “next business”? Then thought small scale, dog walking or pet sitting, but it’s saturated & just can’t see the money is there. I thought online pet store, but again quite saturated & the costs for initial stock would be high.

I don’t think I’d really enjoy working with people all day, teaching has turned me into a recluse. When I’m not working & surrounded by 35 humans at a time, I’m working alone in a dark room planning/marking/sleeping! The thought of doing something similar is a no-no but maybe if I wasn’t a teacher I wouldn’t mind it so much?

I live in the South West so tourism is popular, but not sure how I could utilise that.

I’d like to think I’m relatively switched on so could have a stab at anything really...

Can you tell I’m lost?

Having taught maths in a secondary school, I totally understand why you want to get out of it and I sympathise with you.
You're not values and when you go the extra mile it isn't appreciated, but expected, because you're salaried.

Deciding what to do can be tough.
I would go with the old chestnut: what are you passionate about?
Best chose something you are passionate about because you'll spend a lot of time doing it.
Once you've decided what you're passionate about, try to consider how you might start in a small way and grow from there.

I have no idea what you teach, but private tutors are sought after and may provide a route to self-employment.

 

[ChrisGoodfellow]

What relatively low investment start-up could make £30k-£40k a year?

If you start a business offering a service, as @fisicx suggests with the tutoring, the upfront costs can be relatively low; the product is your time, you just need to market that time.

 

[Casually made]

OP has stated she is not interested in teaching anymore so not sure why so many are recommending tutoring , tutoring for what ? is the market that big for generic tutoring when resources in just about every discipline are widely available for free ? i'm not convinced

OP you have chose a career which is quite literally relentless ..... there's a reason parents are jumping for joy when the school holidays end and they can dump kids back in schools

Curriculums are outdated and boring how can they possibly stimulate modern children who can learn anything they want 10X faster from an electronic device

This leads me onto the next point …you need to get creative with whatever you do generic stuff like baking cakes , dog walking and tutoring are 10 a penny and completely saturated it could take 5-10 years to build an income of 40K for it

Why not flip your niche on its head and create something like a subscription for monthly or weekly teacher survival kit

Put some items in it that you would want after a week or month of hell with all them kids ,
Create a snappy logo and name , build the social media pages and relate to people talk about how hard it is being a teacher and how / why you wanted to get out of it

You have a natural story that I'm sure many will relate to in your audience ( teachers )

once you have the audience you can build the brand and come up with different products / courses / eBooks whatever

Sometimes people just want to buy hope

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Being a teacher offers many options outside schools, colleges and university, many large companies have teachers appropriate to their work, where the students actually want and need to learn

 

[Ozzy]

Being a teacher offers many options outside schools, colleges and university, many large companies have teachers appropriate to their work, where the students actually want and need to learn

Yes, training and education just dropping the word "teacher" for "trainer" or similar and more than double your hourly rate.

Picking up on an earlier comment though, home schooling has boomed due and post covid. If the OP wanted to continue to work with young people teaching but outside a school environment there is a significant demand for private tutors. That's coming from a parent who home school'd both his children for years, who had private tutors come to the house to teach math, english, computer science, physics and biology. A broad range of subjects.

 

[Alina97]

If you are a teacher and don't really have enough capital to start a business. I believe joining online platform like Fiverr, Upwork & freelancer can make you some decent money. There are alot of people who are seeking for writers or professional in various education categories to do the job for them.
By joining these platforms you can easily get the jobs done and get some decent money. If you spend some more time maybe by being consistent and doing a good job, your profile maybe receiving a lot of offers from clients. In this manner you may even form a team of your employees to work together and make money.
Freelance platforms are way easy to join and no risk at all with loosing the money.

 

[fisicx]

I believe joining online platform like Fiverr, Upwork & freelancer can make you some decent money.

No you can’t. On all these sites it’s a race to the bottom.