Episode Transcription

12: Why Would Anyone Want to Work For You? 

Hello, lovely lady. Welcome to Classroom To Business, the podcast designed specifically for teachers working to become successful businesswomen and creating financial freedom and lifestyle flexibility. I'm Kirsty Gibbs. Business coach and mentor for educators and teachers just like you, who are ready to step away from the classroom and create something more.

The Classroom to Business Podcast is committed to helping you grow your business, break down those barriers to success, and replace your teaching salary without having to work more hours. It's time for you to find freedom and start being your own boss so you can once again enjoy what you do and wake up each morning loving life.

So when you have a tutoring business, one of the most common ways for you to expand your business is to bring on staff because obviously when it's just you, there are so many hours in a day, so many hours in a week where you can physically work with students. So for a lot of people, the next step is to bring staff on and allow them to take students as well.

However, a very, very, very common concern and question that I get from ladies is, but why would anybody want to work for me? And I'm gonna answer that by saying, because they're not you. And what I mean by that is you have an entrepreneurial drive inside you, okay? Not everybody has that, and that's good thing.

We're all different, and that's why things work. Not everybody wants to have the responsibility like we do. Not everybody wants to have that control like we do. Some people like to be able to go to work, do their job, go home and switch off. And then there's those of us who are crazy and we just love to constantly think about our work and think about all these new ideas and have that shiny object syndrome and think of how we can make things better and constantly not be able to sleep because we're thinking of ideas.

But my point is, is when you are looking for somebody to bring on as an employee, You are not looking for somebody like yourself. You are looking for somebody who doesn't have that entrepreneurial drive. You are looking for somebody who wants to purely be a paid employee. They want to come in, do their job, and be able to do a great job, finish a job, and walk away and.

This is something that when I say it like that, you can sort of see that light bulb moment for people. They're like, oh yeah, that makes sense, because automatically. We think that when we have to bring somebody on, they have to be just like us because our kids like us and or our students like us and our parents like us.

So we need to find somebody just like us. And that's not necessarily the case. And it actually comes down to this as well. We're not looking for somebody who wants to run their own business. Okay? So keep that in mind when you are wondering why anybody would want to work for. Because they think differently to you.

So someone who doesn't want to do the things that you do. So let's just give some examples now of what you do as the employer, as the business owner that they don't have to do if they're the employee. So as the employer, you find clients, as the business owner, you are spending that time and effort marketing and gaining all of those students and those new enrollments you are doing the onboarding, you are doing the inquiry calls, you are doing the paperwork, all of that.

They don't have to do. And they're not interested in doing that. They don't have the time or the desire to want to do that. They just, like I said, want to come in, do their job, do a great job still and leave. You are also invoicing parents. Whether you do that by term, by month, weekly, that's another job that they are not interested in doing.

You are chasing up payments. They definitely don't wanna be doing that. I mean, if we're being honest, we don't want to be doing that either. But that is part of the responsibility that we have as the business owner, as the employer, as the manager of our own companies and businesses. But as the employee, as a tutor, that's not part of their job.

Des. They don't have to cover the costs if there are cancellations. So if you do not have a cancellation policy, I'm going off on a tangent here. You need to get one. Send me a DM and I can talk to you about how you can purchase one of ours. But when you have a cancellation policy, you'll say in there something along the lines of, if you cancel within a certain time, this happens.

If you cancel after a certain time, this happens. But at the end of the day, You have a responsibility to your staff members to pay them. Now, I'm not going to give legal advice right now on paying staff because it's something that you need to be aware of in your own business and need to be getting professional advice on, but.

If the rules around your staff are that you must give so many hours notice to cancel their shifts, for example, and your family haven't given you that notice, then either you are chasing up those late payments from that parent to pay your staff, or you are having to suck it up and still pay your staff.

So as an employee, I don't need to worry about being paid. Because it's not my job to sort that out. It's not my job to do the scheduling. It's not my job to chase up the money. That's the job of the business owner or the employer. So that's another thing that they don't have to worry about, and that's another reason why.

Certain people will come and work for you because they like to be employees and they like to not have to worry about these things. They don't have to deal with any complaints or challenges and problems and conflicts that may arise. Now, I'm sure that this isn't common, and probably most of you won't have had.

Many, if any at all, but they are able to distance themselves from any issues that happen in the business very easily. Whereas when you are the entrepreneur, when you are the business owner, everything comes back to you. You are responsible. Everything. And I'm really not saying this to freak you all out, but I'm saying this to give you an awareness as to why you really are so much more than just a tutor in your own business and why somebody will come and work for you because they become just a tutor.

And finally you are taking all the responsibility, which kind of goes into. Last point, the buck stops with you. So if there is anything at all questions, complaints, changes, cancellations. You are the one who are fixing those, putting those fires out. They don't need to do that. That is not part of their job description.

I mean, unless you make it. But 99% of the time they don't manage things like that. So, I mean, they're just, some of the things, there are more, but they're just some of the main things that they. Not required to concern themselves with as employees, which to someone who likes to be an employee is a positive.

The people who are going to work for you, like I said, they have that employee mindset, and I'm not here to say if that's good or bad. And like I said, we need all sorts of people in the. . That's how things work well. But when you are looking to employ somebody, you are not looking to employ somebody like you.

You are looking to employ somebody who wants to turn up and do a good job. You are looking to employ somebody who has the same values as you relating to. Education. And students. And families and developing those students skills and confidence and all those sorts of things. Maybe the same philosophies or teaching techniques or styles as you, that's totally personal to you in your business.

They're just some examples, but you are not trying to clone yourself. Does that make sense? Now, the other thing that I wanted to touch on is a lot of people have a fear of their employees stealing their students. And I'm gonna be honest, this was my number one concern when I was bringing staff members on because I thought, well, I'm the one doing all this hard work behind the scenes, and I could just come along and take my student.

So this was my experience. I spoke to my solicitor and she said, yes, yes they can. What you can do is put the wording into your contract that lessens the chance, that is acts as a deterrent for them to steal your students as such. And I didn't have any very obvious students and tutors leave at the same time.

It wasn't. Obvious that a tutor would leave me and then students would follow. I did have the occasion where a tutor would come to me and say, such and such approached me. So a parent approached me, but I told them no. I did have a time where a parent approached me and asked me if they could take this student.

In their own time. And so there are things that you can do in your business to help avoid this happening. And like I mentioned, first thing is having it in your contract, so speaking to your solicitor or your lawyer and finding out the terminology and the wording that you can put in there. Also, having that conversation with your staff members.

And letting them know that that's the deal, like it's in the contract. This is what you are signing, this is what you're agreeing to. Are you okay with that? Creating strong connections and respect with your staff? I think this is massive because I think if your staff are happy working for you, if they're paid well, if they're treated well, if they respect you and if they feel respected, they're not very likely to do the dirty on.

Now, I know this is not a foolproof approach. I know that there are always going to be those sorts of people out there, but it is something that you can do on your behalf, on your part to try and lessen the opportunity or the temptation that people have to. Not go rogue, but I'm going to use that for , lack of better words right now.

The other thing that I would encourage you to do is continue to keep connected with your families. So even though you are not actually tutoring them, Check in with them regularly. Do your best to know the names of the students who are coming in the door and the parents who are coming in the door. Don't just sit back in your office and hide all the time just because you are not tutoring still.

Get out there and make those connections, and maintain those connections and ensure that the parents know that there are certain things that go through. So, for example, cancellations. This would be my example of my business. Cancellations must go through me. You do not message the tutor, you message me Any changes if you are away on holidays, if you need to.

Change your days or times that comes through me, not your tutor. If there are any questions about payments or invoicing that comes through me, not the tutor. And I think, again, that just shows the parent that you are not just paying for this tutor's time. You are paying for a whole service and there's more to it than just that.

So yes. There are going to be people who want to start their own tutoring businesses just like you, just like me, but they aren't your ideal staff member. Not right now. Maybe down the track. Maybe down the track when you're looking to expand or bring on a manager and you want someone with that entrepreneurial mind who wants to have a bit more responsibility and control because you are going to put them in charge of running a center or growing a second center.

Or maybe even if you're going to sell and you can bring somebody on to train them up, but not right now. When you are looking to bring on your first few staff members, you are wanting somebody who wants a job. Not a business. So coming back to the very first question, why would anybody want to work for me?

We haven't even gone into why you would be great to work for, but they want to work for you because they want a job. They don't want to own a business and run a business and be responsible for all of those other things that you're responsible for. They want to be an employee where they get to turn up to their.

Do what they love, which is teaching and working with students. Finish their lesson, go home and do whatever it's that they do. If you enjoyed this episode today, I would absolutely love for you to leave a review. It only takes a minute, and if you haven't yet subscribed, make sure you do to ensure that you never miss an episode.

Finally, if you want to know more about what we do, head over to the website, kirstygibbs.com or check out the link in the show notes below. Thanks for listening. It's so great to have you here.