Episode Transcription

55: Thinking Like a Teacher is Holding Your Tutoring Business Back

 

Welcome to another episode of Classroomed Business. It's wonderful to have you here today and I really hope that so far you're having an amazing week.

Today I wanted to talk to you about a really big shift that I see so many tutors struggle with and it's the shift from thinking like a teacher to thinking like a business owner.

Now this doesn't mean that you stop caring about your students, this doesn't mean that you no longer focus on delivering quality sessions, but what it means is you start running your business in a way that supports both your students and your well-being.

You don't go into a business so that you are going to lose money. You don't go into a business so that you come out of it.

Working yourself to the bone and not having any time with your family or to do the other things that you love.

But often we get into a situation, get ourselves stuck in a situation where we're feeling overwhelmed. And often it's because we're running our business as a teacher.

We're not running our business as a business owner. So today I wanted to dive in and talk to you a little bit more about how you can shift your mindset from teacher to business owner to help build your successful business.

So you might be wondering now, is this me? Am I stuck in teacher mode? So I wanted to go through and highlight some of the telltale signs so that you can identify if this is you and if you're in the situation.

So you're potentially always saying yes to extra tutoring sessions, even if it means burning yourself out. You're not clear about your boundaries, so you're texting parents really late at night, maybe when you're supposed to be with your family, you're replying to them instantly because you're stressing out about what they might think if you don't reply, and this goes to text and emails and phone calls.

Maybe you struggle with pricing, maybe you feel awkward charging clients, and often you undervalue your services. So by this, I mean you're putting your prices way too low, and probably deep down you know that.

Maybe you're constantly reacting to inquiries instead of proactively marketing your business. So you're just sitting there waiting for families to come to you rather than getting out there and actively taking action to put your business, yourself, your services out there in front of people.

Now, trust me, I've So if any of these are relatable to you, you are not alone, that's firstly what I want to say, and it's totally normal.

If you think about it, we've come out of the classroom. We've come out of a situation where we don't need to ask for prices, we don't need to create contracts with parents.

The communication that we have with parents is minimal, but it can be quite demanding. And we've never had to stop and value ourselves for a dollar amount.

So it is totally normal that you're feeling that, I guess, that you're focusing more on the teaching aspect as a business owner rather than a business owner, and that you're making all of these mistakes and, in a sense, creating these challenges and these blocks in your business to growth and success.

And I really want you to, you know, be honest with yourself right now. don't want you to just say, oh, yeah, that's...

Sounds like me, and move on. I want you to really sit with this and think, how do I see myself?

Because the number of times I talk to people, and they've been in business for years, and either A, they don't feel comfortable saying that they're a tutor, or B, they say, oh yeah, I'm just a teacher, or I'm just a tutor.

No, you're not. You're a business owner. You're making an impact on the lives of so many families, and you are making an income for your own family.

Now, granted, this might not be much at the moment if you're just starting out, or if you've been in business for a while, but you're still not financially literate, and you are not covering your finance as well.

That's a topic for a whole other day. But if you are in that situation, there is potential for you to be creating more profits from your business, and that's what we want.

So a teacher mindset is primarily focused on the sessions, right? And that's often why a lot of us spend too much time, we waste too much time on creating lessons and creating resources and investing in more PPD to become more proficient at this or more qualified in teaching this.

It's often emotionally driven. And when it comes to our pricing and cancellations, we often avoid marketing and those sorts of things because it feels uncomfortable.

And we tend to undervalue our services as well. So there are all the sorts of things that a teacher mindset has.

So if you don't have a cancellation policy in place, if you are underpricing yourself or devaluing your services, if you're feeling uncomfortable about all of those things, if you're just focusing on the lessons, just focusing.

on your teaching and your planning, then you're still in the teacher mindset, right? In contrast, a business owner mindset focuses on creating sustainable systems.

Now, often we don't know what systems we need to create. And we, you know, I get this a lot.

People come to me and say, I want to create systems for my business. But you need to first understand how your business works and how you want your business to work.

But a business owner mindset is that person who is thinking about creating those systems and those automations and processes.

They're comfortable with their pricing. So they might be in a situation where they know they need to increase, but they've got a strategy for how they're going to do that.

Or they're charging, you know, their value and their worth. And they feel confident when they have those conversations with parents on the phone.

They've got boundaries in place. So that they're... they're... So Thank Got clear work time, clear family time. They've got policies in place, so they're not chasing up payments.

Please, please, please, you should not be chasing up payments. They've got a cancellation policy in place, so they're not having families pull out last minute or regularly.

If this is a thing for you, you really need to get on top of that. Make that your number one goal for 2025.

And they're actively engaging in marketing. And marketing is not just putting a post on your Facebook page. Okay, let's get that straight.

That is not marketing. That's not enough. And the business owner mindset is understanding that all of those things need to be happening and working together to enable you to grow and make a profit.

Now, you can still 100% deeply care about your students and your families while still taking And thinking strategically about profits and growth.

You don't have to let go of the passion that you have for teaching or the compassion that you have for the people that you work with.

In fact, becoming a stronger business owner can actually help you to serve your students better with more energy and enthusiasm.

Because you're not bogged down. You're not feeling overwhelmed. You're not chasing your tails. You're not feeling rubbish about the minimal amounts you're being paid because you're having so many cancellations.

And you've got late payments from invoices that are so overdue. You don't need to worry about those things. Those things are part of your well-oiled machine that you've created.

Half of them are taking care of themselves. So when you combine the two, a great teacher and a great business owner, that's when we really start to see successful, profitable growth.

In your business. Now I wanted to share with you today some practical steps to help you shift your mindset because you might be saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me, that's me, what do I do?

So I thought, okay, I'll just highlight some of the key actions that I've come across that I think that if you embrace these things, if you take these on, it can help you to become more of a confident business owner.

So the first one is set clear boundaries. We struggle with this as teachers. And, you I talk about this all the time.

We have these big, kind, caring hearts. And that's great. But we also need to know that we need to have some of that kindness for ourselves and for our own families and for our own time.

So setting clear boundaries means that we clearly define our working hours, our pricing, and our cancellation policy. We write these down and we share them confidently with our clients.

We need to know our numbers. So don't guess your pricing. Actually calculate your hourly rate. Go through and look at your expenses and the real value that you provide.

Know your numbers and ensure that you understand them and this will help you price confidently and fairly. Do not bury your head in the sand with that one, please.

Embrace marketing. This is number three. Shift your perspective. Marketing is about connection and it's offering solutions. So I've said this before, you can't serve without selling.

So you need to sell to serve. And that doesn't mean salesy slay. Leazy phone calls and pushing things that people don't want.

It's hearing that people need you and then reaching out and marketing to those people who need you and offering them solutions so that you can provide a transformation, so that you can help them.

So, you know, start by having genuine conversations with people that you, you know, meet on the street, so to speak, or that you, you know, cross paths with and friends that you know and family that you know or friends of friends.

When people say, what do you do, be proud about it. Be, you know, brave and bold and it's, I guess, take a minute to boast because what you're doing is pretty special and you need to back yourself.

need to believe in yourself because if you can't do that to friends and family, then it's going to be...

It's hard for you to get that message across when families are calling you to try and enroll their students.

And then we kind of slump back into that teacher mindset where who am I to be doing this? I'm not good enough.

I don't have the experience. Sorry, you do, okay? Whether your background is, you know, a teacher aide, any sort of other educator, teacher, you're here because you are good at teaching and you are passionate about it.

And now you're making an impact outside of the classroom in a way that really serves these students. So know your niche, know your superpower and talk about it.

Share some of the valuable content that you know on your social media. Number four, delegate and automate tasks. So identify maybe even just one ad.

...task that you dislike and get rid of it, okay? So whether you're using a software to automate it or whether you are going to create that task that you can outsource to a VA, hand that over to someone or something else to free up your time and help reduce your stress.

This is starting to take action or these are the type of steps that a business owner will take. When we are just in that teacher mindset, we try and do everything ourselves.

And I'm not sure whether this is because this is just who we are, whether because we don't have the business experience or whether because we're just used to wearing all of the hats in the classroom and we carry that over into business.

But when you take action like this and you delegate, you're taking on... More of a leadership type role. And that's the space that we need to get into when we're thinking about ourselves as business owners.

So let me tell you really quickly about Jade. So real life example here. When she started tutoring, she was working endless hours.

And she was really stuck in that teacher mode. So she was way undercharging, which I know is very, very common, and working far too many hours, planning for probably 45 minutes per session, and then spending a lot of time talking to her families after each session as well and not being paid for it.

Not only that, she was communicating with a lot of the teachers of the students that she was working with, which is fine, but she's not being financially compensated for that.

So after working together, she began setting clear boundaries. She, you know, said to her families that if they wanted reports done, this was the amount that it would be.

If parents had a question, they could book in a time to give her a call, as opposed to just hanging around and talking for 15, 20, 30 minutes after a session, especially on the nights that she did not have a class afterwards.

She found herself being caught and stuck at her centre for a very long time after talking to some particular parents who just went on and on and on.

And I'm sure some of you can relate. I definitely can. She started setting those boundaries. She started letting parents know that if they wanted to contact her, the best way to do it was via, you know, during certain hours with an email, during the day with a text message.

She actually started understanding her financials. A really big one, and this is something that I want to talk about more this year, is becoming financially literate.

And I think that in business, we wing it far too much, and we're constantly treading water and hoping that what we're doing is right.

But if we don't know our numbers, if we aren't reviewing those regularly and looking at how we're actually going, then we're really burying our heads in the sand.

And there's a huge chance that you are running at a loss, or you are wasting a big chunk of money along the way somewhere.

Either way, you're cutting into your own profits and the profits that you could be giving to yourself, your family, you know, investing in those things that you want to be doing more of.

The reason why you went into business, right? So she started, you know, taking time to understand those, and she embraced marketing.

Marketing is something that a lot of us haven't done as teachers. I mean... Some of us may have taught some marketing skills as teachers, but we haven't had to market ourselves.

We haven't had to put ourselves out there, but she did do that, and the result was she reduced her working hours significantly whilst increasing her monthly income, and she did it simply by stepping fully into her role as a business owner.

She started taking herself seriously instead of just thinking, I'm a teacher, this is all I'm focusing on, just lessons, just lesson planning, talking to the parents, making sure they know.

Like, you're working with these students most of the time once a week. How many, if you think about when you're in the classroom, you're not speaking to those parents every single day after every single session.

So why are you doing it when you're in business? There's no need for that, okay? Now, you might want...

I want to provide feedback, and I highly encourage providing feedback and having communication with your families, but do it in a way that it is smart and efficient.

Do not do it in a way that takes up your time and means that you are still stuck in that teacher mindset as opposed to a business owner.

A business owner doesn't have time to sit around and chat to every single family member after every single, even if it's 5% of your students every single week.

You've got other things to do. And I say that, I know that sounds really harsh when I say that, and it's not about the, you know, like I said at the start, this isn't about not being a good teacher.

This isn't about not providing great services, but you have a business to run as well. So you do need to give yourself a bit of a kick up the bum and focus on your business as well.

You can't just think about. But teaching, you need to become both of these roles in your business because otherwise you are not going to see that success.

Okay, some common mindset blocks. So you might hear all of those things I've said and you might already be feeling some resistance.

So you might feel like you're a bit of a sellout, you know. So, but actually you're creating sustainability so you can keep positively impacting more students.

If you burn yourself out by spending all of that time on your admin, overdoing things, double handling things, you know, being constantly on call, which means your brain is always active, you know, replying to emails and text messages and phone calls as quickly as you can.

And, you know, like I said just before, giving parents all of that extra time after every session, you are going to lose your momentum.

You're going to lose your passion, your drive, and it will impact you then as a teacher. Okay, so that's not what we want.

Another thing you might be saying is, I'm uncomfortable talking about money. Money is simply a fair exchange for the value, service, and expertise that you offer.

So this is literally a transaction. The parent is bringing you on to solve a problem that they can't solve.

And in return, they're paying you. Each party gives and each party receives. So you need to flip your thinking about money and flip your thinking about asking for money.

Because when you go into COALS, I can guarantee you that you don't think twice about paying for something because you're getting it.

Those parents also expect to pay you for it. Because you're getting it. So don't make the assumption that, you know, when you're talking about money, as you say, you're uncomfortable talking about money, that's you.

Don't make that assumption that the parent isn't willing to pay or the parent can't afford to pay. It's not, you know, that's, again, that's a whole other conversation that we can have.

But you need to remember that it is just the fair exchange for your service and the expertise that you have, the background that you have, the experience that you have, which they don't have.

Maybe you're thinking, I don't want to disappoint anyone. Okay, so you're thinking, you know, if I set boundaries, if I say, no, I'm not replying to your messages after six o'clock at night, setting clear boundaries actually helps your clients respect you and makes your services, again, more sustainable.

It makes your ability to balance, and I say balance, it's not like 50-50 balance, but it's that up and down, you know, there's just no better word for it that I can think of, but balancing act between business, life, family, all of those things, it makes it more doable when you have boundaries in place.

So whilst you might be thinking, I don't want to disappoint anyone by saying I only check my emails, you know, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, or I don't take calls after 5.30 in the afternoon, you might think you're disappointing your clients, but when you're sitting there on your phone and your kids are there or your partner's there or you're out at a barbecue and you're, you know, replying to emails or checking messages or whatever it is, even if you're staying up late to get through invoices and things like that that could have been automated or, you know, call it quickly.

Chasing up tutors to cover because you've had someone cancel or bringing somebody in because family's canceled. All of those things.

If you're doing any of those things outside of your work time, you're disappointing the people that you're supposed to be with.

So you're disappointing your family. You're disappointing your friends. You're disappointing yourself. You're taking that away from yourself. Yeah? So, I mean, there's probably some other common or some other mindset blocks, and if you have them, please reach out because I would love to chat through these sorts of things with you because I think the value of you stepping out of that purely that teacher mindset into the business owner mindset is so big, and it makes such an impact on your business and the profits and the growth that you can create.

It's just, it's crazy, and I see it all of the time. The people that I work with. Who create successful, profitable businesses, they think like business owners or they are transitioning.

You know, so we're working together to get them out of the teacher mindset into the business owner mindset. People who keep thinking like teachers end up back in the classroom.

And I say that with love. It's not a judgment thing. It's just that it's and there's nothing wrong with going back to the classroom if that's what you want to do.

But if you want to build your business, if you want that to be where things, you know, the magic happens, where your income comes from, then you have to be thinking like a business owner.

All right, a little bit of tough love again today. So just to recap, number one, recognize the habits of a teacher mindset.

Think about those things that you might be currently doing where you are truly. Acting and thinking like just a teacher.

Number two, instead, embrace the thinking and actions of a business owner. Is this what a business owner would do?

Would a business owner be spending 45 minutes planning for a one-on-one session with a student? No. Would a business owner, now, I'm going to say an example here, and you might say, well, yes, some do.

Would a business owner be taking a phone call at 7 o'clock at night about a cancellation? They might be, but that's not a successful business owner.

That's somebody who doesn't have their boundaries in check. So, which leads me to number three, set your boundaries, know your numbers, embrace marketing, that feels good for you, and automate tasks or delegate tasks.

And number four, proactively address any of those mindset blocks. So... So... Thank Talk to somebody about them. Like I said, send me a DM.

If this is something that you're struggling with, I would be more than happy to have a chat to you about this because I want you to have a successful business.

I want you to move into a business owner mindset. If you're saying, look, I've just got, you know, a couple of students that I tutor and that's all I want, that's fine.

This is not directed at you. If you're wanting to create a business that gives you a profit, that pays you as much if not more than you did in the classroom, that enables you to have the flexibility and freedom to be at home with your family, to take time off, to step away from your business, to bring staff members in, to create more of that, and I say passive with inverted commas because that's an option.

You know, that's a, it's a, it still does require some work, but that's an option for you in growth.

With all of those things, you have to have. A business owner mindset, okay? Alright, so now something that I wanted to throw in here today is if you're ready to fully step into your role as a thriving business owner, then I've got a few really exciting things coming up.

If you are on my email list, you would have already seen this, but I am running some, I've run them previously in northern New South Wales, just near the Gold Coast, teachers and business retreats.

And we're looking at running a couple more this year and then next level. So I have upped the ante.

So we're looking at running another one on the Gold Coast and another one in Bali. So imagine, you know, four or five days surrounded by other inspiring children, business owners, away from the daily grind, away from cooking, cleaning, doing dishes.

I love my kids, but away from... All of the kid-related stuff, school pick-up, school drop-off, all of the things that eat into the time that you have to work on your business, and move you to a beautiful location, a private villa, where you'll deep dive into strategic business planning, mindset breakthroughs, and some really practical actions that you can implement immediately.

That is what I'm creating with the upcoming retreats. So these are incredible opportunities to reset, recharge, and confidently step into your role as a successful business owner and leader.

So if you're feeling like, oh, I'm not there yet, I really want to get there, this is a perfect opportunity for you.

The spaces are limited, okay, so if it feels like this is exactly what you need, then send me a DM, email me.

Kirstie at kirstygibbs.com. Message me on Instagram and we can reserve your spot or I can send you some more information.

Like I said, very, very limited spots. These are intimate, luxurious retreats where we're going to be including some beautiful pampering, lots of yummy food.

Everything is done for you and hopefully you're going to walk away feeling so refreshed, like you're floating, but also really inspired and full of new ideas and ways that you can take your business to that next level.

And obviously, just investing in yourself in a retreat like this is stepping into that business owner mindset. You're not just a teacher in your business.

All right. Thank you for joining me today. Remember, becoming a business owner doesn't mean. It your teacher heart behind.

It means creating a sustainable, rewarding, scalable, which means we can grow, business that allows you to help even more students and live that life that you are trying to create with more freedom and more flexibility.

Until then. you.