Episode Transcription

Kirsty Gibbs:
Welcome, so good to have you here. Today I'm talking to those of you, and it's most of us, who get ourselves into the situation of just seeing ourselves as the teacher, just as the tutor and not a business owner. So to help us grow our business, we need to actually see ourselves as business owners. And for a lot of us, that's something that we don't instinctively do.

We don't see ourselves as big CEOs and a lot of us actually don't like the term CEO. But I want to talk to you today about why you need to take yourself out of that just teacher mode or just tutor mode if you want your business to be successful. Now, I'm going to start by saying if you just want a side hustle with a few students, then this episode isn't for you. And that's totally fine. There are no rules around

the sort of business that you have to create, the way that you want your business to run. But today I am talking to those of us who want to create something more, who want to make a big impact, who want to create a business that enables us to have more flexibility, more freedom, more financial freedom as well. And to do that, we need to put our teacher hat

take our teacher hat off for a little bit and put our business owner hat

So I'm guessing that you started your tutoring business for freedom, you know, to have control of your time because you know what it's like in the classroom. It's not nine till three. It's not five days a week. And there are definitely not all of those holidays. I mean, there are the holidays, right? But we don't get all of those holidays off doing nothing. We work hard as teachers and we work long hours as teachers and a lot of us do suffer from burnout and fatigue. And we put in so much of our time and our effort into what we do. And that is fantastic. And it means our kids benefit, but it's often at the expense of our own health, whether that be physical or mental. It's also often at the expense of time with our own families and friends. So for the most part, starting a business is.

We don't go into business thinking, I want to work my backside off just like I did in the classroom. We think, I've got these really great skills. I know that I can work with students. I know that I can make an impact. I know that I can make a difference. And I want to do it in a way that works for me. I want to run my business in a way that I can actually take time off, that I'm not working every night on my laptop.

even though I'm not being paid for it. Now I'm not going to say that business is a walk in the park. There are definitely hard times and definitely at the beginning you need to dig deep, strap in, hold on, because it is one heck of a ride. But if you stick at it you will see more flexibility, you will have more financial freedom. Those possibilities are there.

But if you're in that stage now where you're fully booked and you're constantly replying to parents and you're juggling admin and you think, my gosh, is this what I actually signed up for? This is not what I wanted my business to look like. Just know that you don't need to stay there. Okay. This is a normal part of starting up. There are so many things to juggle. There are so many new things to learn. There are so many things to do, but you don't need to stay there forever.

And if you've been in business for a while and you're still feeling stuck in that stage, then this episode is definitely for you because the mindset, the way that you think about yourself will 100 % be impacting how successful your business is.

So if you feel like at the moment that your business is running you, not you running it, because as the owner, that's what we should be doing, running our business, then let's work through why you're feeling this way. Why does it happen? Firstly, I think as educators, we come into business lacking some things.

that make this difficult for us, also with other things that make it difficult for us. So firstly, we're used to working really hard. We're used to working long hours, putting in all of the extras and doing all of those things above and beyond. That's not a bad thing until it leads you to burnout or until you can't handle it anymore. Now what happens, what I see a lot is people come into business and they have that same approach.

And like I said, there are definitely stages where you have to hustle, where you have to work hard and where you will feel like you're working long hours, but that's not the goal and that shouldn't be the norm. So you've got to release some of that feeling of, have to always be working and I have to be working on the night in the evenings. I have to be working on the weekends and it's holidays. What should I be doing? We've got to stop.

We've got to let that go. Okay. That, that was the normal for us when we were in the classroom, but we're not there anymore. We own our own businesses. We are our own bosses. We choose, we decide when we want to work and we even decide what work we want to do, who we want to work with. If there are things in your business that you really don't want to do, you get to outsource them or automate them, put systems in place. Come along to my workshop in Sydney.

my Tudor Booth workshop and I can work with you to automate some of those things that you don't like doing. Build a team around you and that doesn't have to be a big scary thing either. that those sorts of that mindset of I've got to be busy to be successful. I've got to be busy to be doing a good job. That's got to stop. Okay. That's holding you back. That's keeping you stuck here. The other challenge that I think teachers specifically come with is that we don't have a business background and so we often find it really difficult to focus on the business side of things. Now if you're listening to this podcast today I'm assuming you've either got a tutoring business or some sort of educational business or you want to start one. The word business is in there.

And if you own that, that makes you the business owner. So you have to think of this now with a business hat on. You might not like numbers, that's okay. You might not like marketing, that's okay. You might not like talking about your pricing, that's okay. But you're going to get better at those things. You're going to get more comfortable with those things. The more you practice them, the more you learn about them, and the more you realize how important they are.

for you to be successful in business. And success, you we've talked about this before, that doesn't necessarily mean how much money you make. For a lot of people, yes, financial profits are a big part of success because that gives us financial freedom and the ability to do the things that we want to do and live the life that we want to live. But it's also your time. You know, like I said, we're stepping back from working all day, all night, weekends and holidays.

that might not look like success to you. For some people it does because that's the way that they like to work. For the majority of us, we like to have the balance. So you need to walk into that scary, sometimes scary place of I am a business owner. If you're listening to this right now, I want you to say yourself, I am a business owner.

And it's not just a little business, it's not just a little side hustle like I said at the start if that's you, that's great but that's not what this episode is about. This is for people who want to go above and beyond where they are now. To be creating a business that gives them more income than they had in the classroom without all of that extra work and that burnout and all of the things that came with it. It is possible and you can do it. There are that many kids out there that need our support. There are so many parents looking for what you have to offer. You just need to know how to get it out there. You need to have a plan. Don't be winging it. Trust me, I tried that. It's a very slow way of making things work. Would not suggest it. So like I said, we need to get rid of that whole, I've got to be busy all of the time. I've got to always be working mindset and we need to bring in or take on the fact that I am a business person. I can learn this stuff and like I said before if it's stuff that you're not interested in doing you can outsource it, you can automate it, you can create a system for it, that's okay. You don't need to be and I would suggest not being the person who does all of the things in your business, not forever at least.

It's often really overwhelming for lot of tutoring businesses because, or business owners, because we are, and I say we because I've been here too with my own tutoring businesses, we're still operating with that teacher mindset, you know, to help everyone, to do everything. And we're not charging enough for that. And then we find it really difficult to talk about our pricing because we have these really big kind hearts. We're not used to talking about money. We're not used to talking about businesses. We're not used to saying, hey, you didn't show up. You still need to pay for that. They're not conversations that we're used to having. But the more you have them, the more comfortable you'll get with them. And the more you put your boundaries in place, like your cancellation policies, terms and conditions, even having conversations with parents upfront, the less you will even have to deal with those sorts of things.

But again, you have to have your business owner hat on. Take, treat yourself as a CEO and a CEO doesn't need to be the stereotypical, you know, vision that you have in your head. don't even think I'll need to describe it, but whatever you think of as a CEO, that doesn't have to be it. You can be a CEO. You are the CEO. It's not a scary title. Okay. And if, if it is for you, come up with something that works for you, but

know that there has to be a role that you've taken on now that is not just a tutor, not just a teacher. You've built your business around the doing. So this is another challenge that a lot of us have is when we're in the classroom, we're doing all of the time. Okay, we're teaching, we're planning, we're talking to parents, we're talking to students. It's all about the doing. It's

Very it's so less my wording here. It's really not about systems That's what I'm trying to say. We don't always go into the classroom and think how can I automate this? How can I systematize this and I mean it is difficult because we're often part of Bodies that tell us what to do and how to do things but now that you have your own business.

You get to choose how you want to do things. You get to create these systems. So this is something that makes it quite overwhelming and keeps us stuck in this teacher mindset is all we do is focus on the tutoring and the teaching. We're not giving ourselves time to work on our businesses. We're not saying, what of this am I good at? What tasks that I do are wasting my time?

Am I spending way too much time planning my lessons? Are my margins actually not even making me money? Maybe I'm not even making profit and I've been going for 12 months, 18 months. Maybe I've been in business for five years and I'm only paying myself $500 a week. Those sorts of conversations and those sorts of moments need to happen in your business. You have to be taking yourself out of the doing and start looking at what is happening, what's working, what's not working. Look at the strategy, what needs to change. And also, this is another challenge that we have that keeps us stuck, is trying to juggle everything. We should not be doing all of the things in our business. Now I know that when you start, you kind of do. You do all of the things. But six to 12 months in, you should be starting to outsource some of those things. Even if it's just as simple as getting a VA on board. And if you're not sure what a VA is, it's a virtual assistant. And if you're not sure how a virtual assistant can help you in your business, then definitely book a strategy call with me and we can work through that. But having someone like that on board can take so much pressure off you and give you back so much time so that you can A, get more students in if that's what you want, or B, take the time to work on your business so that you are working to grow it. Because if you just continue to stay in your business and you're constantly doing and you're do, do planning, teaching, talking to parents, planning, teaching, talking to parents, when you actually stop to say, what do I do next? How do I grow? Because I'm currently fully booked and I don't know what to do next. You're, you're being reactive here rather than proactive.

We wanna have time set aside to work on our business so that we're creating strategy so we know how we're going to grow. We know what steps to do to get there. So many tutors are running a business in a way that they're basically winning it. But what happens is it keeps them in this side hustle cycle. And like I said at the start, that's not where we want to be. We're reacting everything. We're saying yes to everything and then we're feeling exhausted and stuck and it's because of those things that I've mentioned. You know, the way that you're seeing yourself as just a teacher or just a tutor as opposed to a business owner. The way that busyness and working hard equals success. That's not true. That's definitely not true the way that you are operating, the way that you are constantly doing and not creating systems and not stepping back. And when I say stepping back, and this is something that I want to talk about now is the difference between working in your business, working on, because when we step back, that's when we work on our business. So working in your business, that's doing tasks, know, your tutoring, your prepping, your replying to parents.

You're chasing invoices, you're creating invoices, doing the admin. All of that is working in your business. Now for majority of people that takes up most of their time and for some people that's all they do. And if you're sitting here thinking that's literally all I do in my business, well then something needs to change because you are the 100 % the employee in your business and you do not want to be 100 % employee. Yes, like I said at the start, sure. But six to 12 months in, you should be stepping back and you should not be doing all of these things. You might be saying to me, but Kirsty, I still really want a tutor. I love tutoring and I'm never going to give it up. That's fine. That is not a problem. Not an issue at all. But if you don't have time set aside every week to work on your business then it's not going to grow. And that's just a simple fact. So working on your business, that's planning. So that could be planning for marketing campaigns that are coming up. It could be planning for your year ahead. It could be planning on how am I going to be getting more students? It could be looking at your pricing. So this should be reviewed every 12 months, but it could be cleaning up your pricing.

It could be comparing your pricing. could be updating your pricing, anything around pricing, looking at your systems. Some of you might have zero systems right now. And that means that you again are winging it. Everything is in your head. And if you wanted to step away, you could not. If you wanted to sell your business, you could not. If you wanted to, you know, duplicate replicate what you're doing now in another center and scale and grow your business you could not do those things if you don't have systems and probably automations in place. So systems need to be created in your business. Again if these are the sorts of things that are coming up for you and you're like my goodness I don't know what she's talking about I don't know how to create systems I don't know what systems I have then a couple of things running the tutor boost workshop in Sydney on the 24th of September if you do not have a ticket.

Let me know. I'll put the link in the bio as well. There are a couple of spots left at the time of recording this. And it's going to be a day where we do exactly that in your business. But the other option is jump on a call with me, jump on a next step call with me and I'll put the link in the bio, put the link in the show notes as well. But in that call, we can say, where is your business at? Because depending where you are in your business, your, systems that you're trying to create might be slightly different. In saying that,

I've worked with people who been in business for 10 years and they have no systems actually on paper and they physically cannot step away from their business because no one knows how their business runs other than them. So they're going back to the beginning and creating those systems from the start. So if you are at the start, this is the perfect time to be creating your systems. And if you're not, this is like a kick up the backside to say, hey, you need to create some systems. Working on your business also includes automations. Now, especially with AI these days now and the crazy rate that is evolving, you should be having automations happening in your business. And for those of you who do know me and have listened before and follow along, I am working on a brand new tutoring software for exactly this, to take away all of the nitty gritty admin scheduling, invoicing, all of those sorts of things. Just for tutoring businesses. So I'll pop the link in the show notes for that as well if you want to jump on the wait list. Boundaries, having boundaries, working on your boundaries. So sitting back and reflecting, you know, your months, your last six months and saying, okay, I noticed I was taking calls at six o'clock at night when I was trying to cook dinner or I was messaging parents backwards and forwards while I was trying to put my kids to bed. Taking the time to say that's not okay and changing your boundaries. That's also part of working on your business because it's all a part of how does your business run? Okay, it's not that inside your business, it's how does it run? And strategy, any sort of strategy, whether it's financial, marketing, customer service, all of those fall into working on your business. It's, I call it like the helicopter view type work. So when you sit back and you step away from your students and your parents and your staff, all of that other stuff is working on your business. And I like to call this CEO time. Okay. So those clients who work with me, my VIP clients and my profit pathway, clients, they're all have CEO time mapped out in their week every week. And I love it because that started, you know, some of them started with one week, one hour a week, And a lot of them, especially inside of our membership have got up to three to five to 10 hours a week that they're working on their businesses. That makes me so excited because that means they're doing things to help their businesses grow. They're not just staying stuck in their business because most tutors are going to spend 95 % of their time in their business. But if you want growth and freedom, it only comes when you step out. So, you know, you didn't leave the classroom to be glued to your laptop at 10 o'clock at night or be taking calls when you're trying to play with your kids. The goal isn't to be busy. It's not to have that much going on that you burn yourself out. It's to build something that works for you. Now I wanted to touch on a couple of signs because you might be listening to this guy, yeah, sounds great, that's not me. So I wanted to just share some signs that maybe you're thinking like a teacher and or not signs but little like I guess situations that you think you're so you're thinking like a teacher and then you can message me and say to me, yeah, Kirstie, that was me. I am still 100 % thinking like a teacher because I love to hear. So if you are over preparing for every session, now I've got clients who spend zero amount of time in their prep, as in they sit with their students and they are working backwards and forwards in that moment. Now not everyone can do that because of their experience or their confidence but also sometimes the way that they run their sessions. You just can't do that and that's fine. I've got other clients that have come to me and they're spending 45 minutes plus to plan a session. Once they start working with me, they're not spending that much time anymore. And if you are spending that much time, you, that's a sign, are seeing yourself as a teacher still. You're still thinking like a teacher, way too much. You work with these kids once a week. Okay, how much planning do you do? for a session that you teach at school or that you taught at school, think about how many sessions you did a day, like all of the planning that went into that for 25 to 30 odd kids. One student for a 45, 30, 60 minute session once a week. Most of us aren't even seeing that child again in the week. So there can be so much that's repeated.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel for every single session. Every time you see that student doesn't need to be brand new content, brand new resources. You need to be, you know, work smarter, not harder right here. Tutoring is not exactly like being in the classroom. So think about the differences. Think about what you actually need to provide for that session to make sure they get the most out of it.

Another sign, you're undercharging because you feel bad about raising your prices. And I spoke about this before. Often teachers have got really big, kind, beautiful hearts and that is fantastic. we work with kids and parents, so we have to, right? But you have to know you're running a business. And I just recorded a podcast.

Last week has launched, go check it out, episode 64 with Harry from First Education and he touches on this. You're running a business. You have to make money and making money isn't bad. You also shouldn't be making assumptions for what parents can and can't afford. So I will hear people say, I can't charge that much, my parents can't afford it. You don't know that and you don't know what parents are willing to spend on.

certain things. All you know is what you're worth, what you want to charge, what you need to charge and that's it. And you know that you are providing great quality services. Another sign is that you're feeling like you need permission to make changes or to raise your rates. So maybe you've got something that is happening in your business and often it is a change of prices and

you're scared to raise them and then when you do raise them it's like you're asking parents not telling parents it's your business you show other people what happens they will continue to stay with you because of what you provide for them and if you try to talk about your prices in a way where you're it sounds like you're asking for permission they're going to

subconsciously think you're not worth it because the way you're coming across isn't confident at all but also potentially doubt your worth. Another sign is that you're being available to parents 24-7 and I'm not going to lie I really struggled with this when I had my business and actually all of my businesses because it was in the time of when my kids were really little.

and it was a constant juggle. So I do get it. I really do get it. But have your rules, have your cutoffs, have your boundaries. When is my phone going into private only mode? When am I turning off all notifications? I have never ever had email alerts on my phone. I don't even know how people do that because it would drive me crazy. But people know that an email to me,

It's a 24 hour turnaround. Like if you email me today, I'll get back to you by tomorrow. And that's what works for me. I've got other clients who have the automations that go out and say, hey, thanks for your email. We've received it and we'll be in touch within the next day. Or we'll be in touch as soon as we can. You know, those sorts of things. And you can put those on your messages as well. Whatever works for you, but do not be available 24 seven.

That's the teacher mindset. And it's slight scarcity mindset. Like if I'm not there for my parents, well then they're not gonna be happy and then they're gonna leave. No, if you are constantly there for your parents, you're just saying to your parents, hey, you can message me whenever, you can call me whenever. And you are teaching them. It's just like when you've got little kids, you're teaching them how to act, how to behave. So.

Show them, be upfront with them, have it in your terms and conditions or say in the beginning, you can email me and we'll get back to you or message me, these are our hours, whatever works for you. But don't have that scarcity mindset. Be confident in who you are, what you do and have a safe space for you and your family and your friends and your private life. And my next point, which is sort of in line with that, is feeling guilty for setting boundaries.

Kirsty Gibbs (29:10.388)
You have to protect your family and your own personal space because no one else will do that for you.

Kirsty Gibbs (29:22.548)
In short, this is something that I think about teachers in business and this is in a lot of businesses but I find it mostly in tutoring businesses is we went to university and we were trained to serve students and all of our experience, all of our background has been on how to teach, how to get better results and yet we've come into business.

and we have no experience on running a business. No one has shown us how to run a business. We didn't learn that at uni. So a lot of the time people are winging it. And that's when I think we bury our heads in the sand with the business stuff because we're confident on how to teach. We know how to teach, which is ironic because we end up spending so much money on resources and PDs about how to improve our teaching. But that's the side of stuff that we are nailing. But it's the business side of things.

that we actually need to be putting more effort into. So what does it look like to think like a business owner? Well, making decisions based on strategy, not emotion. Charging based on value, not fear. Don't be scared of your prices. Protecting your time like it matters because it does, not just to you, but to your family as well. Planning ahead, automating and using tools to save your energy investing in support because doing it yourself and winging it will only get you so far.

Now, I thought before we finished up, I wanted to share some just some real life examples. So a brief mention of a client that I've been working with recently, there's actually quite a few of these ladies inside of the profit pathway. But and so this is kind of what's encouraged me to do this episode actually is the shift in mindset for these ladies from teacher to CEO.

From side hustle to I've got a business, I'm a business owner. Basically, I'm gonna say they actually, because yeah, I was just gonna talk about one, but off the top of my head, I've got three of them in my head right now. Allie, Kirsten, Haley, they're the top ones that come into my mind. Congratulations girls, you've made it to the podcast. But these ladies, they started out overwhelmed, some of them undercharging some of them working evenings and just doing too much, way too much. And again, I can relate here because, know, I've said this before, when I started my tutoring business, I was working till eight o'clock at night. We're not with students. I would just be at my center till eight o'clock at night. I have no idea what I was working on. And I don't think I had anything to show for the next day.

But I felt and I thought that I had to work hard and I had to work long hours to be busy, to keep myself busy to be successful. That's what these ladies were doing as well. They were just doing so much. I'm not sure, like there are so many things to juggle. Like what am I supposed to do? What do I not do? That's how they started out. But they've invested in support. So they've come in, they've started working with me, they're inside of our membership and the shift in mindset has been amazing. Nearly every single one of them has raised their prices and to be fair, most of my clients have raised their prices within six months that we started working together and they feel comfortable doing that and guys, they're not losing students when they do it. They have set boundaries, put boundaries in place. A lot of them have actually brought staff on, they're automating things, set up systems.

And quite a few of them now, well, this is why they're brought on staff because they're fully booked and now they're able to bring staff on to take students themselves. The next step for a couple of them is now looking at, okay, and again, this is the working on my business. How much is it creating? How much profit is it creating for me to have a staff member? And then we're starting to look at the different types of services that we can offer and the pricing and the staff wages and all of those sorts of things. And obviously for some of you starting out, that's a little way down the track, but that is the working on your business part when you get to those next levels. And that brings with it insight, it brings confidence, brings, it actually oozes confidence. When I talk to these ladies on the phone now, it's like I'm talking to different people and it's really, really cool because they've got to a point where they know their worth.

They know that they're going to get students even if they increase their prices. They know that their students are going to stay even if they're not jumping on answering text messages, phone calls straight away. They know that they're providing amazing services and their business is starting to feel organized which is freeing up space for them mentally and physically.

So I really want you to think about where is your head at in your business? Are you, you know, have you realized that maybe you're still stuck in that teacher mode and you are maybe not stepping into the business owner role enough? Maybe you're focusing too much on your students and not enough on your business growth. And that's okay. Like I said,

I was there too and most people are there. But please, if you've realised this now, don't stay stuck there. So if you realised it and you're ready to start building your business, then I wanted to share, and I've touched on it a little bit here, a couple of options. So the Tudor Boost workshop in Sydney is actually the day before the ATA conference. So the 24th of...

September so if you're already coming to Sydney for that come a day earlier come and work with me and some amazing other Tutoring business owners. It's a small group hands-on workshop will map out your systems your offers your structure your pricing and Get you organized and get you in control. Okay, At the space of recording this sorry at the time of recording this I've got a couple of spots left because it is only a small group But I'll put the link in the show notes so you can check it out if there's still places then I would love to have you there. But the other thing is you've got an option to book in, I'm going to share this link as well for a free next steps call with me. So if you can't make the workshop or you're just feeling a bit stuck and you're not sure what to focus on next, book a free next steps call. I'll help you identify one to two quick wins depending on how much we go into your business, that you can take away and act on. So quick wins means things like here, take this, here, take this, and go and do those things and you will see a difference. And we'll also talk about how I might be able to support you further inside of my memberships and my coaching program. So it's a good conversation to have with someone like myself who's been there and done it before.

And it's also an opportunity to see what it's like to work with me. So I'll put that in the show notes. So just to wrap up two things that you can go and do to work with me. If this has resonated with you today, join me at the Tudor Boost workshop in Sydney or book a free next steps call with me. I mean, why wouldn't you do that anyway? Cause it's free. So just jump on a book and we can have a chat. But if today did resonate with you and

you want to reach out, want to chat some more, then I would love for you to leave a review. I'd love for you to subscribe and also walk away knowing you don't have to keep winging it. You do not have to stay stuck. Yes, start of business is hard. There is a lot on and I mean, it's a roller coaster. Business world is a roller coaster. There are ups and downs, but you can't keep doing business with a teacher mindset.

You need to take on that CEO role. You need to think like a business owner. You need to act like a business owner. And that doesn't mean you lose sight of your students. That doesn't mean that you don't care about your families and your staff. It means you're smarter about the way you do things. And in a lot of cases, it actually means you care more because you're able to impact more kids, you're able to employ more staff, and you're able to scale and grow your business.