When one says “educator,” the first thing that comes to mind is probably the traditional image of teachers wearing eyeglasses in schools with a blackboard behind them.
But contrary to that stereotypical image, educators can become entrepreneurs.
Yes, you can use your teaching skills and expertise to train learners in a field you’re knowledgeable about and do a business out of it!
This article talks all about this growing business, and if you’re a teacher or passionate about teaching, you might want to consider being an edupreneur!
What Is Edupreneurship? (Education + Entrepreneurship)
We won’t make it difficult to understand. It’s basically educator or education, and entrepreneurship merged.
Typing the word “edupreneur” will prompt your spell-checkers and underline the word in red! But don’t think that this isn’t a legitimate occupation – many edupreneurs made and are making good money out of this profession.
It doesn’t have to be too specific or complicated either.
Think of it this way: if you can charge someone for your educational services for imparting your knowledge regarding a certain topic or for selling courses you created – you’re already considered edupreneurs!
Here are some familiar terms and examples that may give you a better idea:
- Course creators
- Book author
- Seller of learning resources or models for research purposes
- Life coaches
- Online educators
- Motivational speakers
- Freelance writers and editors
- Tutors
- Consultants
As long as you’re fulfilling certain learning needs of your target audience, you’re qualified!
Now, What Makes A GOOD Edupreneur?
After clearing that up, it’s now time to clarify that being an edupreneur – and a good and effective one at that – is not easy at all.
People may think it doesn’t take effort or innovation to be successful because it’s a remote job.
This is an unfair misconception to place on educators, and we’re here to clear that up.
We’ve prepared the simple acronym G.O.O.D to make it easier to remember! A good edupreneur should be G.O.O.D.!
Grit
Like any other profession, you need to have grit from an educator to an entrepreneur and everything in between, especially if you’re still starting.
Selling courses, books, services, and resources are not easy. You’ll need to find your pool of students first and build that trust before people can be confident in paying you good money.
From continuous learning to sales and marketing, you’ll need the grit to survive the long road.
Offers to Help and Support, Always
As a teacher, you know more than anyone else that even the simplest form of support can encourage a person to excel and learn.
This shouldn’t go away once you become an entrepreneur.
In fact, this is one trait you should implement all the more. A good edupreneur has the heart to offer the help that your students – now your clients – need for development and growth.
Open to Try New Things
To be good, you should also be open to exploring ways to improve.
Always remember that in this big world (cliche, we know, but hear us out), there are thousands of techniques to try.
You’ll meet different kinds of people and feel challenged to test out varying model theories and strategies. You’ll need to learn different things, such as building your website if needed, and you’ll be faced with questions and many others!
If you’re not open and let intimidation get the best of you, it’s hard to be effective, and you won’t boost your sales either.
Discipline
Since most of the work here is “behind-the-scenes” or remote, not proper discipline could keep you off track.
It’s easy to lose inspiration and become lazy since you no longer have a boss or public school district administrators to report to. Here, you’re your own boss!
No matter how passionate you are with your expertise, entrepreneurs who don’t have the right discipline will go off-course. Trust us.
How to Become a Successful Edupreneur (T.I.P.S.)
Each of you will have different ways to build your edupreneur career.
You have your own strengths and expertise, and we’re not here to dictate every nitty-gritty step you should do. We’re not in high school!
Instead, we’ll give you our best tips and tricks that worked for many others and are now enjoying the sweet taste of success. You don’t have to do all of them, only those that apply to you. But if you can apply all, then that’s great.
Topic Selection
Of course, to kickstart everything, you need to start with a topic or an overarching concept. If you’re having a hard time, it helps to dwell longer on this step.
- What field can you teach with confidence?
- What is your passion or desire? (A lot of edupreneurs start teaching topics that suit their passion!)
- What curriculum do you want to focus on? K-12? College?
- What fits your knowledge best?
- What’s that one thing that you can do for a living?
It would also help to put up online courses for a teaching field that isn’t too saturated yet and good for lifelong learning. In building businesses, you have to be someone who can supply the demand that’s not yet largely provided.
It doesn’t have to be specifically a subject matter too. It can be a general scope that umbrellas what you want to do. We’ll throw in a list of random words to help jumpstart your brainstorming process!
- World history
- Development of courses for universities
- Writing books
- School modules
- Consultation services for schools
Identify Your Target Audience
We’re certain that now successful entrepreneurs and marketers will agree with us. The most important step is to identify your target audience first and plan the rest from there.
- How old are your target students?
- What is the learning level?
- Where do these individuals live?
- What are the goals and desires of these people?
- What learning resources are they looking for?
- What kind of teachers do they need?
- What do these people value?
Imagine it this way: Before a restaurant crafts their menu, they need to know what kind of customers they get. If they open in Chinatown, it won’t make sense to serve exotic food.
Understanding these specifics will also help you craft better products and services that match their personalities. For example, what will capture the attention of the people in New York City better? Or are you targeting a more global market?
Pick a Platform
Next is to choose a platform where people all over the world can reach you or ask questions easily.
In business, it’s crucial that others can reach you as easily as possible. If you’re teaching, it can be where your courses or book are displayed for all users to see.
- Social media platform
- Educational websites
- Course platforms
- Email address
People you deal with can also leave reviews here for public platforms, which is good marketing for your business. Each good review adds value to your success!
Sell Like A Marketer
Don’t forget that it’s also important for edupreneurs to sell. Get into the mindset that you’re no longer part of school districts, and you’re now also a business owner.
The first key step is to figure out your main selling point that’s unique from the status quo, and from there, figure out the strategy that works for YOU.
In marketing, this is called your competitive advantage.
It doesn’t have to be rocket science or extravagant. Your advantage could be as simple as you live near your students, they can access you better.
As we’ve said, the industry for edupreneurs is growing rapidly in the United States. It helps to have your own unique marketing proposition such as:
- Which subject is your area of expertise?
- Are these areas of expertise a niche field?
- Do you have a technique and best practices that other teachers don’t implement?
- Perhaps, your rates and fees?
- Are you members of an accredited organization or have an education certification?
- What kind of schedule do you have?
- Do you use the best website or platform?
- Are your services the best?
Reasons Why You Should Become an Edupreneur
Honestly, there are a lot of reasons as to why you should consider being an edupreneur. We’ll list some of our best reasons!
The Money is Good!
We won’t sugarcoat it anymore – yes, it’s a good business to have. Some pursue this for their passive income stream.
First, because your expertise is not something many others can copy, people would find paying you a higher amount of money worth it. They know there’s value to your knowledge.
Next, since the bulk of work comes with preparing and crafting, you don’t have to sell it as actively.
But keep in mind this doesn’t happen overnight. It’s still a business, after all, and you’d have to hustle in the beginning to build trust and gain a loyal following.
You Are Your Own Boss
Now that you’re an entrepreneur, you are your own supervisor! Unlike in schools, you now have full control of your income, schedule, learning objectives, modules, and the likes.
The business is yours, and it’s up to you how you make your way up to success. It’s quite exciting, really!
You’re Furthering Education Beyond Traditional School
Some students are not as fortunate to pursue formal education in traditional schools.
With other educators, like you, who make learning more accessible, you’re helping them while you grow your business too. It’s technically a win-win!
For sure, your individual courses or learning materials won’t be as expensive as student loans and school tuition fees, right?
You’re doing a good thing! If you’re already in a better position where you can give away some courses for free – then why not?
Be part of the learning revolution!
But here’s something to note: don’t be scared to charge people for your learning materials and teaching services. That’s why it’s important to check out our T.I.P.S so you’ll know how to gauge your pricing and operations!
Some CONS With Edupreneurship
But of course, we also want to give you the full picture.
Nothing in this world is perfect, and of course, there will be cons in this professional field. But don’t worry, we can say that the good outweighs the bad.
- Working alone (or with a smaller team) can be overwhelming.
- The beginning is difficult. You may feel a little hopeless.
- You have to submit your own documents (government, authorities, etc.)
- You’ll miss the company of your co-teachers in schools.
- The industry is saturated. Competition is a little intense.
[SUMMARY] G.O.O.D and T.I.P.S.
All these might be too much to take in. Here’s a TL;DR section so you can have a more convenient reference to look back to or to refresh your memory.
But still, we highly encourage you to read through everything above for a more detailed explanation!
What Is Edupreneurship?
It’s a crossover of education and entrepreneurship.
How to Be a Good Edupreneur? [G.O.O.D.]
Remember the acronym G.O.O.D.
- Grit
- Offering support and help
- Openness to trying new things
- Discipline
How to Be a Successful Edupreneur? [T.I.P.S.]
Remember the acronym T.I.P.S.
- Topic selection
- Identify your target audience
- Pick a platform
- Sell like a marketer
Why Should You Become an Edupreneur?
- Income is good (once established)
- You are your own boss
- You’re furthering learning and educating beyond traditional schooling.
CONS of Becoming an Edupreneur
- Difficult to start and grow
- Saturated market
- Autonomy also means you’re in charge of EVERYTHING.
Final Thoughts
If you have the resources and capacity to be an edupreneur, we say go for it!
The advantages definitely outweigh the cons, and it’s an experience that will kickstart lifelong learning.
Even if this doesn’t become your permanent job, we’re certain you’ll pick up many things along the way that can help you further your future careers!
