Online Literacy Tutoring Proves Profitable

What It’s About

An educator predicts the importance of online education.

Words of Wisdom

Joanne shares some fun thoughts, “the formula for luck comes down to five things: Make the right choices, hold the right behaviors, practice the perfect habits, stay consistent and keep your momentum.”

Fun Fact

Online learning platforms are already making the changes Joanne envisions for the future of her business. Founded in 2018, Koala is one such program where kids turn up to their lessons as an avatar.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1879
If you’re a K through 12 teacher, the idea of making multiple six figures as an educator might sound impossible, but for Joanne Kaminiski this is her life. And she’s still pinching herself. Because it’s hard to believe, but the journey to get here was one that took her twelve years.

So how did she seize the day? To find out, we need to go back to school.

In 2010, Joanne left her long-standing job as a literacy teacher because she no longer wanted to work where she felt undervalued. She wanted more flexibility, more money, and it didn’t help that her job duties back then were 20% teaching-related (what she enjoyed) and 80% “everything else”—meetings, observations, and conferences, which contributed to stress as well as taking up so much time.

After walking away from the role, Joanne then made a number of earnest attempts at starting her own business before things started to pay off.

One night, lying in bed, her best idea yet popped into her head. “Maybe I can teach kids how to read online,” she recalls. No more eBay. No more jewelry. Back to her first love, teaching.

Now, this was the pre-Zoom era, before the days of widespread remote learning. In fact, the only common platform was Skype. Would the kids even be able to see the words on the screen? Joanne was skeptical. So she tested it out in her living room with two computers. It worked just fine!

To start, Joanne’s rate was $40 an hour. One that she believed to be a good one. It wasn’t long before a combination of bandit signs and good old fashioned word-of-mouth helped Joanne to completely book out her work week. So she raised her price. And, before she knew it, she was booked up again. So she raised her prices again. And again, until eventually her rate was $100 dollars an hour.

Before long, Joanne had another bright idea. “I should teach other teachers online to tutor their kids online!” Like a Russian doll, Joanne was able to spawn a side hustle within her side hustle. She called it Online Tutor Coach.

Today, Joanne spends half of her time coaching adults and the other half teaching children. She recalls one of her first adult students who ended up earning $30,000 in their first three months, a landmark that took Joanne almost a decade to achieve.

Today, Online Tutor Coach hasn’t stopped evolving. When imagining what it will become, Joanne’s description is reminiscent of one of her past missed steps: online travel teaching. Except this time it’s 2022 and technological advancements in virtual reality mean that this concept might be possible.

Anything is possible, with the right idea and the hard work it takes to bring that idea into reality.

 


 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"The formula for luck comes down to five things: Make the right choices, hold the right behaviors, practice the perfect habits, stay consistent and keep your momentum."
—Joanne Kaminiski #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Peace Corps Alum Tutors U.S. Military Recruits

What It’s About

A returned Peace Corps volunteer helps military recruits with their exams.

Words of Wisdom

Mickey says that when it comes to tutoring, “Persistence is key, and you ALWAYS get more than you give. If you give as much as you can, you’ll likely get more than you need.”

Fun Fact

The National Guard is known as the “civilian soldiers.” They are meant to have full-time jobs, and help when needed. More than 50,000 National Guard Members helped during the clean-up of Hurricane Katrina, and thousands of them have aided with the COVID-19 response.

[SOURCE]

Notes from Chris

Episode 1634
Mickey Gamonal [gamma-knoll] got a degree in secondary education specifically so he could join the Peace Corps right after graduating from college.

He loved his two years of serving in Morocco so much that when it was done, he joined Teach For America. It’s a nonprofit organization focused on ensuring every child in the United States receives a quality education.

Unfortunately, this second service commitment didn’t last long. The teacher burnout hit hard, and Mickey needed a change.

But first, a friend asked for help studying for a test called the ASVAB. This is an important test: it evaluates soldier’s skills, and determines what jobs they’re eligible for.

He began to talk to army recruiters in Las Vegas, his hometown. They were impressed with his work ethic, and the conversations led to him tutoring some of their newly enlisted soldiers skills in English and math.

Mickey knew he could help. The test focused on 7th grade English and math knowledge, and as a veteran middle school teacher, this was exactly up his alley.

This started in the summer of 2020, and by November, he quit his full-time job as a security officer. Mickey knew November was a good month to quit, since he got three paychecks that month instead of two. He couldn’t stop thinking about his business, now called Gamonal Tutors, and he wanted to go all-in.

It helped that he’d recently started breaking even, meaning that he was making the same $1800/month from tutoring that he used to make from security. More importantly, the ability to grow his income over time is totally worth it to Mickey. As a security officer, there wasn’t much room for salary growth, but by running his own business, the possibilities were much more expansive.

Mickey hopes to make Captain before his National Guard six year contract is over. Meanwhile, he’s delving into online learning, eventually hoping to hire more tutors to learn the ropes.

 


 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Mickey and his tutoring service at his website, GamonalTutors.com.

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Persistence is key, and you ALWAYS get more than you give. If you give as much as you can, you’ll likely get more than you need."
—Mickey Gamonal #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

English Teacher Writes His Way Into All-Star Tutoring

What It’s About

How an English teacher became NYC’s best writing tutor according to Yelp.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Although John was able to tutor many different subjects, he found the best success when he niche’d down and marketed himself as Mr. WritingTutor. As John says, “When you say you specialize in everything, people know you specialize in nothing.”

Fun Fact

Although John is an English teacher, he isn’t naturally good at grammar. After being reprimanded by his administrators, he dove into grammar. He learned so much that he even published a book about it, called 50 Grammar Rules Everyone Should Know.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1226
John Castellano was working as an English teacher in New York City. As much as he loved his job, he needed more money to support his family.

As he thought about his options, he realized there might be some advantages to working as an independent tutor. For example, he could set his prices based on the market, and shift them easily in response to supply and demand. There would be no fixed ceiling.

But what kind of tutoring would he do? He hit the books and found that SAT tutors made the most money. There was only one problem – John didn’t do very well on the SAT.

Back in high school, John had scored in the 50th percentile on his SAT. And even though it had been years since then, and he had a lot of experience as a teacher, he knew that without a good score himself, he’d have a credibility gap. John also knew what he had to do next. As a 32-year-old, he signed up to take the SAT again.

This time, he scored in the 90th percentile. From there, he invested $3,000 in magazine advertisements in order to start getting clients – but he got zero in return. Unfortunately, this ended up being an expensive lesson to learn. He decided to switch his technique, and invested $150 into a Squarespace website and another $50 into SAT books.

This time, he scored in the 99th percentile of test-takers in the writing section. From there, he decided to specialize in writing and market his business as “MrWritingTutor.com” instead of just as an SAT tutor. By niche’ing down, he gained a lot more clients. As John says, “When you say you specialize in everything, people know you specialize in nothing.”

In his first year, he charged $60 an hour for general homework help and $120 an hour for standardized test prep. A year later, he raised his homework prices to $70 an hour. Eventually, he tried to raise it to $80 an hour, but he found that many new clients would not call him back with those prices. Through testing it over time, John found his threshold.

Now, John takes home thousands of dollars in extra earnings per month. In his best months, he earns anywhere between $2,000 to $4,000 just from tutoring. Not only that, but this side hustle has helped John get better at his career. He is constantly sharpening his teaching skills.

 


 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

Quote of the Day
"When you say you specialize in everything, people know you specialize in nothing."
—John Castellano #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started Here!

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau