Travel as a Business
As former and current TEFL teachers, many of us have a good knowledge about travel. We have been many places on the globe and know how to find a good deal on travel. I would go so far as to say that we may even be more knowledgeable about actual travel than many travel agents. The travel knowledge we have each gained is enough to fill a travel guidebook.
In an effort to find TEFL alternatives, travel as a business is one area that shouldn’t be overlooked. No longer are you confined to an office if you want to work a tourism or travel related business. Thanks to the internet, you can start your own tourism or travel business right from where you are right now.
How so? It’s real easy to start up a travel blog and then get some good affiliate offers. Before long, you can become an expert on a particular location and reap the rewards that come from giving personal advice with a tilt towards those offers that pay you well. This is just one of many topics I will cover in depth on my next upcoming project.
Dust Your Sandles Off
Filed under: Jobs, Personal Growth, Protect Yourself, View from the Watchtower
I think many of us can feel very downtrodden after experiencing a bad experience in a job. It’s not unusual, especially when you give everything you’ve got to a job that then spits you out like you are worthless. It’s just not right. I think there’s some debate on where the blame lies, but if you let their bad actions affect you in a negative way, then you are at fault.
You may not have the ability to change the way they wronged you, but you do have the ability to change your own reaction. If you have taken precautions and you have done right by Heavenly Father, then there is no reason to take it upon you. In fact, that’s what the evil one would like you to do. The evil one wants you to take that anger upon you and let it dwell inside of you.
Don’t take upon the anger, dust your sandles off and move on. Do warn others,report that you were wronged to the Watchman on the Tower so others can avoid the pit. But then move on, don’t dwell on the wrong. Don’t let it affect your relationships. If the wrong is affecting you, then you are at fault.
Private Class Guidelines
I can’t count the times I was asked to do private classes when I was abroad. I would choose carefully which private classes I took on based on how well the class would fit my schedule. For private classes that I accepted, I judged how much my free time was worth to me and charged accordingly.
I made sure that my private classes were lucrative for me. I may not have had a lot of private classes, but all of my private classes were worth it. In fact, while I taught in Mexico, most of my income came from private classes.
There are some obvious downsides to teaching private classes, but they can be reduced. The biggest problem is handling payment and it is followed closely by handling cancellations. I handle these based on my belief that private classes have several advantages for students, but those advantages shouldn’t focus on easier payment terms and easier cancellation terms. That’s why I came up with my guidelines for private classes. I doubt that these will work for you, but they should be a good base for coming up with your own guidelines.
1) All private classes are taught in the context of a course. A course has a set length of hours with at least several objectives to judge performance against.
2) All course payment is due up front.
3) Students are allowed one free last minute cancellation per course for sickness, meeting, etc. They are allowed 3 other cancellations, but they must be made at least 48 hours in advance. Anything above those limits are lost classes.
These terms have sometimes seemed strict to some students who have approached me for private classes, but private classes are business and I conduct them professionally. If a student is unable or unwilling to agree to the guidelines then I do not waste my time teaching them.
What guidelines do you use for your private classes?
Do you have insurance?
Insurance seems to be the hot button issue over on ELT World today. It seems that a teacher in Korea was involved in a house fire. It caused him severe burns, a huge medical bill and now it is being reported that it cost him his life. His employer didn’t provide him insurance and it has left his family with a huge medical bill.
What can I say? These employers and these recruiters bring over fresh graduates and lure them with all kind of fake promises and then the teacher is left to live in substandard housing and are not given proper benefits. I wish I could say it was something new or it was out of the ordinary, but TEFL teachers are vulnerable workers. Many of them lack proper insurance and in fact, they work for schools that would just as soon let them go than to use any available insurance.
Here’s my warning: If you are going abroad to teach. Don’t. If you don’t want to listen to me then please ask all the right questions, find a good school, have your own insurance and by all means always have an exit strategy. If you can’t immediately get enough cash to buy a ticket out of situation then you shouldn’t be in the TEFL game.
Do Something Else
So many people dwell on the past and all of the bad things that have befell them, but they end up doing nothing; instead of doing something else. See, believe it or not, when you are doing nothing, you are really doing something. You pushing yourself further away from your goals, you are letting life pass you buy. Without a doubt, when you are doing nothing, you are doing something.
It’s better to do something different. Don’t think about focusing on something different or think about doing something different, do it. Do something different. Take charge of your life, you don’t have to let someone decide what path you are going to take. You have free agency in life and you can exercise your own free agency by doing something different.
If you want to quit smoking, don’t stop smoking. Do something different. Find another activity to occupy your time. If you hate your career, don’t sit around complaining or search for the ultimate job that doesn’t exist, find a new career. Do it now, don’t wait.
In Business, Love, Life and whatever, stop doing nothing and start doing something else!