8 reasons why you should NOT become a freelance EFL teacher

To celebrate my second anniversary on WordPress and almost two years of venturing into an EFL solo teaching world, I thought it was only appropriate to write down some of my observations and warn other English teachers about working for themselves.

What better way to celebrate my 2nd anniversary on this platform than writing a clickbait post? Don’t blame me! This idea came from English Writing Teacher who recently wrote an article titled 15 Tips for Writing a good blog. She made me click her post, and I hope my title also made you look!

If you have ever looked at your teaching contract and considered improving your working conditions, think about it again. I stood up to my employer and after endless job interviews, ultimately decided to work for myself. Without any further ado, here is a list of reasons that will make you regret becoming an EFL freelance teacher (especially in Spain).

1. You’ll never be able to find an hourly rate that satisfies you

Before going freelance, I thought that the most I could get was 12 euros/hour maximum. The second you start looking for a job, a typical hourly rate in Spain is 10 euros/hour – non-negotiable. No matter the location or the type of contract, it is rare for academies to offer anything more than that. Last month I started questioning my comfortable position on Preply and started looking for jobs at academies. The best rate I saw was 15 euros/hour with a B2B contract, which means you need to take into account that 15% of your income will be taxed. To put things into perspective currently, my hourly rate on Preply is $30 ($24.6 after commission). This means that most likely I will not be working with many (or any) academies unless I get a higher hourly rate, or a full-time indefinite contract, which is unlikely.

2. You’ll never have the possibility to teach groups and levels you don’t like

After I got the CELTA and proved to myself and employers that I wasn’t only capable to teach adults, but I was also good at it, the first thing I was told after receiving a job at an academy was that I got an opportunity to teach all the levels! What a joy! There’s truly nothing more motivating than teaching groups that give you nothing but a headache. I’ve always believed that all learners deserve a professional appropriate for their level and age, including children. Unfortunately, many academies treat children’s lessons as a cash grab, and most of your groups will consist of YLs. After becoming a freelancer, I taught 0 children. Why? Because for the first time in my life, I was able to stand my ground and decide who I wanted to work with. Now, before having a trial lesson, I make sure that my students know that I don’t teach YLs, and only work with adolescents and adults. Just to let you know how traumatic teaching YLs was for me, I still occasionally start humming Hello! by Super Simple Songs.

3. You’ll work in the summer (if you want)

It’s typical for academies to give temporary part-time contracts, leaving you with all that free and unpaid time over the summer! I was lucky enough to avoid this situation at my first academy, which was happy with the way I worked and offered me a full-time contract at the end of the school year. My luck ran out at my second academy, which not only didn’t offer any work in the summer but also informed me 2 weeks before the beginning of the school year that I had no place to come back to. This situation can be avoided if you start gathering students over the summer and become self-employed in September or October. It sounds like a chore, and don’t get me wrong, it is, but long-term you’ll be pleased that your future doesn’t depend on anyone. There’s no better feeling than being responsible for your work, and deciding when and how long you want to take off. Of course, it is easier said than done, but once you have a few stable students, you’ll see how easy it is to take a few weeks off and come back to a fully-booked calendar.

4. You’ll be in charge of your free time

Following the previous thought – as a freelancer, you will be the one who decides when and how many hours a day you work. At academies, the time off is not all that horrible. You’ll always get all the holidays, weekends and summers off. It’s up to you whether you want to spend that time on lesson preparation or relaxation. On the other hand, as an independent teacher, you may have a lot of work, but there will be plenty of moments when you’ll question if what you do makes any sense. To that, I can say just give it some time and be patient. Once you have enough regular students, you’ll be able to choose when you want to take some time off, and your students will understand and be more than happy to see you come back fresh as a daisy. It’s easy to forget to have some time for yourself, as every hour counts towards your paycheck, but don’t neglect this precious moment. Enjoy the freedom, take cheaper flights, and work from your family and friends’ houses.

5. You’ll never do things that aren’t your job

So you signed a contract to teach 16 hours a week. Then why are you attending unpaid staff meetings and doing the job that belongs to a DoS? When working at an academy, you’ll have to write some evaluations every couple of months and speak with parents. You’ll often have to correct exams and homework in your free time too, but these things feel way more natural than creating a syllabus for upcoming years, choosing coursebooks, or going over placement tests and deciding the best group for each student. I can’t tell you how many times I sat at meetings thinking that I shouldn’t even be a part of this discussion as I had nothing to add to the conversation, or listening about summer courses which I knew I wasn’t going to be a part of. A complete waste of time! As a freelancer, you’ll have a choice of whether you want to do any of those activities. This includes thinking of new ideas for social media or finding online secretly taken pictures of you from your lessons. Being on social media is a choice that is taken away, the second you sign the contract.

6. You’ll never have to follow a coursebook (if you don’t want to)

Having a readily available coursebook is a blessing. It takes away the stress of thinking of new topics and worrying about not following any logical order. Here I need to give it to some academies – they can provide you with ready-made lesson plans, so you don’t have to waste any of your free time on preparation. However, it’s not that common to see. For me, the biggest benefit of not having to follow a coursebook is that I get to bring in some of my lesson plans and try them out on my students. In this way, I get to check them out before I write about them and upload the final version on my blog. Even though some academies may encourage you to prepare some themed lesson plans from time to time, the reality is that you most likely won’t have time to do it with all your groups. Even if you do, you need to make sure that you finish the book by the end of the school year. After all, the students paid for the book and want to finish it by June.

7. You’ll start understanding taxes

All of the points until now were meant to be taken with a grain of salt – this one is serious. It was the most stressful part of becoming self-employed in Spain. The process isn’t too complicated, and if you have all the documents, a social number and a digital signature, you can become self-employed in less than 48 hours. All you need to do is find an accountant who will guide you through this process. I found a Spanish accounting company that works with remote workers and made this very simple. You need to understand that it isn’t cheap, and you’ll finally understand why so many companies prefer to pay under the table, rather than put it directly into your bank account. Make sure you have enough savings before you register as self-employed as you may regret this decision almost immediately. However, once you start understanding the system and how much money you need to pay each month, you will soon realize that raising your prices and setting aside 15% of your monthly salary will help you deal with this tax-related stress. Despite paying my accountant, social security and taxes (every quarter), I still can make more money than working at an academy.

8. You won’t have work colleagues

I’m not going to lie. At first, it was hard to be alone without anyone to talk to and ask for advice if I needed it. However, not having work colleagues can be fixed by joining websites like WordPress, or social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, where you can find many other teachers in the same situation. I found my crowd on Twitter, and whenever I need any help, I know that I can turn for some advice over there and in no time, many respectable and knowledgeable EFL teachers will help me with my issue. Let’s be real, having co-workers and a boss isn’t always all that great and in this way, you can meet someone you like! The one thing that I do miss is having peer observation and feedback. When you work alone, you tend to fall into a teaching routine, and at times you may feel like you aren’t developing. Don’t worry, as there are many ways in which you can still improve your teaching skills, for example, by recording your lessons and sending them to professional teachers and teacher trainers who will be more than happy to assist you as needed.

If you made it that far, I hope you enjoyed this sarcasm-filled post and understood that even though being a freelance EFL teacher isn’t too easy and comes with many challenges and unexpected expenses, it’s not all that bad. I believe that working on my own opened my eyes and helped me realize that I can find students, build a good rapport and keep them around for a long time, without any help from academies. It’s not all smooth sailing, and there are many moments of self-doubt, but overall there are more benefits than drawbacks. I can only hope that after those two years of being independent, it’ll only get better!

Are you a freelance EFL teacher? If not, would you ever consider becoming one?