Teaching Freelance
From classroom teacher to independent educator
Practical advice for teachers and tutors who want to work for themselves, build a successful tutoring business, or set up their own school.
Adam Pernak - director, Teaching Freelance
You have the teaching skills. You have the experience. You know how to help students learn.
But how do you turn those skills into a successful independent business?
How do you find your first clients, decide what to charge, attract a steady stream of students, teach online or face to face, and build a business that gives you greater freedom and control over your working life?
And if your ambitions go further, how do you establish your own school or education company?
That’s what Teaching Freelance is here to help you do.
Welcome to Teaching Freelance
Teaching Freelance is for teachers and tutors who want to take greater control of their professional lives by working independently.
Perhaps you’re an experienced teacher considering a move into private tutoring. Maybe you’re already tutoring but want to find more students, increase your income or make your business more sustainable. Or perhaps you’re thinking bigger: setting up an online education business, opening a private school or building a company that employs other teachers.
Wherever you are on that journey, you’ll find practical ideas, informed advice and insights designed to help you make progress.
This isn’t about promising overnight success or pretending that running a business is easy. It’s about understanding what it takes to make independent teaching work — and learning from experience rather than having to figure everything out for yourself.
What you’ll find here
1. Starting your freelance teaching business
Learn how to move from employment to self-employment, identify your market, choose the right services to offer and build a business around your teaching strengths.
2. Finding students and clients
Explore practical ways to attract new students, reach parents and learners, develop your reputation and generate enquiries without relying entirely on tutoring platforms or word of mouth.
3. Pricing your teaching and increasing your income
Understand how to approach fees, communicate your value and think strategically about your earning potential. Teaching independently offers opportunities, but making it financially worthwhile requires more than simply charging an hourly rate.
4. Online and face-to-face tutoring
Discover the opportunities and challenges of different teaching models, from online lessons and private tuition to in-person teaching and more structured educational services.
5. Building an education business
For those who want to go beyond working alone, we’ll explore the bigger questions involved in establishing a school or education company, developing a sustainable operation and employing other teachers.
6. The business side of teaching
Teaching expertise is essential, but so are the practicalities of running a business. We’ll consider the decisions, systems and strategies that help independent educators manage their work professionally and build for the future.
7. Lessons from real experience
I’ll share insights drawn from three decades in education, including establishing and running a private language college and building an online tutoring business. The aim is to help you think more clearly about your options, avoid common pitfalls and make better-informed decisions.
Why subscribe?
Because you shouldn’t have to work everything out from scratch.
Most teachers spend years developing their classroom skills. Far fewer receive guidance on how to market their services, win clients, set prices, manage a business or turn their professional expertise into an independent career.
Yet these are precisely the skills that can make the difference between struggling to find enough work and building a sustainable business.
Teaching Freelance aims to bridge that gap.
As a subscriber, you’ll receive practical advice and useful ideas to help you:
Move towards working independently with greater confidence.
Find and attract the right students.
Make more informed decisions about pricing and services.
Develop your tutoring business beyond simply exchanging hours for money.
Explore opportunities to create your own school or education company.
Learn from the experience of someone who has already built and operated education businesses.
My focus is on useful, considered content that you can apply to your own circumstances. Not generic motivational advice, but ideas grounded in the realities of teaching and running an education business.
If you’re serious about building a future as an independent educator, this site is for you.
A little about Adam
My name is Adam Pernak and I’ve spent 30 years working in education, as a teacher and as someone who has built and run education businesses.
I hold a PGCE in English from the University of Cambridge and have worked in different educational settings, including teaching English as a foreign language and teaching English to GCSE and A-level students.
In 2002, I established Leeds Languages Ltd, a private English-as-a-foreign-language college in Leeds. Over the next eight years, the college taught more than 3,500 students from 35 different countries and employed 15 teachers. It became a successful business, which I sold in 2010.
That experience taught me a great deal about what it takes to build an education business: attracting students, delivering a worthwhile educational experience, employing teachers and managing an organisation beyond the classroom.
In 2010, I established Leeds Tutors Ltd, an online tutoring business that I ran for eight years. During that time, I taught GCSE and A-level English as well as English as a foreign language.
I’ve also taught in Moscow, Russia, as an EFL specialist at a prestigious international school.
My career has given me experience of education from several perspectives: teaching students directly, working with international learners, running a private college, employing teachers and operating an online tutoring business.
I started Teaching Freelance to share the knowledge and insights gained through those experiences with teachers and tutors who want to develop their own independent careers or build something of their own.
I know that being an excellent teacher and running a successful teaching business are two different things. I also know that combining the two can open up opportunities that aren’t always obvious when you’re working within a traditional teaching role.
My aim is to help you understand those opportunities and approach them with greater clarity and confidence.
Who is Teaching Freelance for?
This publication is particularly suited to:
Qualified teachers considering private tutoring or self-employment.
Existing tutors who want to grow their client base and improve their business.
English language teachers interested in independent or online teaching.
Educators who want more control over their working lives.
Teachers and tutors who aspire to establish their own school, tuition centre or education company.
You don’t need to have a business plan or know exactly where you’re heading. You simply need an interest in exploring what might be possible beyond your current role.
Join me
Teaching can be a rewarding profession, but there are many ways to build a career around your skills and experience.
You might want the flexibility of working for yourself, the satisfaction of building a loyal client base, the opportunity to teach on your own terms or the challenge of creating an education business of your own.
Whatever your ambitions, I hope Teaching Freelance will provide ideas, guidance and a useful perspective as you work towards them.
Subscribe to Teaching Freelance to receive practical advice, business insights and ideas for building your future as an independent teacher or tutor.
And if you’ve ever thought, I could do this for myself, you’re in the right place.
Let’s explore how.
