Joanne has been an online reading tutor since 2010 and teaches others how to start their own online tutoring business. She focuses on how to acquire clients and market their business. In her second year of teaching at a K-12 school, Joanne was chosen to train other teachers in the “Success for All Readers” program. The following year she was promoted again and started training the trainers.
Leaving a career in the school system:
When Joanne had her first kid, she knew the long hours weren't going to be a good fit for her so she took on the job of reading curriculum coordinator. Eventually, Joanne went back to school so she could be an even better expert in teaching reading. After moving to a different school for the same position, she felt the environment there was too toxic and left the school system but was very scared because she had three little kids.
Starting her online tutoring business:
Joanne started 5 different businesses trying to find her passion and next job, but none of them worked out great. Finally, she came up with the idea of online tutoring (which in 2010 was very novel). However, she got too caught up in preparing to start online tutoring that she forgot that she needed to market her business.
Joanne did an assessment with her students every three months and discovered she was able to move a kid 1 or 2 whole grade levels up in reading. After acquiring more and more clients, Joanne became even more skilled in her tutoring and business-running skills and began to raise her rates.Eventually, she was getting so booked because no one was refusing her offering prices so she raised her rates to $100 an hour and still has a waiting list of students.
Sean googled “how to start online tutoring” and Joanne came up! She is one of the online faces of how to do this. Joanne was frustrated from past experiences of interacting with people who were in the industry of teaching tutors, and wanted to do it cheaper, more ethically, and better.
Think outside the box and expand your skillset
If you think outside of the box, you can still have a great impact in the education world while also making more money and having financial security. Joanne has two six figure businesses and she had her first $30,000 month this year which is what she made total as a teacher in her first year!
When educators decide to start tutoring it is typically not their teaching skills getting in the way of success, it is their marketing skills and they are not able to acquire enough clients. Joanne gives a bunch of tips on how to advertise and get your name out there.
Joanne created a jumpstart program to help other tutors launch their tutoring business. She talks about the importance of having a mentor that has been through the same thing.
Joanne does not know exactly where her business or career will grow. She likes to remain flexible and serve the needs of others rather than just be stuck in her own vision. But, she does know she always wants to teach kids reading and help other tutors.
You can find Joanne on her facebook group for new online tutors!
Sean McCormick 0:01 Today on the Earn More Tutoring podcast, Joanne Kaminski and I talked about how she built a Facebook group with over 10,000 followers, how she earned over $30,000 last month through multiple revenue streams, including tutoring, coaching other tutors and online courses, and how she has created a program that guarantees tutors the first time in eight weeks. Joanne Kaminski 0:21 One of the most exciting things for me is that my first month this year, I ended up mate having my very first $30,000 month now that number is significant for me, because when I started teaching in the school system, I was making $30,000 a year, and I made it in a month. It's amazing the amount of money that you can make when you start almost going outside of the box. You know, there's so much more potential inside of you that you can accomplish than what you're able to accomplish inside of the school system and you're still able to touch lots of students lives being able to do it. Sean McCormick 0:59 Hey, everybody, welcome to the Earn More Tutoring podcast. This podcast is all about how you can earn more tutoring. I am here with Joanne Kaminski. First off, Joanne, tell us about your different ventures and what you do. Joanne Kaminski 1:13 Alright, so I have two different ventures one, I'm an online reading tutor. And I've been doing that since 2010. And then about two years after I became successful with my own online reading tutoring business, I wanted to teach other tutors how to start their own online tutoring business. And one thing that I have found over the years is it's not that tutors don't know how to teach or tutor is that they don't know how to get students. So that is where I really you know, spend most of my time is teaching them how to market their own online tutoring business so that they can get more students earn more money and live a lifestyle that we've always desired. Sean McCormick 1:52 I love that. So you started out as a reading specialist, but then you you transformed or you did both, you know, as well as coaching tutors. So tell us about how you got started with just the reading specialist tutor where you formerly working in schools. Did you take a certain program? I'd love to hear more about the journey to becoming a specialist in the reading domain. Oh, yeah, Joanne Kaminski 2:14 absolutely. So for the last 10 for 10 years, I actually taught in the school system. I was a third grade teacher and a fourth grade teacher and I quickly moved up the ladder at my school, we were a charter school and they actually took the the teachers and had them train and teach other teachers and the reading program. So I was actually chosen in my second year to begin training other teachers and how to teach the success for all reading program. And then the year after that, Edison schools ended up hiring me to not only train the teachers but also train the trainer's so I just started moving up the ranks pretty quickly. And then I got pregnant. And life completely changed for me, I had my my first little one in the mix. And I knew that the long hours that I was working probably wasn't going to be a good fit for being a good mama. And so I decided to cut down on my hours. And I told my the principal of the school, you know what I was doing that I needed to work less hours? And she said, Well, the reading curriculum coordinator position is coming open, would you be interested in it? And I said, Yes. Can I choose my hours? And she said, yeah, so I'm like I'm in. So I started doing that. And then I decided at some point on that journey that I wanted to go back to school and become a reading specialist. Like for real, like, I just want to be the coordinator of this one program. I wanted to legit know everything that I needed to know about reading. And one of the things about our students in our school system is that we had a 30% of our kids reading on grade level. And that was just so frustrating for me. And it felt like no matter what I did, and how many you know how many courses I personally took on on how to become better at teaching reading. It didn't change. Like other statistics, I had no no control over. Like I had no control over the fact that we had a 50% teacher turnover every single year. So anytime I would teach my staff different strategies and things to be able to utilize in the school system. Bam, next year, I was hit with a brand new teacher walking in the door and, and it was like oh my gosh, like I have no control over this particular situation. I can't improve how these teachers teach if every year I'm hit with 50% turnover, and it was just really, really frustrating. And so then I'm like, Well, let me change school districts. Maybe that'll be the answer. So I ended up becoming the reading specialist at a school closer to me it was like 15 minutes away from my home. And I just found that that the politics this time around were just crazy. There was so much so many teachers...
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