What is the difference between teaching online and turning your online teaching into a business?
Globally, the faculty is teaching online as we speak.
What that means is that teachers, under their full-time employment duties use virtual tools such as zoom to teach online.
This form of teaching almost always is in real-time.
That means the teacher/ mentor shows up for his students in real-time to coach.
They usually have to introduce the theory and be there for the students as they ask questions.
Due to a general lack of experience with such a method of teaching, many find the processes take much longer than they would in a physical location.
Spending long hours of teaching online can be tiring and truly overwhelming, so they are already asking for solutions.
Whiles faculty are looking for bettering their online teaching methods, we draw lessons from other business industries that have already successfully developed the knowledge-based economy, powering the institutional as well as individual business transformation.
What I specifically refer to is the ability to control ways we exchange value for money.
Institutions work used the full-time employment bases, requiring their educators to show up in real life for the coaching sessions, counting hours in exchange for educational value.
A business mindset turns the wheel towards scalability.
The core question is do we have to always teach on a per hour/ month or year salary basis.
Value can also be attached to a product.
And this is how the institution makes a profit.
A student pays for education, always agreeing to the course before even testing it out. They buy the idea of graduating with a certificate stamped by a particular institution.
They buy a product and the product is THE COURSE.
Upon enrollment, students agree to cover a set fee for education.
Harvard will cost different than your local university as the price raises with reputation.
This is the business aspect of things.
Now, the question is what does this model teach us?
If you have an entrepreneurial mindset you will already see this analogy.
The institutions price THEIR COURSES, by what means price EDUCATION, based on their reputation and the trust they have built in the industry.
So the value of knowledge is not only based on the time you spend teaching but also on other parameters.
Your knowledge can also be valued as such.
But in order for you to do that, you need to establish a ground to become like that institution. An entity, that is independent of the employer.
You build a personal reputation as an educator and you built trust in your community.
This is what entrepreneurs do, taking the shot on establishing a business.
I am not telling you to give up your work.
Neither as an educator nor as a designer.
But if you want to put your own financial value on your knowledge you have to establish the basis on which you can build that freedom.
You can do that as a sidekick. But you have to do that yourself.
And here is where online teaching as a business comes into play.
Online teaching as a business means that you create a brand around who you are as an architectural expert. You brand your methodology deriving from YOUR experience of practice, research, or architectural education.
As a result, you package that expertise into a training program and sell it to an audience that is looking to develop in this particular direction you teach.
There is always someone out there who wants to learn from you. There is always someone out there who will look to obtain the type of expertise you now have.
These people in most cases have no access to the specialized path you took to be who you are today, maybe they have no time to start again, or maybe they simply are interested in the same things as you and will happily learn more!
Once you put your knowledge out there, that methodology is your unique trademark, and only you can decide what is the worth of years of your experience, your education, and your practice.
What that means is that you decide the price of your expertise.
Awesome right?
But there is more, and I left the best for the end!
When you package your knowledge in the form of an online course and upload it on a membership site integrated to your website.
You trade login details for money.
That is the moment when you say goodbye to earning an income in exchange for showing up.
People buying your course learn from you on automation. They can re-watch classes with you, they can pause, they can take a break and come back at any given time.
You can if you wish to show up for your students arrange for weekly Q&A where you focus on helping your students through the program.
But other than that, you earn, for your knowledge, whiles you focus on doing whatever it is you want to be doing.
More time for family?
New exciting design project?
Writing a book?
New research?
Or maybe just a holiday?
For that is what selling your knowledge online as a business is like.
And this is what I am here to help you achieve.
Interested to know more?
