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Teacher wants OUT

TeacherToOwner

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Hello all,

I read TMF in 2017 and I loved it. I am a teacher in a poor city and my job isn't easy at all. I deal with disrespect, fighting, negative teacher personalities, stressful working conditions and more! In my school they want us to work longer hours without additional pay. On top of this there is the lack of respect for teachers from almost everyone. I also would like to locate to a warmer climate, and the problem is, I can't really do that until I have a successful business because teacher's salaries in other places I'd like to relocate to (mainly Florida) are like 1/3 of what I'm getting paid now.

My best bet out of the rat race and into a life of freedom where I can relocate to a warmer climate because the cold winter sucks (@MJ DeMarco you know about this) is through a business! I just don't know which business to start and I feel every idea I come up with is just silly and a waste (like a clothing line for example).

My only idea that seems like pursing at this point is opening an online Jewelry Business. I figured I would start off with less expensive, yet fashionable and good looking pieces and then over time begin to include higher valued pieces. I was wondering what everyone thinks of this.. And if this isn't it, I really don't know what is, because for the life of me I've tried every idea generating strategy: looking up products on alibaba, searching for businesses on flippa, looking for needs/problems around me, thinking of my own product I could create, etc)..

If anyone has any words of wisdom that would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
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MJ DeMarco

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I also would like to locate to a warmer climate, and the problem is, I can't really do that until I have a successful business because teacher's salaries in other places I'd like to relocate to (mainly Florida) are like 1/3 of what I'm getting paid now.

Is that really true? Sounds like an excuse you can hold on too, a reason to stay mildly comfortable. If you think starting a business is a special license allowing you to move, you're probably mistaken. Based on what you've posted, I'm going to guess you will never move.

figured I would start off with less expensive, yet fashionable and good looking pieces and then over time begin to include higher valued pieces.

Not Fastlane, but a great start and perhaps a good earning hustle that can help you feel comfortable moving to a warmer climate at lesser pay.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.
 

TeacherToOwner

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Is that really true? Sounds like an excuse you can hold on too, a reason to stay mildly comfortable. If you think starting a business is a special license allowing you to move, you're probably mistaken. Based on what you've posted, I'm going to guess you will never move.



Not Fastlane, but a great start and perhaps a good earning hustle that can help you feel comfortable moving to a warmer climate at lesser pay.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

It isn't an excuse, but I appreciate the response and motivation. If I'm getting paid 80k a year here, I don't pay rent here (as I am living with a parent), and if I were to relocate to Florida I'd get paid about 50k MAYBE and then have to pay rent and everything else. I don't think having a business is the ONLY special opportunity which would allow me to relocate, but I also want to make sure I am making the right decision, and I won't suffer financial difficulties because of it. I don't want to end up worse off just with better weather.

And in response to your second paragraph, if not a fastlane strategy am I better off searching for other ideas and possibilities? As in, would taking one step back to take two steps forward be a better approaching than settling with an idea thats not fastlane? But thank you nonetheless, I appreciate you. And your book was fantastic.
 

MJ DeMarco

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than settling with an idea thats not fastlane?

There's nothing wrong with getting your feet wet in any type of business or hustle.

Small steps, lead to bigger things.

This might be applicable...


 
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TeacherToOwner

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There's nothing wrong with getting your feet wet in any type of business or hustle.

Small steps, lead to bigger things.

This might be applicable...



Thanks, I'm getting the order of samples of the jewelry put in tomorrow!
 

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Hello all,

I read TMF in 2017 and I loved it. I am a teacher in a poor city and my job isn't easy at all. I deal with disrespect, fighting, negative teacher personalities, stressful working conditions and more! In my school they want us to work longer hours without additional pay. On top of this there is the lack of respect for teachers from almost everyone. I also would like to locate to a warmer climate, and the problem is, I can't really do that until I have a successful business because teacher's salaries in other places I'd like to relocate to (mainly Florida) are like 1/3 of what I'm getting paid now.

My best bet out of the rat race and into a life of freedom where I can relocate to a warmer climate because the cold winter sucks (@MJ DeMarco you know about this) is through a business! I just don't know which business to start and I feel every idea I come up with is just silly and a waste (like a clothing line for example).

My only idea that seems like pursing at this point is opening an online Jewelry Business. I figured I would start off with less expensive, yet fashionable and good looking pieces and then over time begin to include higher valued pieces. I was wondering what everyone thinks of this.. And if this isn't it, I really don't know what is, because for the life of me I've tried every idea generating strategy: looking up products on alibaba, searching for businesses on flippa, looking for needs/problems around me, thinking of my own product I could create, etc)..

If anyone has any words of wisdom that would be appreciated.

Thanks

I just met my neighbor the other day and he told me he runs a home business but wants to become a teacher. Maybe it's a grass is greener kind of thing, I dunno.

What do you have in mind with a jewelry business? Imported jewelry? Homemade? I'm trying to think of different angles that could turn it into a valuable pursuit.

There's usually a market for personalized/customized stuff. Turning to your local area could be an option. Anytime I think about customizing things my head goes straight Facebook marketplace. People love to support all sorts of local stuff. Schools, teams, police, towns etc.

On Etsy, my understanding is that the people who sell jewelry-making supplies have done quite well with some reaching millionaire status, so that could be an option if you can find unique supplies or offer something others can't easily get access to. Those stores usually sell at low prices in bulk.

On Facebook, I've started buying clothes from ads. The key was targeting. The clothes being advertised fit my personality so well that I couldn't not buy them. I ended up spending somewhere in the ballpark of $400 with a store I'd never heard of before seeing their FB ad.

Part of what made the clothes so appealing was that their entire store focused on sub-niches that appeal to me, but would be off-putting for most people. Here's an example of one of the sweatshirts I bought.

KYM.PNG
 

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I really don't know what is, because for the life of me I've tried every idea generating strategy: looking up products on alibaba, searching for businesses on flippa, looking for needs/problems around me, thinking of my own product I could create, etc)..
Chances are you are interested in more than a handful of industry's and topics.
I certainly was, and chose one (oil and gas) to pursue. I knew very little about it at the beginning and didn't know where to start. But I made enough of a fool of myself early on to gather knowledge and understanding of how things work. That allowed me to focus on a niche and eventually find problem points, which I'm currently addressing.

write down a few things that interest you aside from jewelry (one industry I actually happened to work in), and select one to go all in on.
 
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TeacherToOwner

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I just met my neighbor the other day and he told me he runs a home business but wants to become a teacher. Maybe it's a grass is greener kind of thing, I dunno.

What do you have in mind with a jewelry business? Imported jewelry? Homemade? I'm trying to think of different angles that could turn it into a valuable pursuit.

There's usually a market for personalized/customized stuff. Turning to your local area could be an option. Anytime I think about customizing things my head goes straight Facebook marketplace. People love to support all sorts of local stuff. Schools, teams, police, towns etc.

On Etsy, my understanding is that the people who sell jewelry-making supplies have done quite well with some reaching millionaire status, so that could be an option if you can find unique supplies or offer something others can't easily get access to. Those stores usually sell at low prices in bulk.

On Facebook, I've started buying clothes from ads. The key was targeting. The clothes being advertised fit my personality so well that I couldn't not buy them. I ended up spending somewhere in the ballpark of $400 with a store I'd never heard of before seeing their FB ad.

Part of what made the clothes so appealing was that their entire store focused on sub-niches that appeal to me, but would be off-putting for most people. Here's an example of one of the sweatshirts I bought.

View attachment 36999

Thanks for your input.

That's funny you met someone with a business who wants to be a teacher! I slept on the jewelry idea, and thought to myself how would I make, design, import, etc pieces that are different or unique than what is already being sold out there and I couldn't come up with a good enough answer. I realized that I would be doing generic jewelry based on what people are currently into/trends, however, if this is the case then it would all be about marketing rather than than the actual product or business. At this point I'm not sure if this is actually the route to go as it may be too generic and I'm not adding any value by putting together an online store that sells jewelry like the hundreds (thousands) of others that do. A part of me says go for it anyway, and that there are a million of every business and it doesn't matter, and the other part of me says perhaps I should go back to the drawing board and contemplate something else; either way I'd be back to square one. :-/
 

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...wait a minute, you read TFM in 2017 and waited until now? Taking you a long time to get active ... Maybe going back to the books would be good. I just finished UNSCRIPTED and to my understanding there is much more to think about like the entry barrier for example which is quite low for clothing and jewlery, you do not want to go down from 80 k to 50 k, this makes sense but for your own business you should be aiming and completely different numbers as your goal. And drop shipping from Alibaba, this is done by thousands of people and if you focus on trends, at least to my understanding from the book, this will not bring you far. I mean, as a teacher, what are your teaching? what are you good at? Can you combine teaching skills with teaching to make your own jewelry, using materials which are not so much known yet. In the book M.J. referenced a little company in Berlin called re-tape, this lady makes handbags, laptop-bags from old video tapes. I think this is very clever because the material (video-tapes) are getting rarer and rarer... This is a cool idea to begin with. Are your students interested in anything that you can teach outside of school .... like financial literacy ;-) and so on. Give it a try look around where is the pain that needs "medicine"
 

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What can you do that you know?

Sounds like you teach in a rough area. What resources are out there to help teachers who teach in low-income neighborhoods or inner cities? What pain points or hurdles have you faced in the last couple of years of teaching that someone else in a similar situation might want help getting over? Seems like a good place to start. Help someone solve the problems you've already overcome.

As MJ touched on, it's not really important that your endeavor is fastlane to start. It sounds like you just want a stable, similar income, a nicer locale, and warm weather. If you could do this but had to hustle at your non-fastlane biz for 70 hours per week, would you do that as opposed to your current situation?

I don't buy your jewelry idea at all. Do you have any expertise in this area? What is going to be your competitive advantage?

either way I'd be back to square one. :-/

No matter what you do, you are already past square one. And there is no going back to it. You are aware of your situation, aware of the possibilities and different roads you can take to get out of it. Every step forward from here is progress.
 
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TeacherToOwner

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What can you do that you know?

Sounds like you teach in a rough area. What resources are out there to help teachers who teach in low-income neighborhoods or inner cities? What pain points or hurdles have you faced in the last couple of years of teaching that someone else in a similar situation might want help getting over? Seems like a good place to start. Help someone solve the problems you've already overcome.

As MJ touched on, it's not really important that your endeavor is fastlane to start. It sounds like you just want a stable, similar income, a nicer locale, and warm weather. If you could do this but had to hustle at your non-fastlane biz for 70 hours per week, would you do that as opposed to your current situation?

I don't buy your jewelry idea at all. Do you have any expertise in this area? What is going to be your competitive advantage?



No matter what you do, you are already past square one. And there is no going back to it. You are aware of your situation, aware of the possibilities and different roads you can take to get out of it. Every step forward from here is progress.

Thank you.

I teach Physical Education. I made some money selling my lesson plans online on a site called Teachers Pay Teachers, but definitely not enough money to even call it a side hustle. Teachers in the area deal with many discipline issues in my school so at one point I contemplated making some type of consulting service to help with this specific need. Many schools provide resources for behavior management, however I figured creating a business with very specific and helpful tips and tricks (along with the ability to speak to an experienced mentor teacher for piece of mind and to express their frustration) to help deal with difficult kids and off-task behaviors might be helpful. I did a little "field research" and spoke to some teachers and some felt it wouldn't be a good enough idea for a service as there are already many resources out there for dealing with classroom and behavior management. However, I still thought the business could be helpful as reading info from random links online and talking to experienced teachers for help in your school building is something, but reaching out to a third party is often a bit more confidential and you get another perspective. It was actually something I was pretty interested in but didn't pursue.

I thought of personal training, however the field is saturated, and difficult to make fastlane, although I tried it for a while.

I thought of opening up a facility for students to play sports after school but decided against that for a few different reasons.
 

TeacherToOwner

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Thank you.

I teach Physical Education. I made some money selling my lesson plans online on a site called Teachers Pay Teachers, but definitely not enough money to even call it a side hustle. Teachers in the area deal with many discipline issues in my school so at one point I contemplated making some type of consulting service to help with this specific need. Many schools provide resources for behavior management, however I figured creating a business with very specific and helpful tips and tricks (along with the ability to speak to an experienced mentor teacher for piece of mind and to express their frustration) to help deal with difficult kids and off-task behaviors might be helpful. I did a little "field research" and spoke to some teachers and some felt it wouldn't be a good enough idea for a service as there are already many resources out there for dealing with classroom and behavior management. However, I still thought the business could be helpful as reading info from random links online and talking to experienced teachers for help in your school building is something, but reaching out to a third party is often a bit more confidential and you get another perspective. It was actually something I was pretty interested in but didn't pursue.

I thought of personal training, however the field is saturated, and difficult to make fastlane, although I tried it for a while.

I thought of opening up a facility for students to play sports after school but decided against that for a few different reasons.

But, to actually go further with this.. Perhaps I could do the consulting business and focus on teacher's behavior management/classroom management as well as mental peace and clarity. I would find (before covid and smaller class sizes) that after work I'd be mentally drained. I'd be tired from breaking up fights, arguing with students, speaking with parents about their children's off-task behaviors, etc. A lot of other teachers I'd come across would experience this same type of stress. Perhaps a consulting business could help with the mental well being aspect of teachers as well.?

Edit: The difficulty also goes into what I mentioned in my previous post. There are many resources out there as well as professional development opportunities that many districts offer to teachers to help with behavior management and stress management. However, I've found most of them to be not the most helpful or useful, but the point is they are often times available. I'm trying to look at it from all angles and the counter argument would be just this, that there are already available FREE resources.
 
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TeacherToOwner

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But, to actually go further with this.. Perhaps I could do the consulting business and focus on teacher's behavior management/classroom management as well as mental peace and clarity. I would find (before covid and smaller class sizes) that after work I'd be mentally drained. I'd be tired from breaking up fights, arguing with students, speaking with parents about their children's off-task behaviors, etc. A lot of other teachers I'd come across would experience this same type of stress. Perhaps a consulting business could help with the mental well being aspect of teachers as well.?

Edit: The difficulty also goes into what I mentioned in my previous post. There are many resources out there as well as professional development opportunities that many districts offer to teachers to help with behavior management and stress management. However, I've found most of them to be not the most helpful or useful, but the point is they are often times available. I'm trying to look at it from all angles and the counter argument would be just this, that there are already available FREE resources.

Update: I think this might actually be a GO. I have specialized knowledge on it, it's definitely a need/problem (teacher's need management support) and there's room for expansion i.e. selling other teacher resources/products, such as educational products that teach/help teachers how to invest money, resources to help with stress management, resources for advancing their careers, certifications, continued educational credits, etc!
 
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Runum

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My wife and I are recently retired teachers. I taught elementary science in Title 1 schools. My wife taught PE and keyboarding in Title 1 schools.

A teacher has to put in time to hone their craft. You can spend that time making your classroom more inviting and exciting(proactive) or you can put that time into discipline and distractions(reactive). Either way the teacher WILL have to put in the time, they just have to decide what is more important to them.

At my last school I applied for and got grants from Walmart and other sponsors. I started a before school makerspace club. I bought a 3D printer that the kids could use, we started coding sessions, and I got several robots. Our competition robotics team went from worst to first in our district. In science class we had the daily hurricane report. The kids really wanted to know what was going on in the world and how it may affect them. If their were no hurricanes to track we had the daily earthquake report. There are seismic tremors all over the earth everyday. If I were still in the class we would be talking about the covid situation. Those kids wanted to come to class each day. We earned academic awards for science from the state. These were underperforming students that have no hope, they have no vision. They had no reason to want to be at school until I gave them a reason. I have repeatedly told and shown the admin that they do not have an academic problem they have a value problem. The students do not value what the schools are selling.

My wife did similar stuff in PE, make it fun or interesting so they want to be in class.

I can only speak from my experience. I cannot speak to your school situation.

Maybe you could be that spark. Maybe you could connect teachers with resources that would make their positions better. Maybe you could provide direction for admins and school boards. I have seen former teachers develop character education programs and do presentations for schools. The schools have to provide the character ed and they do pay for it. You could develop the program and train 2-3 teams to make the presentations. If they are doing your presentations then you get a cut of their fee and add more teams. Schools also pay for teacher training, mainly in the fall. You could develop a teacher training program and contract with the schools.

Good luck in your quest.

Multiple edits due to typos - fat fingers. :)
 
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