Idas y Vueltas

You can take the “free” out of the freelancer…but she will take it back

September 27, 2009 at 5:53 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

[Note: Originally published on Wed. Sept. 23, then taken down due to indecision, then re-posted today.]

For a couple of months now, I’ve been reading a book  on decision-making. I still haven’t finished it because I do that with books and other things in life — start them and get kinda interested but then get distracted by something else that’s more interesting, like the Facebook. Or my empty gmail inbox. Why read when you can stare at a glowing screen? This problem is on my list of things to change about myself in the future. But I digress.

My mom bought me said book this summer because I tend to struggle over decisions to the point where they become painful. I know there is no perfect decision, but I don’t really believe it. So, I have already reversed one of the decisions I made when I first got to Granada — to work for a language academy. The thing is, the academy hired me, but not to work at the actual place, but to give private classes in people’s homes for a flat hourly rate.

You see, I’m an old pro at giving these kinds of classes, but I usually just organize them myself and choose where I want to go, when I want to go there and how much I want to charge. I tried to get used to the idea of having someone else do all the managing for me, as the advantages were that they’d give me some materials and guarantee me a full schedule on my available days, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that I could work fewer hours for more money and with more flexibility if I ditched The Man and found students on my own.

So I quit. Before even starting. Well, I had given two classes already, but the academy hadn’t even finished putting together the rest of my schedule yet.

The thing about private classes is, once you have one, you’ll soon have more than you can handle, or at least that many offers. Word gets around; it’s just getting started that takes some creativity, if you don’t have immediate connections. Working for an academy would surely be worthwhile if I had a block schedule in one place instead of having to waste time traveling to people’s houses, or if I had time to do both that and give some of my own classes, or if I had no idea how to go about finding my own classes or that I could charge per person and not just per hour, but none of these hypothetical “ifs” apply to me, so according to my book, I should immediately stop thinking about them and be content with my decision. Which I am.

Now comes the creativity part, as I no longer have the connections that working for a bilingual school gives you. I’ve posted ads on the internet, advertising special offers and highlighting my qualifications, and this afternoon I’m going to recruit Jaime to help me hand out flyers to parents waiting outside of nearby schools to pick up their kids when the bell rings.

It will be an experiment in self-marketing and management, to see how much bang I can get out of my only two evenings available for giving classes. Will I find a way to pay the bills? Will I hate my life in the process? Will my decision prove to be a good one? Only time will tell.