Creating an industry of self-employed online language teachers from developing countries
Create an industry of self-employed online language teachers from developing countries
We have begun in Guatemala, which is world renown for its immersion Spanish schools, yet most Spanish teachers live in poverty. Eleven of those Spanish teachers are now teaching students all over the world online via videoconferencing and setting their own hours and rates using Speak Shop’s unique online marketplace. The teachers have taught more than 20,000 1-hour lessons online and generated almost $200,000 USD in lesson fees. They have gone from seasonal workers to small business owners.
Expanding this model to other languages and countries could create thousands of middle-class jobs for skilled teachers all over the world.
About You
About You
First Name
Clay
Last Name
Cooper
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Speak Shop
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, OR, Multnomah County
Country where this project is creating social impact
Guatemala, ST
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Creating an industry of self-employed online language teachers from developing countries
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Create an industry of self-employed online language teachers from developing countries
We have begun in Guatemala, which is world renown for its immersion Spanish schools, yet most Spanish teachers live in poverty. Eleven of those Spanish teachers are now teaching students all over the world online via videoconferencing and setting their own hours and rates using Speak Shop’s unique online marketplace. The teachers have taught more than 20,000 1-hour lessons online and generated almost $200,000 USD in lesson fees. They have gone from seasonal workers to small business owners.
Expanding this model to other languages and countries could create thousands of middle-class jobs for skilled teachers all over the world.
What are the primary activities of your project?
The three primary activities of our project are:
1. Finding, training and equipping language teachers with business and technology skills
2. Creating and maintaining the Internet-based marketplace
3. Marketing Spanish language and cultural instruction
Working with NGO partners, we identify promising language teachers in emerging markets. We bring on new language teachers only in response to sufficient levels of demand. Our theory of change favors depth over breadth. Beyond incremental wage increases, we are instead seeking a fundamental shift from a cycle of poverty to sustainable, middle class prosperity.
After interviewing and accepting a prospective teacher, we begin training her in teaching online and running her business. We invest between 30-40 hours in training each new teacher on the business and technology skills she needs to establish and grow her online teaching business.
Our business and revenue models eliminate any financial risk for the teachers. When they first begin teaching, teachers usually use computers at a partner language school because they cannot afford computers and internet at home. Their local school retains a percentage of each lesson fee to cover its expenses. Teachers therefore only incur expenses as a percent of actual earnings. As their business becomes established, teachers often wish to graduate to teaching from home. We facilitate this by providing used computers (typically purchased on eBay) or low-priced netbooks which teachers pay back without interest in small increments, usually less than $10 per month.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Speak Shop makes it possible for low-income but highly capable language teachers in emerging markets to become prosperous micro-entrepreneurs and reach customers all over the world. It is the first company with a business model that specifically targets low-income language teachers in developing countries and provides them with the training and tools they need to operate their own online language instruction business. Teachers decide what hours they want to work and what they want to charge per hour. They can even increase or decrease their hourly rates in real time to adjust for fluctuations in demand.
In addition to being the first company to offer one-to-one Spanish instruction by webcam, Speak Shop was the first and only (that we are aware of) company to use a “two-fee” micro-enterprise revenue model. The traditional owner/employee business model charges one fee. The one-fee model does not allow superior language teachers to distinguish themselves and earn a market determined price for their service. The one-fee model also prevents transparency of how much the teacher is receiving for each lesson, which could continue the cycle of poverty experienced by the teachers. Speak Shop’s “two-fee” micro-enterprise model creates clear lines of accountability for the company and each of the teachers. The teachers understand the opportunity and feel ownership over their businesses.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Guatemala is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, second only to Haiti. In Guatemala, thousands of Spanish teachers are hired to teach foreign visitors in immersion schools. Speak Shop estimates that most local Spanish teachers work only 3 months per year for about $2/hour, and are laid off when tourist numbers drop. In addition, the culture within immersion schools is often repressive and hierarchical: teachers are replaceable and expendable.
Mayra, whose husband passed away several years ago, had struggled to raise her daughter by herself. Before Speak Shop she taught in Spanish immersion schools but only part of the year, during the short tourist season, and earned about $2 per hour. She now teaches more than 15 hours per week from home, year-round, and earns (after expenses) more than $6 per hour.
Aracely, has a sick mother who is homebound and lives with her. Aracely was a born teacher and salesperson, but her success had been limited until Speak Shop. Because of her thriving online Speak Shop business, Aracely is now able to take care of her mother and continue working. Aracely often teaches late into the evening and on Sundays when she charges up to $12 per hour. About her experience with Speak Shop she says, “I have learned about business and have learned that I can take more responsibility for my own teaching business in order to be more successful. Regarding technology, it has helped me a lot because I had never had a formal computing course and thanks to my work with Speak Shop I have learned a lot about it and have taught my children as well."
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Traveling is a powerful eye opener. I (Clay Cooper) got the idea for Speak Shop when traveling in Guatemala to learn Spanish in 1998. I would never have thought to go there but had to learn Spanish for business school, and Guatemala was recommended as the best and cheapest place to study. At the age of 31 and for the first time ever after many tries, I was actually able to learn Spanish. The experience allowed me to develop very close friendships but also opened my eyes to real poverty. I realized my new friends, the teachers, were hard working and educated but living in poverty because of circumstances beyond their control - living in a poor country with limited opportunity. I knew if they had more students, they would have a better life and I wanted other people to get to learn a language and culture like I had. A few years later, my wife Cindy became enthusiastic about the idea. It was a real leap of faith to launch a videoconferencing-based start-up at a time when even Skype did not offer videoconferencing services. Cindy and I wrote a business plan that recognized the success and impact of online marketplaces like eBay. The eBay marketplace created a fair price for products where the seller could get the highest price possible and the buyer could purchase products that weren’t previously available. We then created a prototype website including our own videoconferencing system, quit our jobs, went to Guatemala, found the teachers and launched Speak Shop using our life savings and an abundance of hope.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
* Speak Shop language teachers have taught over 20,000 hours online and charged almost than $200,000 in lesson fees. This income would not have been possible before the Internet and online videoconferencing. In addition, this is income generated from outside Guatemala, which significantly helps the Guatemalan economy.
* Teachers earn (after expenses) from between two to four times the local hourly teaching rates, enabling them to move from financial insecurity to financial stability. They determine when they want to work and how much they want to charge per hour, which they can lower or increase by the hour to respond to fluctuations in demand.
* Unlike the seasonal, short-term contracts characteristic of local teaching, Speak Shop teachers have secure and consistent income by accessing a world market of customers. They use the money to educate their children, plan for their futures, and contribute to the economic development of their communities.
* Teachers are learning business and computer skills and becoming more empowered in their home and work choices.
* Of the 11 teachers, 10 are women
* 8 of the 11 teachers are now able to have a computer and Internet access at home.
*Speak Shop is B Corp certified (benefit company) and has been recognized through awards, such as Best Social Return on Investment Analysis in the Social and Environmental Technologies Challenge, and in news media with articles in the Miami Herald, The Boston Globe, Dowser.org, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, among others.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Fewer than 100
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
101- 1,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Over the next three years we will be focused on two areas to evolve our project:
1. Conversion to a nonprofit - We initially registered as a for-profit business because we wanted to use the power of business for good. We now realize that operating as a nonprofit will help attract more customers and partners by engendering trust in our commitment to our mission. A nonprofit structure better supports our focus on maximizing social impact and would enable us to attract mission-aligned resources.
2. Student Acquisition - We are currently operating below full capacity and could teach several thousand more lessons each year with our current teachers. We plan to expand through improved online marketing, attracting clients and resources as a nonprofit, and through key strategic partnership
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Live online teaching is an industry in its infancy, and most people are not yet aware that they can effectively learn a language by videoconferencing with a language teacher online. Marketing campaigns to create awareness have been effective, but are very expensive. Word-of-mouth is still the most effective and cost efficient form of marketing. We are using social media to provide value to our networks (e.g. Spanish Word of the Day), attract new customers and assist our loyal students in telling their networks about the effectiveness of our program.
Partnering with software curriculum providers, educational institutions and corporations is a strategic priority for creating awareness. For example, a contract with eBay to provide Spanish lessons to their employees could prove to be invaluable.
Dr. Cabrera, the President of Thunderbird School of Global Management stated, "Speak Shop creates a unique situation where a woman in a third world country is treated with respect from someone in a first world country based upon her position (teacher), skills and knowledge."
Tell us about your partnerships
We are seeking to replicate our business model to other countries and languages and partners could help us increase the number of teachers and customers for languages beyond Spanish. Local partners can help identify skilled and experienced teachers and provide them with access to computers and training.
Large organizations/businesses could become partners and could help Speak Shop strategically offer Arabic, Chinese, English and Portuguese. For example, a partnership with a large multi-national organization/business (e.g. eBay Corporation) that offers its employees Arabic, Chinese, English or Portuguese would allow Speak Shop to develop the teacher network, curriculum, website and enable the teachers to begin to develop a sustainable clientele.
We plan to expand our services by partnering with established educational providers, and the nonprofit status will aid in developing these partnerships. We are working on a partnership agreement with a Spanish software curriculum provider that provides industry-focused Spanish courses to community colleges across the United States. Speak Shop teachers would supplement these courses by providing subject-specific conversational lessons online. We also hope to expand our partnerships with secondary and post-secondary schools. We have piloted language instruction with students at Burlington High School (outside of Boston) and at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. For colleges, Speak Shop supports in-class teachers by providing conversational lessons as homework assignments.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$50,001‐100,000
Explain your selections
In 2009 & 2010, Speak Shop’s membership fees covered virtually all expenses except for salaries for the founders. Speak Shop founders provided initial funding for the business. The Untours Foundation provided a loan which has been repaid.
Using PayPal to process payments, Speak Shop devised a unique “two-fee” revenue model. This had two significant advantages: 1. It enabled the teachers to determine the appropriate lesson fees that the market could bear ($5/hr. in 2005, $8/hr. in 2007, $10-12/hr. in 2010); and 2. It enabled customers and teachers to see the distinction between Speak Shop’s revenues and teachers’ revenues to underscore their roles as self-employed owners.
Speak Shop’s unique “two-fee” revenue model charges students two fee types to use Speak Shop: 1) A recurring monthly membership fee paid to Speak Shop of $9.99-$39.99 based on the number of lessons they wish to take each month; 2) A lesson fee to the teacher each time they reserve a one-hour lesson. The teacher can set a different fee for each hour of the day if she wants to, allowing her to adapt to changes in costs and demand. Like any business owner, she incurs expenses (e.g. credit card fees, technology costs, local administrative support, local marketing to tourists). Speak Shop itself does not receive any of the lesson fees.
While our membership fees are able to cover existing operating costs additional funding is required to expand to other languages and increase marketing campaigns.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We plan to strengthen our project by increasing our social impact and revenue generation through 3 main strategies: Supplemental business training; Marketing, distribution, & product partnerships; Strategic language expansion.
1. Supplemental business training: We will partner to provide teachers with additional small business education (e.g., health insurance, small business operations). Programs of interest include Social Entrepreneurs Corps, small business consulting by US college students led by Ashoka Fellow Greg Van Kirk, and MicroMentor, a division of MercyCorps offering a free online service that connects business owners with mentors.
2. Marketing, distribution and product partnerships: We are seeking partnerships to accelerate customer acquisition. For example, we are working on a partnership agreement with a Spanish software curriculum provider that provides industry-focused Spanish courses to community colleges across the United States.
3. Strategic language expansion: Speak Shop was inspired by eBay with a vision toward offering languages from teachers worldwide. We have piloted Portuguese from Brazil and Spanish from Nicaragua. We are exploring offering English lessons to international social entrepreneurs from teachers in developing countries where English is a primary language. This would enable the social entrepreneurs to increase their capacity for global impact, and it would generate an export industry for English teachers in countries like The Philippines.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Restricted access to new markets
SECONDARY
Inadequate transparency
TERTIARY
Lack of skills/training
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
In-country language instructors have a unique competitive advantage due to being native speakers with knowledge of local customs and culture. However, being “in-country” has restricted them to customers (students) who travel to the teacher’s country.
Speak Shop provides self-employment and market determined fair wages using a unique “two-fee” pricing model. Separating lesson fees from membership fees provides transparency between Speak Shop and teacher revenues.
Speak Shop works with a local partner to provide an Internet cafe and computer training.
Speak Shop has also assisted teachers in purchasing excellent $300 mini-laptops with embedded videocameras. The teachers then repay Speak Shop the cost of the laptop (without interest) from the revenue earned by teaching.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Global
SECONDARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
TERTIARY
Repurposed your model for other sectors/development needs
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
We are seeking to grow the business by:
1. Investing in marketing. Learning a language via webcam is still a very new service and potential customers are not aware of the convenience and superior instruction quality. Speak Shop will continue its successful awareness campaign with press engagement strategies and implement a marketing plan which includes new search engine optimization, leveraging social networking sites ..
2. Partnering with educational organizations to expand language offerings, targeting Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, and English.
3. Partnering with software or other curriculum providers to supplement each others’ offerings.
4. Targeting institutional clients in the education and training industries, as well as global corporations and government agencies.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Speak Shop collaborates with a local Spanish immersion school that assists with the initial teacher screening and selection and provides some of the training and ongoing marketing and administrative tasks. This partnership has been very important to ensuring high-quality instructors and to creating long-term relationships with the teachers.
Marist College is currently requiring their Spanish students to take 1-to-1 private Spanish lessons with Speak Shop teachers as homework assignments. Expanding this model to additional colleges will not only provide more opportunity for the language teachers but will develop the conversational skills and cultural knowledge of college students in the United States.
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 | 103 weeks ago Clay Cooper said: Hi Gayle, Thank you very much for reading our entry and for your kind comments. Most of our tutors had very limited experience ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 103 weeks ago Gayle Pescud said: Just want to say congrats for coming up with such a brilliant idea and mission--that you're achieving. So smart. Do you have to do much ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 104 weeks ago Clay Cooper said: Dear Ana, Thank you very much for reading our entry and your insightful questions. Our program is structured so that our Spanish ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 104 weeks ago Ana Estenssoro said: Daer Clay, your entry is great as well as using business as a tool, at ENI DI TELLA we just had a conference on B Corps, it is great ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 104 weeks ago Ana Estenssoro said: Daer Clay, your entry is great as well as using business as a tool, at ENI DI TELLA we just had a conference on B Corps, it is great ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 104 weeks ago Clay Cooper updated this Competition Entry. |
| 105 weeks ago Clay Cooper updated this Competition Entry. |
| 105 weeks ago Clay Cooper updated this Competition Entry. |
| 105 weeks ago Clay Cooper updated this Competition Entry. |
| 105 weeks ago Clay Cooper updated this Competition Entry. |
