I recently created an English teaching platform/marketplace at [www.545english.com](https://www.545english.com/) because I was unhappy with the pay/fees, curriculum, and treatment on other platforms. I am looking for teachers to join it before I start advertising. I will provide you with [curriculum](https://545english.com/curriculum/) (currently about 80 lessons), but you can also advertise your own. Students buy credits (1 credit = 1 JPY) and use them to purchase lessons. Students can buy credits with credit card, JCB, Alipay, and PayPay. For now, I have set the price of 1x 45-minute lesson to 1800 yen and the teacher keeps 96.5% (1737 yen). Maybe in the future I will let teachers set their own prices, but for now it is a lot easier if all lessons are the same price and prevents it from being a race to the bottom. You can read more at [www.545english.com/apply.](https://www.545english.com/apply)
6 comments
What’s stopping instructors from accumulating students and giving your service the flick?
¥1,800 for a 45 minute lesson is bottom rate…..
you call it a curriculum of about 80 lessons. where does the scheme of work fits in between?
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First of all, I appreciate your desire to get into this market. Competition in this area is a good thing and lower commission rates should be welcomed. Setting a base rate for lessons is a good idea to prevent the “race to the bottom” mentality which is prevalent in other services.
With that being said, there are a few key details you left out of this post that seem really relevant. Your value proposition to teachers is “I only take 3.5% commission instead of 10-15%). From the website : “The teacher will get ¥1737 (96.5%) / 45-minute lesson.”
However, you promise the student a feedback form e-mailed from the teacher within 12 hrs of the lesson. The feedback forms look like a teacher created 5 page word doc of all the mistakes encountered in the lesson formatted and organized by topic and kind of mistake. I’m assuming that is extra unpaid work. Additionally, you don’t take any income tax, et. al from the teachers salary. So, the teachers need to calculate that and be ready to pay tax on this income significantly reducing that 1737 yen. Next, you make the teachers cover the cost of a bank transfer just to get paid. Finally, there are significant sunk costs built into this model that seem out of step with other competitors in your market. Most notably, you ***require*** **a green screen** and special software to chroma key an approved background. You also require a 1080p webcam which 99% of all laptops do not have. You require special headphones all of which eat into that 1737 yen rate.
Your potential market of **decent teachers** who already have this set-up is quite small. If I’m a good teacher who has already invested in a green screen and use recording software, have a 1080p camera, and special headphones that are “not too large,” I probably charge more than 1800 yen/lesson. Even if I did want give your site a try, I need to commit to 12 hrs over 3 days. And even if I do commit to this time, the student can cancel within 4 hrs of the lesson and I don’t get paid.
Again, good luck with your project. I know you are beginning and seem to have a good idea of what you want to accomplish. I just think you need a more appealing value proposition to teachers. The “3.5%” of 1800 yen only goes so far.