I thought I had a good nest egg even though I was paying for a masters program, so my savings went quicker than I thought but the lack of work due to covid has pretty much wiped me out. I am literally surviving on like 10 man a month now thanks to some side lessons but I need more students. I’ve tried handing out fliers, and looked into Adwords a bit but I’m not sure how well I would do on there.
I’m not drowning yet, but certainly treading water. Sometimes I’ll get tutoring gigs from English teachers who want their kids to have native speaking practice, so casually mentioning it here and there sometimes works.
I also do a free English circle at a community center. Super casual, no lessons, just chatting or games. But like above, many of them have kids or grandchildren that want a bit of extra practice.
Not saying these will work for you, but they’re ideas at least.
have you tried enjoy-lesson? just google them. im not a native english speaker and have no experience teaching but i used to get an extra 10-15,000yen a month thanks to that site (couldve been much more if i had needed it)
What’s your regular gig? If you’re reliant on side lessons for income, then the first order of business is to get a better paying primary.
Have you tried checking the school ads? Not eikaiwa, but high schools and the like? Depending on the area, a lot of private schools are in dire need of ALTs because their usual avenues (e.g. the J3 program for missionaries) are having issues getting people over.
Not recently, luckily, but a few years ago I was in a very tough spot.
For a month or two I wrote essays for an essay mill website. I was getting a couple of hundred usd per job (I could write a paper in 1-2 days). I quit before long because of the ethics but it got me over the most desperate time.
I also monetised my hobbies. I love to knit and crochet, so I designed and wrote up some patterns and sold them on amazon kindle and a popular knitting website. Actually I still pull in $100-300 a month on those even though I haven’t published a new pattern in 8 years. Do you have a hobby you could turn into an income stream? I wouldn’t recommend it long term, it kind of ruins your hobby for you, but if you can turn it into a short time side hustle it could help tide you over.
Flyers have little return in most people’s experience. Since you’re teaching side lessons, and not running your own thing, you could look into language agent places. There’s one called Atlas in a few cities. They charge a fee to students like a membership, and then students pay a flat rate of ¥2500 per lesson to the teacher. If you can do trial lessons well, and are presentable, you can pick up a few students a month, and if you’re dependable, you can pick up students as teachers move on.
If you think this is your new plan, look into starting lessons at a local community center (会館). You pay a fee to rent a room, and you do what you want there. Get a text, set up a schedule, and you can start group lessons there. It’ll take a while to get going, but the income is worth it. Get six students at ¥2000 each and make ¥10000 an hour after fees, and build a reputation in your area.
I can’t believe no one has said this, but enjoy-lesson, hello sensei, senseinavi are the sites I used to use. I had about 12 regular students a week, working around my part time job, with people emailing me almost everyday. I guess it is only that good in big cities though. If you’re a native speaker you can normally charge ¥2500-¥3000, if you’re desperate you can charge ¥2000.
I will however add that I am a young British female, so please take into consideration whatever advantage that may have given me 
You’ll burn through your cash on Adwords very quickly - it takes huge amounts of time to refine keywords etc. - there’s a reason why companies charge literally tens-of-thousands of dollars to manage (big) accounts.
It seems clunky, maybe, but have you considered putting up a classified with your contact at supermarkets etc.? People may not be super keen to meet (due to COVID), but if you also mention you can do Zoom / video lessons, that would probably be appealing for a lot of people at the moment.
You’re surviving on 10,000 or 100,000? Big difference! Here’s how I made extra cash: I do voice acting on the side, which gives me maybe 30k-40k. I proctor eiken too, an easy 40k. I signed up for three or four of English tutoring sites, then after I meet with them twice I poach them off the site and just deal cash. That’s another 40k-40k. have an Ebay account, and I auction off Japan-y things like Shonen Jump and gatcha-gatcha crap. That’s maybe 15k-20k a month.
You can do it!
I know of factory work if you can speak Japanese. Not very well paid, but better than nothing.
Do you have an Italki account? I use it to practice Japanese with native speakers. You might be able to earn some money tutoring through that.
Word of mouth.
If your students have friends or family who would study English, find out.
Go out and meet people in cafes and bars–find out if any of the shop owners would be interested in hosting a lesson (you don’t usually have to ask permission to have a lesson in a café, I’m talking about asking the shop to set a time and a table for you to use on a regular basis).
Come up with a fixed price plan for one-on-one, small groups, and large groups if you haven’t already–and never take less. People will try to con you into various ticket systems, “friendly” rates, and letting them pay when they “remember”, insist on a specific price and payment plan.
You can print business cards at home. Make up a brand for your services and a two-word professional title (‘Language Consultant’, ‘English Instructor’, etc) to put on the card (in English), along with an email address phone number and mailing address (in Japanese), and put a good picture of your face on the cards as well. If you are extra handy with a word processor or an image editor, put a QR code or two on the back (link your schedule or a social media contact). Hand these cards out like candy: not necessarily more effective than fliers, but a much more socially acceptable form of self-promotion.
Make a Facebook page or Line group to keep you and your students up-to-date on each other. I wouldn’t post your rates in public though, make people contact you to get that information.
If anyone has a background in Horticulture I know of some very good opportunities in Tokyo.
Are you living in the countryside?
It’s so easy to meet people that want to learn English but don’t want to flush their money down eikaiwas.
The conversation goes like this:
- “Wow your Japanese is so good!” (It’s not)
- “Thanks. Do you speak English?”
- “Not really, I wish I could but…”
That’s when you offer private lessons for a reasonable price. Ok, it doesn’t go exactly like that every time, but you just need to meet new people and it will happen.
Anyone else drowning financially
Maybe soon, my work contract is ending this month. I have enough set aside to live for a year without work but I’d really rather not.
After finally finishing my profile with a mediocre intro vid and open lesson times I started getting a few lesson requests a week. Did a good job. Got 100% repeats, 5 lessons or more each.
Italki seems to push new teachers at first to the top of the list. Do good, have open slots, and you can make something.
Quit that for full time work, but enjoyed it much more than Vipkid. And some of my students hit me up months later when my schedule accidentally opened. Really enjoyable work in my opinion. Put in the effort during and slightly before your lessons and people come back.
When I clicked this I was expecting like a Scrooge McDuck swimming in his vault full of money in danger of drowning he had so much.
Now I’m just sad.
Try modelling or acting. They’re short on foreigners right now
Everything I’ve ever got privates-wise is through word of mouth.
I’ve posted this on other threads recently - but dispatch companies are currently gagging for in-country people because they can’t recruit abroad due to COVID restrictions. If it’s true that the one in your area sucks, apply and maybe use that fact as a bargaining chip? A guy I know who recently applied to a dispatch company in my town literally said “I know you need me, and this is what I think I’m worth.” and got a salary 50,000 yen/month higher than anyone else of his caliber.
At the very least you’d have a quittable job that you won’t give a shit about and would keep you in cup ramen, chu-hi and condoms until something matching your skill set rolls around.
To directly answer your question:
- Register on all the sites you can (hello sensei, enjoy lesson etc.). Make sure you update your profile daily so that it stays at the top of the results.
And then in terms of general (unsolicited) advice:
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Take any part time work you can find. Nothing is beneath you and every bit helps.
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Lower your expenses (get a roommate and/or temporary sharehouse or short term leopalace, cook at home more etc.)