Inspirational Teacher Interviews – At Those Who Can we love hearing about teachers’ lived experiences, from the classroom to their new ventures.
We are always learning and adapting and these new blogs aim to inspire and give direction.
We caught up with former teacher Robert Pokorny from Scheme Support, read about his journey here:
What’s Your Background In Teaching?
I started teaching in 2012, and left the classroom in 2021. In that time I’ve had a variety of positions including full-time, part-time, supply and intervention roles, all in KS2.
Why Did You Decide To Embark On A New Career?
I enjoyed teaching (and I do miss it), but I’ve always had an entrepreneurial ‘itch’. I set up a couple of small businesses on the side whilst I was teaching and gradually found myself enjoying this more and more.
I’ve also always been fascinated by what resources, planning and schemes of work teachers’ liked and used (and what they didn’t use). This interest in teaching resources developed into my current business.
Where Did The Idea Of Your Business Come From?
The business that allowed me to leave the classroom is very much related to education (which helps a lot when selling to clients). It’s a widely-used directory of curriculum resources for primary schools called Scheme Support.
I list each resource or scheme of work available for each primary subject, allowing teachers and schools to have an overview of what’s available.
What Barriers Did You Face?
I didn’t have much commercial experience before starting a full-time business, so this was a huge learning curve. For example, it took me a long time to refine a business model for Scheme Support. I had a couple of years of under-valuing and over-valuing what I was doing, before settling on the right price point for clients.
Another obstacle was that I found it could be hard to plug yourself into a network of like-minded entrepreneurial people, as all of my friends were teachers. I went to as many education/EdTech events and conferences as I could, and through that met some fantastically inspiring people, some of whom are now good friends.
Transitioning from a regular teaching salary to depending on the client’s invoice payments was also tricky, and required a lot of learning about cash flow and budgeting.
How Have Your Teaching Skills Helped You?
I think teachers come with a lot of skills which help when setting up a business. In a way, we’re ‘selling’ all day; standing in front of students introducing them to new concepts and constantly summarising quite complex information!
The workload expectations of a teacher, especially in regards to juggling lots of things at once, also come in handy when you need to do everything yourself when starting out.
What New Skills Have You Developed?
When running an online business there will always be issues with tech, clients and users. So finding solutions quickly to the problems has been a new skill set.
Despite us teachers often being an outgoing and talkative bunch, I also used to struggle with introducing myself and Scheme Support to non-teachers at conferences or trade shows. Learning how to succinctly describe your venture (the famous ‘elevator pitch’) is really important and something I had to learn.
What Do You Relish About Your New Role?
I’ve always wanted to be self-employed and work for myself. It’s a cliche, but I love being my own boss. I also have an (almost) two-year-old daughter, and I feel so grateful to be able to spend half the week with her and be available the rest of the week for nursery collection. Having an online business means that you can be incredibly flexible with the hours you work. I know this wouldn’t be possible if I was still teaching.
There are of course tense moments when being self-employed, especially the cash-flow issue mentioned above. But my life is considerably less stressful than when teaching. Not having the famous ‘Sunday dread’ is a great feeling!
Who Has Inspired You On Your Career Journey?
I’ve found listening to the Niche Pursuits Podcast incredibly inspiring – they go in-depth with founders of content websites (like blogs, directories and affiliate-based businesses) about their growth and journey to building that business as their sole income. It’s a real rabbit hole to go down! A lot of these founders have come from ‘day jobs’ to running their own online businesses, so it’s great to hear other stories and that with persistence, it can be done.
Closer to home, there are a couple of marketplace websites in the education world I really admire, and I take a lot of inspiration from the founders of those businesses.
What Are Your Three Top Pieces Of Advice For Someone Wanting To Do Something Similar?
- If you can afford it, go part-time or take supply work to test out a business idea. It’ll give you the headspace of a couple of days a week to focus, visit trade shows and conduct research.
- Paraphrasing entrepreneur David Sivers – make sure you like hanging around the people you want as customers. I liked hanging around teachers (who doesn’t?!) so it was easier to build a business around them.
- Know your worth as a teacher and that your skills are always in demand (be that abroad, as a supply teacher, as a full-time teacher or as a tutor). You’ll always be able to find work, and this helped me when I made the jump to rely on my income from the business. It wasn’t an overnight change; I was a part-time supply teacher for three years. Yet knowing that I could make up extra money by teaching if I needed to was very comforting.
Robert Pokorny
Former Primary Teacher now Director at Scheme Support
You can follow Robert on LinkedIn: Robert Pokorny
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Thank you, Robert, for contributing to our Teacher Interviews, if you would like to write for us, we are always looking for stories to inspire teachers: Write for Those Who Can
