Your first paying customer in six weeks. Keep your job.
Six weeks online, around your timetable. You talk to people who might buy, test a price and ask for the sale.
Your school can pay. I invoice them directly, and the email to ask is ready.
Cohort 1 is in Week 1 right now
Why teachers don’t start, and what you get for each.
I don’t know if anyone would pay.
I have no idea what to charge.
I’m scared to sell.
Am I even allowed to do this?
I don’t have time.
Six weeks, four steps.
You move on to the next step once real people have answered.
Talk to the people who’d pay
Seven interviews, before you make anything.
Make a small version and price it
Show it to real buyers with a price on it.
Ask for the sale
One real conversation with someone who can say no.
Pitch at Demo Day
Five minutes on what you found and your next 90 days.
On every plan
- Six weeks of lessons, readings and tools
- Interview kit, pricing sheet, sales script and contract checklist
- A pod of four or five teachers that meets every week
- The cohort chat, during the course and after it
- A five-minute pitch at Demo Day
- A certificate with your hours
- A lesson on the AI tools I use in my own business
Who teaches it, and who’s in it right now.
- Taught and led teams of teachers in eight countries.
- Designs curricula and teacher training, including the EU-funded European Wind Academy.
- Researches at Leiden why good teachers leave.
- Found her first clients before she had a company or a website.
- The course is built on EntreComp, the EU framework for entrepreneurial skills.
Mila is from my Instagram series, Just a Teacher, which I make with AI tools. Episode 1 got 429 likes in two days. My other posts that week got 11 to 150.
Watch Episode 1 →Their results go up on this page as they happen.
What you bring.
Lessons, interviews, one live session and your pod.
Parents, colleagues, anyone who might buy. You pick them in Week 1.
Everything is online, in English.
Lesson 1 starts from what you already have. Try it free.
Choose how much time you get with me.
Every plan includes everything listed above.
- All lessons, readings and tools
- All five bonuses
- Your pod and the cohort community
- Your pitch at Demo Day
- Everything in the first plan
- A weekly live session with me and the group
- My feedback on your work at every gate
- A mentor in the chat
- Sessions with invited experts
- The First Client Guarantee
- Everything in the second plan
- 3 hours a week with me, one to one
- Help with your strategy and the whole business, beyond the course
- The First Client Guarantee
First Client Guarantee
If you do the work and still have no paying customer by Demo Day, I keep working with you one to one, free, for up to six more weeks. We stop when you have a customer or a clear answer on whether to go on.
It applies if you:
- watch every lesson, or join it live
- hand in your work at all three gates, on time
- do all seven interviews and share your notes
- run the price test with real buyers
- ask at least one person for the sale
- pitch at Demo Day
Ask your school to pay.
Many schools have a training budget. I invoice the school directly. Copy the email, add your principal’s name and send it.
Dear [name],
I’d like to join Teacher to Entrepreneur, a six-week online course for educators built on EntreComp, the European framework for entrepreneurial skills. It starts on 25 January and takes about seven hours a week.
I would build and test a real project with real people, and I’d bring back what I learn. The course comes with a certificate with hours, and the provider can invoice the school directly.
Could we discuss funding it from the training budget?
Thank you,
[your name]
Before you join.
What if I miss a gate?
Tell me early. We can usually catch up within the week. The guarantee only covers the work that gets done.
Can my school pay for it?
Often, yes. I invoice your school directly. The email is ready above.
Are the live sessions recorded?
Yes, and they’re on the platform the same day. Your pod meets at a time you agree together.
Can my business be outside education?
Yes. The interviews and the price test work the same for a bakery. You’ll just be the only one in your pod talking about sourdough.
What is the certificate?
A certificate with your hours, assessed on your portfolio. It isn’t an accredited qualification.
Get your first paying customer before you give it a year.
Your staff fix the problems that keep coming back. You get the evidence.
Each teacher takes one problem your school keeps having, tests a fix with the people it affects, and presents the result to leadership.
EntreComp self-rating, team average, Week 0 and Week 6
Fixes ready for a decision
| Year 7 transition: buddy week run by Year 9 | Scale |
| One weekly parent update instead of five emails | Scale |
| Onboarding checklist for new staff | Adapt |
Layout and sample entries only. Your numbers come from your own pilot.
What changes, and how you’ll know.
The same problems come back every year.
Each participant tests a fix for one of them with a real class or team.
Training days don’t change practice.
Six weeks of doing. Three gates that only open on evidence.
Good teachers leave, or stop proposing things.
Staff get a project of their own, a pod of colleagues and a stage.
Improvement depends on outside consultants.
Your people learn a method they can run again without me.
You can’t see who your next leaders are.
Every participant pitches to leadership with their evidence.
Six weeks, and what leadership sees at each stage.
Choose and listen
Each person picks one problem and interviews the people it affects.
Build and test
A small version of the fix, tested with one class or team.
Make the case
They take it to the person who decides, with costs and evidence.
Demo Day
Five-minute pitches, at your school if you like.
Four things on your desk after Demo Day.
The pilot report
Every problem, fix and result, and which are ready to scale.
Demo Day pitches
Recorded, so the rest of your staff can watch.
Competence report
Fifteen EntreComp competences, before and after, anonymised.
Certificates
One per participant, with hours.
Keeping teachers costs less than replacing them.
Teachers satisfied with their job are about five times less likely to plan to leave.
OECD TALIS 2024, via Education InternationalThe cost of replacing one teacher in a US district, depending on its size.
Learning Policy Institute, 2024Per person on a ten-seat team pack, excluding VAT.
What it takes on your side.
About seven hours a week per person for six weeks. Most of it is work on your school’s own problems.
Someone who reads the gate results and comes to Demo Day.
Optional. Staff can also bring their own.
Only for an in-house cohort: kick-off and Demo Day at your school.
Start with a free staff workshop.
All prices exclude VAT. One invoice to the institution.
A private cohort for your school, with kick-off and Demo Day on site.
Book a callEmilia Shend
- Designs curricula and leads teacher training, including the EU-funded European Wind Academy.
- Has taught and led teams of teachers in eight countries.
- Researches at Leiden why good teachers leave.
What schools ask first.
Who should take part?
Teachers who keep proposing fixes, middle leaders, and anyone you’re worried might leave. A mix works best.
Online or on site?
The course runs online. An in-house cohort can hold kick-off and Demo Day at your school.
What happens to our data?
Leadership sees an anonymised competence report, never individual ratings. Interview notes stay with the staff member unless they share them.
Which language?
English for now. If your staff would rather work in Dutch, tell me on the call.
Tell me what your staff keep trying to fix.
Thirty minutes on a call. You leave with a one-page proposal, whether or not you go ahead.
Maastricht, Netherlands
emilia.shend@gmail.com
+31 6 86 04 84 54
KVK: 42009866
VAT: NL005431241B17