Shion's first lesson as a Japanese teacher paid about five dollars for fifty minutes. Today she runs Kotomusubi, a two-person academy with students in the US, Canada, Argentina, the UK, Estonia and Austria, and she trains new Japanese teachers too. Along the way she learned one rule about pricing she now shares with every teacher she trains: a price increase needs a plus the student can see.
The challenge: work that paid less every year
Before teaching, Shion tried almost everything she could do remotely: web design, social media management, video editing, two years of live streaming. Most of it either never made money or paid less and less as more people joined the market. Live streaming worked, but only while she was on air. "If I didn't show up, there was no income," she says.
Then she realized she already had a skill she could never lose. She is a native Japanese speaker, and teaching online required no certification. She joined a tutoring site and set her first price at about $5. "Day one, I made money," she says. The number was small. The proof was not.
The hidden cost of three tools
As her students grew, so did the patchwork. Lessons ran on Google Meet, chat lived in Slack, and bookings went through a Japanese scheduling tool. None of them talked to each other.
Money was the hardest part. Most Japanese tools only priced in yen, so every student paying in dollars meant manual notes and a loss on the exchange rate. And the ten minutes between lessons, meant for messages and prep, went to hunting down recording files and pasting links.
The turning point: one link
On Pensight, booking, chat and lessons sit in one place, priced cleanly in both yen and dollars. Recording is one button. When the lesson ends, the recording lands in the student's chat on its own. "I press record, say bye, and it's done," Shion says.
"When you raise prices, you want there to be a clear plus for the student."
The result: price increases with a visible plus
That recording turned out to be more than a time-saver. It became part of what students pay for.
When Shion helps the teachers she trains move their students to their own page, the move often comes with a higher price. She never asks for more without giving something students can see and feel: a recording of every lesson to review, and group lessons on the way. "When you raise prices, you want there to be a clear plus for the student," she says. Framed that way, the higher number reads as more value, not a new cost. Her students have responded well.
What's next
Shion no longer runs it all alone. Sumika, whom she met while working in Cebu, handles the systems and landing pages so Shion can focus on teaching and curriculum. Together they are moving Kotomusubi from one-on-one lessons toward group lessons and, later, coaching, raising what a single teacher can earn.
Shion's advice for teachers
Your native skill may already be the business. You don't need to invent a new product. Start with what you can't lose.
Count what the patchwork costs you. Three tools that don't talk to each other take the minutes between lessons and the exchange rate on every payment.
Never raise a price without a plus. Pair every increase with something your students can see, so it feels like more, not less.
