If your career change keeps going round in circles, I get it — because I was there myself. I left the classroom in 2020, and although I now help other teachers do the same through Top Set Academy, I definitely did not glide out of teaching in a perfectly calm, colour-coded way. There was plenty of trial and error, a fair bit of second-guessing, and more than one moment where I wondered why nobody had handed teachers a simple exit plan sooner.
This post is my honest take on why so many teachers get stuck when trying to leave, why in-person tutoring makes far more sense than most alternatives, and how I want to save other burnt-out teachers from the overwhelm I felt when I was figuring out pricing, marketing, and how to build a local tuition business without losing my mind.
Section 1: The Burnout Check
I think this matters more than most people realise: burnout is not just an annoying side issue. It is often the very thing making a career change feel impossible.
When I was in the classroom, there came a point where I was running on fumes. You know the feeling — permanently tired, constantly behind, and somehow already irritated by Monday before Sunday had properly finished. If you are trying to make big decisions from that headspace, everything feels harder.
Before doing anything else, I would check in with yourself properly. Signs of burnout often look like this:
- Feeling exhausted all the time, even after the holidays.
- Dreading admin, emails, meetings, marking, and all the bits of teaching that seem to multiply for sport.
- Feeling trapped, boxed in, or like there is no real way forward in school.
If that sounds familiar, it does not mean you are failing. It usually means the environment is.
Section 2: 10 Reasons Your Career Change Is Stalling
Here is what I have seen again and again: teachers are not stuck because they are incapable. They are stuck because they are burnt out, overwhelmed, and trying to navigate a huge life change with advice that is often vague, generic, or completely useless.
A lot of this comes from my own experience too. When I left the classroom in 2020, I had to figure out so much through trial and error — pricing, marketing, what to offer, how to talk about what I did, and how to build something sustainable instead of just escaping and hoping for the best.
1. Burnout Is Still Running the Show
If you are trying to plan your next step while mentally fried, everything feels murky. I have been there. It is incredibly hard to make confident decisions when you are one badly timed email away from wanting to throw your laptop out of the window.
2. You Think It Should Be Quicker Than It Is
Most teachers want out yesterday, which is understandable. But building a new career takes a plan. If you expect one quick fix to solve everything, it is easy to feel disheartened when things take time.
3. Your Skills Are Better Than You Think — but Harder to Explain
Teachers bring a huge amount to the table, but they often struggle to translate that into language other people understand. I see this all the time. So many brilliant teachers undersell themselves because they do not realise just how valuable their skills are.
4. Other People Keep Seeing You as “Just a Teacher”
This one is deeply annoying, but very real. Once you have been in education for years, some people struggle to imagine you doing anything else. It is not a reflection of your ability. It is just a limitation in their thinking.
5. Nobody Really Shows Teachers How to Leave
This is a huge part of the problem. When I made my own transition, there was so much I had to learn the hard way. That is a big part of why I do what I do now. I want to save other teachers from that same fog of overwhelm and guesswork.
6. You Are Trying to Build a New Life After a Full School Day
By the end of a teaching day, most people barely have the energy to decide what is for dinner. Trying to research new careers, update CVs, learn business skills, and make life-changing decisions on top of that is a lot.
7. Not Every Non-Teaching Job Is Actually Better
Leaving teaching is one thing. Finding something genuinely better is another. I think a lot of teachers imagine that anything outside school will automatically feel freer, calmer, and more rewarding. Sadly, some jobs are just a different flavour of stress.
8. Pricing and Marketing Feel Weird at First
This was definitely part of my own learning curve. Teachers are not usually taught how to price themselves confidently or market what they offer without feeling awkward. So when they start an in-person tutoring business, they often undercharge, overthink, or avoid promoting themselves altogether.
9. You Are Used to Being Underpaid
After years on fixed pay scales, it can be surprisingly hard to realise what your time is actually worth. Many teachers keep their expectations far too low simply because they are used to a system where effort and income are not exactly best mates.
10. You Do Not Yet Have a Clear Model
Wanting freedom is not enough on its own. You need a proper model that shows you how to get there. Once I figured that out for myself, everything became far clearer. And now, through Top Set Academy, I help other teachers skip a lot of the painful trial and error.
Section 3: Why In-Person Tutoring Is the Better Alternative
For me, in-person tutoring made sense because it let me keep the part of teaching I actually loved — helping students make progress face to face — while dropping a lot of the extra pressure that made classroom life unsustainable.
Immediate Skill Use
One of the biggest advantages is that you are not starting from zero. You already know how to teach. You already know how to explain tricky ideas, build confidence, spot gaps, and get results. That matters.
Stronger Earning Potential
This is the bit that many teachers do not fully realise at first: in-person tutoring can pay far better than classroom teaching when it is set up properly. Once I worked out pricing and stopped treating my expertise like it was some kind of bargain bin offer, I saw how possible it was to earn more while working in a way that felt far more sustainable.
Flexibility That Actually Feels Like Flexibility
Running a local tuition business gave me far more control over my time. Not fake flexibility, where you technically leave the building but still spend the evening doing admin. Real flexibility. The kind where your week belongs to you again.
Keeping the Holidays
This matters to teachers, and rightly so. One of the lovely things about in-person tutoring is that you do not have to give up the school holidays just because you leave the classroom. You can build your local tuition business around the calendar you actually want.
Room to Scale
In-person tutoring does not have to stay as one-to-one sessions forever. It can grow into group tuition, a tuition centre, or a wider local business model. That means more earning potential without simply creating another full-time job for yourself in disguise.
Section 4: How I Help Teachers Make the Transition
A huge reason I created Top Set Academy was because I did not want other teachers to have to muddle through the same overwhelm I experienced. When I left teaching in 2020, I had to learn so much by doing it the messy way — testing prices, figuring out marketing, working out what actually brought in students locally, and learning how to build a stable face-to-face tuition business instead of something stressful.
Now, I help teachers do that with far more clarity and far less guesswork.
Step 1: I Teach Simple Marketing That Actually Works
You do not need to sit around hoping students magically appear. I show teachers practical ways to find local students quickly, using straightforward marketing strategies that are manageable and effective.
Step 2: I Help You Build a Business Bigger Than Your Old Job Description
A lot of teachers assume they can only offer in-person tutoring in the exact subject or age group they taught in school. I help them realise they often have far more options than they think, which opens up much more potential.
Step 3: I Help You Plan Your Exit Without the Panic
Leaving the classroom is much less terrifying when there is a clear plan behind it. I help teachers map out a transition that feels steady, sensible, and financially realistic.
Step 4: I Show You How to Grow Without Burning Out Again
I do not want teachers to leave one exhausting system just to build another one for themselves. I help them create a flexible, profitable, and scalable local tuition business — not just another job with a different title.
Section 5: Your Next Step
If you are even half-considering a move into in-person tutoring, I would start by getting clear on a few basics for your own plan:
- Current Monthly Salary: [Enter Value]
- Target Monthly Revenue: [Enter Value]
- Available Hours Per Week: [Enter Value]
- Preferred Subject Niche: [Enter Value]
Once you have those in front of you, everything starts to feel more concrete. And if you want support, you can map your progress against the Top Set Academy benchmarks rather than trying to figure it all out by sheer willpower and caffeine.
Summary of Operations
If I could give one message to any burnt-out teacher reading this, it would be this: you do not need to throw away your skills to build a better life.
- Stop assuming you have to start from scratch in a brand-new industry.
- Start looking at how your teaching skills can become an in-person tutoring business.
- Use support and training that save you from unnecessary trial and error.
- Prioritise flexibility, better income, and keeping the holidays that matter to you.
I left the classroom in 2020, and I know how overwhelming that transition can feel when you are in the middle of it. But I also know this: with the right plan, it is absolutely possible to leave teaching, earn more, keep your holidays, and build a local in-person tutoring business that gives you your life back.