Award-winning businesswoman and tutor Teagan Hines-Waterman in her home classroom. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
Do what you love, take it one step at a time and celebrate the wins.
These values underpin Teagan Hines-Waterman’s approach to her business, Focus Tutoring – and they’ve worked.
The Cordeaux Heights tutor took out the Illawarra Women in Business’ Home Business award this year.
Her classes for HSC students taking in biology, physics and chemistry are bursting at the seams – and her wait list for next year is nearly filled out.
“The wait list for chemistry grew to the size of another class so I offered an extra session,” she said.
“My classes ended up so popular I could walk away from teaching completely.”
Beyond her publicly acknowledged success, through her business Teagan has built a career, and a life, that she thrives in.
“I have the best fun teaching science, which a lot of people would think is mad,” she said.
“I have a job I love, I get to be a mum during the day and I have a work-life balance that works for me.
“My son is almost five; he’s grown up with the business and just assumes everyone has a classroom in their house.
“It’s really the dream.”
Teagan never intended to be a businesswoman.
She began her career in the sciences before she became frustrated with how little time was spent doing science, and how much time was spent on paperwork.
She decided to try her hand at a teaching degree and fell in love with it straight away.
Unfortunately, she found working in the school system posed many of the same challenges she had experienced in academia.
“I love science and talking about science, and I took to teaching like a duck to water,” she said.
“I found standing up in front of a room full of teenagers very easy.
“I wanted a job that gave me a work-life balance though, and teaching never did.”
Teagan thought she could transition to teaching part-time if she was able to take on some students for private tutoring.
Unlike the advice you might hear from business bros on the internet, she didn’t throw everything she had into starting Focus Tutoring.
In 2018 Teagan and her husband used some savings to renovate their garage into a small classroom, and she offered six spaces for Year 12 students who needed help with chemistry, biology or physics.
When those spaces booked up she added extra classes for Year 11 students; then she needed to add an extra space in each class.
“I didn’t anticipate the success; I didn’t throw all my eggs in one basket and pray for it to work, it just happened naturally,” she said.
“Some people throw 100 per cent in but that wasn’t me.
“I’m so grateful it took off. Every time I had a new enrolment I was doing a happy dance.”
Now Teagan gets to do what she loves and encourage the next generation of women in the sciences.
Three quarters of her students are girls, and despite having more opportunities than ever before, they can still face obstacles.
“Anyone should be able to pick the career they want and do it, boy or girl,” Teagan said.
“I try to be gentle but I encourage them to consider STEM and opportunities like the cadetship at Bluescope or different scholarships on offer at UOW.
“I want to make sure they pick career paths they are happy with, what they love and not what they think they should be doing.
“You don’t have to be a cliche, you can be yourself and if anyone says otherwise, don’t bother about them.”
The best part of Teagan’s job is still engaging with students.
“You don’t have to pretend you understand them – you just have to be yourself,” she said.
“If you have a genuine passion for what you do and genuinely want to help them they’re on board.
“I’m really proud of them all.”
When you love what you do every day, being acknowledged is just the icing on the cake.
Teagan said her recent Illawarra Women in Business win was all the more special because it reflected the growth of her business.
The first year she entered, she made the finals.
Last year, she was highly commended.
“To step up each time, and this year take out the win, I was really blown away,” she said.
“There are so many incredible businesses, and home-based business is such a varied category, it’s incredible to know I stood out.”
