How To Start A Tutoring Business?

How To Create A Tutoring Business

Launching Yourself Through An Existing eLearning Website

Though it might seem pretty straightforward, many management processes are happening simultaneously at the backend. Starting with your tutoring platform is not the only option to enter this business. You could first register as an online tutor on an established virtual tutoring platform and gain hands-on experience in the operation and management processes.

It is very simple to start as an online tutor.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Registration

You need to fill out a virtual form with your bio, basic credentials, probably a profile picture of yours, and many more criteria depending on which platform you are registering on. Some companies might also ask you to submit a copy of your certificates and ID proof.

Verification

Once you have submitted all your details, the company's verification team will validate your information to check your authenticity. Some even go as far as doing a background check. Only once you pass all these verification processes will your profile be made public on that site.

Start Tutoring

Once you are verified and registered as an official tutoring member of the website, you can schedule live classes with your students per that website's guidelines. You can either choose to do one-on-one or one-to-many tutoring sessions.

Developing Your Elearning Website

Understand that starting an online tutoring business of your own requires more of your time and hard work than the previous option. But the rewards are worthy of your collective efforts.

Let's jump straight to it.

Drafting A Business And Revenue Plan

Planning is everything. Spontaneous decisions might lead to unforeseen risks. 

Planning a business needs organisational skills. It will help you cut down a lot of chaos. However, a detailed business plan is necessary to get started and head in the right direction.

Here's what you need to include in your business plan:

• Executive summary​
• Product or service description
• Industry analysis
• Competition analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Marketing and sales plan
• Operations plan
• Financial plan
• Milestones schedule

Once done with your business plan, you also need to draft your revenue plans for your website. Just like how a business plan is the foundation of your operations and management, a revenue plan is a basis for the financial aspects of your tutoring business. Without a proper plan, the investment you put into this business will be open to the risk of mismanagement.

Here are a few models you can adopt to gain good revenue:

• Membership or subscription fee model
• A freemium model
• An exclusive fee structure for one-to-one and one-to-many classes
• Different charges for certifications and course materials, etc.

Know Who You Are Up Against

It is the key to how you run your business. The two major groups of people you need to be aware of before starting your own tutoring business are:

Your Competitors

you can gather knowledge from any source. You can even learn from your competitors. Observing is the key here. You can learn:

• How they attract students
• Their operation strategy
• How are they are managing the course schedule
• What payment system are they using
• How they integrate safety measures, etc.

Your Targeted Audience

Without them, there is no virtual eLearning website. Hence, it is important to study the customer base you want to target. Your "how" and "what" to teach is based on this step. You need to understand their:

• Level of education
• What they are looking for from online learning
• Their educational goals
• Location
• Age group, etc.

Select Your Niche

The centre of your business is to decide what you want to teach your students. You will develop your whole platform based on this decision. To pick the right subject for your tutorials, answer these questions for yourself:

• Which is your subject matter of expertise?
• How comfortable are you teaching that subject?
• Is it in demand in the present market?
• Would it attract and benefit the students you are targeting?

This decision plays an important role in attracting the right attention for your virtual learning platform.

Determine The Execution Of The Course

It is the stage that makes or breaks your website. Therefore, you need to plan your teaching method very carefully, keeping in mind all the characteristics of your student base.

• Introduce SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) learning programs;
• Divide the course into modules that can be easily taught within a fixed duration and don't seem to be too overburdening to students;
• you should plan your course materials in such a way that the modules should be leading up to the aim of that subject rather than have loose ends; and,
• Adopt an LMS (Learning Management System) to help you plan, manage, and execute the schedules more efficiently.

To execute your tutorials virtually, you will have to adopt either of the below methods:

• Synchronous tutoring
• The tutor and the student have to connect live for this kind of tutoring.
• Asynchronous tutoring
• The tutor can upload the course material, and the student can access the material at their convenience.
• Combination tutoring
• Utilising the added values of synchronous and asynchronous tutoring, you can formulate your style by combining the first two methods.

Now that you have decided on all the front-end parts of your online tutorials let's check out how to build your website.

Developing Your Tutoring Website

Having technical coding knowledge has nothing to do with you being able to or not being able to build your virtual eLearning platform. Apart from building your platform, there are other ways to build and launch your website.

Hiring a tech team to develop your website from scratch

Buying a ready-made software platform—turnkey solutions

If you have the time and the financial strength to build your virtual platform from scratch, that would be the best option. But if there is a crunch in both the parameters, the best method would be to buy a pre-developed platform and customise it to suit your needs. Also, you will be getting the full source code of your website to edit your website per your interests in the future.

Whichever method you choose, make sure that you have all the following basic features on your website:

• The in-built virtual writing board software
• Document sharing facility
• Notification alerts
• Progress analyser and tracker
• Class scheduler
• Payment gateways
• Dashboards for admin, tutors, and students
• Review and rating options

Here are a few well-known names in the industry of developing software:

• Apple Final Cut Pro
• Adobe Premiere Elements
• Articulate Storyline
• WizIQ, etc.

Market And Promote Your Website

Now that your whole platform is ready to be launched, you will have to market it to reach a global audience and get the right traction it needs to. Given the world is connected through social media, take advantage of this application and try reaching out to as many people as possible. Here are some popular marketing methods that you can use to obtain a good SERPs ranking and hence get the critical attention of the right audience on the search engine result page:

• Social media marketing: e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
• Multimedia marketing: e.g., Google ads, pay per click
• Content marketing: e.g. email marketing, newsletters, blogging
• Influencer marketing
• SEO technique, etc.

Student Retention

 Last but not least, you should plan how you will retain your existing student base. It is the main cause of the success and failure of any virtual platform. Therefore, you have to develop a creative, out-of-the-box strategy to keep them engaged.

Here are some tips that you could follow:

• Invite guest lecturers
• Use animations, PPTs, storytelling methodology
• Conduct pop quizzes
• Organise healthy virtual group discussions and debates
• Give knowledge building assignments and team projects
• You can also make students present sessions by themselves
• Always make sure to have regular contact with your students virtually

Thus, you will have your very own online tutoring platform. However, this comes with its share of advantages and disadvantages too.

Disadvantages:

• You have to earn each student on your own.
• Seeing a profitable ROI will take a while.
• The whole management and operations should be taken care of by you.
• Marketing and promotions are your responsibility.

Advantages:

• What you earn goes only into your pocket.
• You are the rule maker.
• You can schedule classes according to your convenience.
• You can follow your business plan, etc.

Understand What Makes Your Audience Satisfied:

Gone are the days when parents did not inquire much about tutors for their kids. They now know what they want from the tutors and play an active role in their children's progress. Understand what they want from a tutor and provide services that align with their interests.

These are a few things that your clients may look for:

• 1:1 tutoring: Nothing drives more attention than personalised classes for teaching! You focus on the exact weaknesses and strengths of a particular student and teacher in the best suitable way. It is why a lot of parents prefer 1:1 tutoring for their kids.
• Group tutoring: Group tuitions can bring out the best in students. Learning is fun, and it encourages students to think creatively and build strong communication skills. It is the perfect combo of socialising while learning!

Essentials

Starting a tutoring business requires only a few essential elements, but you can be prepared for whatever challenges come your way with careful consideration.

Choose a neutral, non-threatening location. Parents and students must feel extremely comfortable with where you do your tutoring. If possible, find a quiet, public place, such as a library, and ensure parents know their children are safe.

Communicate effectively and meet the child or student on his level. In addition, a tutor must know how to explain educational concepts as simple or complex as needed, according to a 2010 business article from A Touch of Business.

Be patient. Your students will not always understand concepts the first time you explain them. So repeat yourself as many times as you need to. After all, their performance will reflect your company.

Considerations

Set a fair but standard rate. Call around and find out how much other tutoring companies charge per hour. At first, you might consider lowering your rates a bit, then raising them when you have a solid client list and establish a good reputation.

Market yourself at schools and colleges:

1. Put up flyers with contact information on every campus in town.
2. Get to know teachers, educators and administrators all over town. Let them know about your company and ask them to refer students to your business.
3. Attend PTA meetings and pass out business cards to parents.

Interact with your student's teachers. Keep up with the curriculum your pupil's study so you can cover everything they need help with. Interacting directly with the teacher is the best way to ensure nothing is skipped in tutoring sessions.

Plan Your Budget

Setting a sustainable budget and sticking to it is a big part of being a successful business owner. Consider the following when determining your budget:

• What business costs might you incur to set up shop?
• Do I have, or can I obtain the right materials and supplies?
• Will you need new equipment or a dedicated space to work?
• How much money will you need to cover your living expenses?
• How much can I charge? Is that enough to be profitable?
• Will I hire other tutors or do it all myself in the beginning?

If you plan to quit your day job to pursue a career as a tutoring entrepreneur, it's a good idea to set aside money to cover at least three to six months of living expenses. But you might also decide to continue working while you launch your business, using your tutoring money to build a savings account to cover lean times that may arise when you're ready to quit your job and run your full business time.

Conclusion

All in all, starting your own tutoring business is a great way to help students in your community and make some extra money on the side. It can be challenging to get started, but you can be well on your way to success with a little effort and planning. What do you think? Are you ready to start your own tutoring business? If so, we wish you all the best!