Education is among the largest industries in the United States. The education market is expected to grow by $1.95 trillion by 2025. Given that education is a basic necessity and possibly somewhat more immune from the vagaries of a fluctuating economy, many people are thinking of starting their tutoring business. If you’re one of them, you’re probably wondering if this type of business venture is for you.
Are you wondering how to start a tutoring business? Listed below are some tips on how to launch your own tutoring services.
Why Start a Tutoring Business?
There are many reasons you should start an online tutoring business.
- You can earn money, either as a part-time or full-time tutor.
- Starting a tutorial business requires minimal costs.
- You can work anywhere if you’re offering online tutorial services.
- You have the freedom to travel if you work as an online tutor.
- You can manage your own schedule.
- You can choose what subject or topic to teach.
- You can set your own rate.
- You can offer your services to students across different locations, especially when you have an online tutoring business.
What are the Different Types of Tutors?
There are different types of tutors. Knowing what these are will help you determine what kind of tutoring services you can offer.
- Subject Tutor – You can help students learn and understand different subjects like English, Math, and Science. You may focus on offering assistance for a single or a variety of subjects, depending on your expertise.
- Homework Help – You can offer tutorial services that focus more on assisting students with their homework like finishing a Science project or answering complicated Math problems.
- Test Prep Tutor – Assist students in preparing for an upcoming test, such as SAT, AP tests, or quarterly exams in school.
- Language Tutor – This is one of the most popular tutorial services these days. You can teach students within your area, or those who are from other countries (through online tutorial services) to learn English.
- Learning Disability Tutor – Help students with learning disabilities to improve their performance in school.
- Admissions Tutor – Help students prepare for their admission or application interviews or tests.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Tutor?
How much you earn if you start a tutoring business will depend on the type of tutoring service you offer and your level of experience and expertise. The average hourly rate for a tutor in the US is $25. But rates can reach up to $100 or more if you’re a certified teacher with several years of experience. If you’re new in this business, you can start by charging the minimum rate and then increase your prices as you gain more experience and get good references.
Factors that may affect the rates of your tutoring services include the following:
- Type of tutoring service offered
- Level of expertise, including certification, recommendations/references
- Years in the business
- Length of session
- The complexity of the tutoring offered (e.g., tutoring services offered to college students are more expensive than those offered on pre-K.)
If you’re not into building your own tutoring business and just looking for a part-time gig, you can find tutoring jobs from the following:
- Facebook groups
- Online job sites
- Google Search
- Craigslist
- Local job boards
- Flyers
Let’s delve into the specific steps:
Assess Your Qualification
Your educational qualification is one of the essentials for becoming a tutor. It determines if you’re equipped to teach students and helps build trust between you, your students, and their parents.
Keep in mind that you need to be an expert in the subject that you plan to help your students with. Although you will gain more teaching experience as you go along with your business, having prior teaching experience will add more value to your tutorial services.
If you have a high school diploma or GED, you can offer tutorial services to elementary and middle school students.
If you have an undergraduate degree, you can offer tutoring services to elementary, middle school, high school, and even college students.
If you have a postgraduate degree, you can offer tutoring services to elementary, middle school, high school, and college students. Depending on your field of expertise, you may also offer assistance to adults who are looking to complete their GED.
Apart from your educational qualification and teaching experience, you must also know how to identify your student’s needs. You must be engaging and know how to collaborate. These skills will help you pinpoint possible issues that need to be dealt with to help improve your student and teacher interaction. You should know how to motivate your students and how to keep them attentive and interested in your learning.
Know Your Competitors and Target Market
Gather all the information you can about your competitors. Find out how they attract students, what their operation strategies are, how they manage their course schedule, and how they get paid.
You also need to study your target market to determine what to teach and how you can help them. You should know more about their level of education, educational goals, age group, and location. At this point, you must decide whether you want to teach elementary, middle school, high school, or college students.
Define Your Niche
You already know that there are different types of tutoring services. If you’re interested in starting your own tutorial business, you need to choose a niche first. By knowing what kind of tutoring you can offer, you’ll be able to set yourself apart from other tutors in your area. Not only that, you can market a more specialized tutoring service for a premium rate.
Here are some questions you need to answer when defining your niche:
- What subjects are you good at?
- Are you comfortable teaching those subjects?
- What is the demand for the tutorial services you offer?
- Will your offered services attract your target students?
- Will you be able to earn sufficient income from this to make it worth your while?
Create a Budget
You need to create a budget. This is one of the most important things to do when you’re starting a business. You need to factor in the costs of the materials, equipment, and supplies you need. You should also consider if you need to rent out a space for your tutoring service or you would rather operate it at home by offering online tutoring services. If you will tutor at your student’s location you need to factor in the cost of transport and the time you will expend on travelling. You also need to include the premium you need to pay for liability insurance, which will cover property damage, bodily injury, and third party (clients) accidents.
Price Your Tutoring Services
Determining the price of your tutoring services can be confusing and difficult. You need to consider several factors to help you determine how much you should charge for your service.
- Location – Students living in a place for the well-off may be able and willing to pay tutors a high hourly rate eg, $100 per hour. This doesn’t apply to those who are from middle-class families. So you need to consider the location your target students belong to.
- Demand – You can charge higher for tutoring services that are in-demand compared to those that are not.
- The complexity of the Subject – The more complex the subject the higher the price of the tutoring service. For example, complex math tutor rates may be higher than the rates for teaching basic English.
- Qualifications – Students and parents are more likely to pay higher to tutors with a higher level of education or those who graduated from a reputable and well-known school or college.
- Experience – Tutors with several years of experience, with good credentials and lots of good references can charge higher than those who just started offering tutoring services.
- Preparation Time – Before your tutoring session starts, you need to prepare for your lesson. You need to consider this when determining the price of your tutorial services.
- Materials Used – Consider the materials you used for the session. These may include worksheets, test papers, or study notes for your students.
- Advertising Costs – You also factor in the amount you will spend to market your services.
Once you’ve considered all these factors, you need to choose your preferred pricing strategy.
- Hourly rate – The average hourly rate for a tutor in the U.S. is $25. This pricing strategy is ideal if you’re not sure how long the tutoring session will last. It’s a good option if your client doesn’t want a long-term tutoring service.
- Flat fee – If your target students would go for regular tutoring then you may consider charging a flat fee. You can also use this strategy if you are offering a whole course. But you need to factor in the complexity of the course and how long it will take to complete.
Work On Your Business Essentials
Determine if you want to buy a tutoring franchise or you would rather operate your business independently. The simplest form of business that you can start and operate is a sole proprietorship. But you may also consider a limited liability company if you want flexibility and personal liability protection.
Do you need a license to start a tutoring business? Check with your state to know the permits and licenses required to run your tutoring business whether at home or online.
You should also create a business plan that outlines all aspects of your tutoring business like what specific tutoring service you want to offer, how to price your services and how you plan to grow your business.
Market Your Tutoring Business
Now that you’re ready to launch your tutoring business, how do you get tutoring clients? The next thing you need to do is market it to your target audience. Some of the most popular marketing methods you can use include:
- Word of Mouth
- Distributing flyers
- Posting on Community Boards
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Creating a Website
You can grow your business even more by joining the National Tutoring Association. This will help you get connected with other tutors in your area and provide you with referrals. Some associations also provide training opportunities for their members.
How to Start a Tutoring Business Online?
You still need to do the steps listed above when starting a tutoring business online. But there are some special considerations you need to include.
- Find a place in your house where you will conduct your online tutoring sessions.
- Set up your computer and make sure you have a stable internet connection. Set up all the hardware needed.
- Consider the software you need for your business. This may include video-calling software like Zoom, virtual whiteboard software like Ziteboard, and document-sharing software like Google.
Conclusion
Tutoring can be a profitable business, especially if you have expertise in academics that you want to share while making money. Starting a tutorial business is a huge decision and needs proper and careful planning and execution if you want to succeed. Hopefully, this guide on how to start a tutoring business from home has given you an idea of how to start a tutoring business online or from home.
Aidan has been writing about personal finance for over 6 years. Prior to this, he worked as a Corporate Finance Analyst where he specialized in Due Diligence, Company Valuations and more. He is a CFA charterholder.
