Need a Real Business You Can Start on a Budget? Here You Go.
The Tutoring Business:
In home tutoring is huge business and you can easily get into it using just the marketing skills you learned on this forum. You do not have to be a tutor yourself to make money. People are always looking for a qualified tutor for their kids, and the going rate, where I live, is $45.00-$60.00 an hour for a tutor with a masters degree.
Qualified tutors, on the other hand, are happy to accept $30.00 an hour for a guaranteed stream of clients. Especially if they are trying to break into the market. This is where you come in.
Step one: Create a website for your business “yourtowntutor.com”. Use a nice word press theme and some stock images of children and adults going over books. Brand it with your contact info and put up a contact us form.
On the website you need to develop your USP a little bit and have a good about us section. USP is pretty easy. You are a local business, not a national franchise club. All of your tutors are certified teachers, have masters degrees, either in education or the field they tutor in, and have passed a criminal background check. A nice thing about doing this where I live: to get your teaching certificate from the state you must pass a criminal background check. I imagine that law is the same everywhere, but check your state. IF it is the case, you get an extra selling point without having to do extra work.
Step two: Find qualified tutors. This step is really, really easy. Post a job add in the Education/Teaching Jobs section of Craigslist. Put your requirements and $19.00-$30.00 an hour as the pay. Direct them to an application section on your website, you will get applicants.
If you have a college in your town that offers a Masters in education program this can become a never-ending supply of qualified tutors. Call the school and ask if they have a jobs board for recent graduates, many of them do.
Step Three: Marketing:
Your marketing strategy is going to be pretty straight forward. Keep an advertisement up in the lesson services section of Craigslist. Keep your website as the #1 result for “your area tutoring” and any other keywords that your research shows might get clients.
Make up some attractive flyers and plaster them across community bulletin boards in your target area. Check out grocery stores , restaurant, community centers and churches. They all get a lot of family traffic and many of them have community boards.
Make up business cards and get some displays. Ask if you can leave them in local shops frequented by families. Pet stores, toy stores, children’s clothing boutiques. Most business owners will say yes if you present yourself professionally. Leave one sitting on the credit card slide every time you get gas, or return a movie to the movie vending machine at the grocery store.
Step Four: Running your Business
A: Clients
When you get a new client go to their home and start with a consultation. Find out the child’s name, school, grade and teacher for the subject they are having trouble with. Establish what they are looking for out of the tutoring and the milestones by which you will mark progress.
When you get back to your office, start a file on the client and this should be the first thing in it. Then call or e-mail the teacher for the subject your client is having trouble with. Explain that your company is tutoring the student and you’d really appreciate a copy of the syllabus and her thought on what the student’s problems are. Besides being invaluable information for your tutors, it will make the teacher aware of your business and hopefully leave a good impression. Which could be an invaluable source of referrals.
Have a strict cancellation/attendance policy which you make clear to the client. I recommend at least 48 hours notice if they are going to miss a session, or they are still obligated to pay for the session.
B: Tutors
Your tutors are independent contractors, and you want to make sure the tax man treats them that way. That means you can not set there schedule and you need an invoice from them for each paycheck you send them. Create a “tutoring report sheet” they scan and email (or turn in person) to you weekly. Make it a spread sheet they can fill in. Put name of student, Time and date of session, and brief summary of session as columns then have them sign the bottom of the sheet. Have your agreed upon rate per hour (I say $19.00 per hour for 30 day probationary period then $30 per hour there after) In a signed letter of understanding that lays out your relationship. Trust me, this will make your life easier if the IRS ever tries to question whether or not they are employees.
Because they are independent contractors, you can’t decide for them when they do and do not work. With each new student take the information you got from your client interview as well as the day of the week and time they want to meet, and put it into a prospect sheet you mail out to your pool of tutors. Give it out first come first serve, as long as that tutor is doing good work.
C: Money
Get a business license and a checking account for your business. A lot of your clients will want to pay by check, and it is unprofessional to have them made out to your name instead of the business name. If they want to use credit cards just use Paypal. No one expects tutors to accept credit cards, so the option is a bonus.
Clients mail payment to you, they don’t give it to the tutors. There is simply too much risk of a check disappearing, and tutors don’t need to know what cut you take. Even if they always knew you were taking a cut it will rub the wrong way.
Pay tutors every two weeks by check or Paypal. Do not pay for any session they haven’t put onto a tutoring report
Keep all your tutoring reports and check stubs. You will need them come tax time.
D: Other Thoughts That Didn’t Fit Elsewhere
If you don’t want to answer your phone “Yourtown Tutoring, this is Me. How can I help you?” get an online voicemail with a local number. People expect tutors to have other jobs so they probably won’t be surprised to get a voicemail. Make the message professional and give the time frame in which you will call back.
Once you have a tutor that you trust and get on with well offer them $40.00 per tutoring hour if they take over the new client interviews.
In home tutoring is huge business and you can easily get into it using just the marketing skills you learned on this forum. You do not have to be a tutor yourself to make money. People are always looking for a qualified tutor for their kids, and the going rate, where I live, is $45.00-$60.00 an hour for a tutor with a masters degree.
Qualified tutors, on the other hand, are happy to accept $30.00 an hour for a guaranteed stream of clients. Especially if they are trying to break into the market. This is where you come in.
Step one: Create a website for your business “yourtowntutor.com”. Use a nice word press theme and some stock images of children and adults going over books. Brand it with your contact info and put up a contact us form.
On the website you need to develop your USP a little bit and have a good about us section. USP is pretty easy. You are a local business, not a national franchise club. All of your tutors are certified teachers, have masters degrees, either in education or the field they tutor in, and have passed a criminal background check. A nice thing about doing this where I live: to get your teaching certificate from the state you must pass a criminal background check. I imagine that law is the same everywhere, but check your state. IF it is the case, you get an extra selling point without having to do extra work.
Step two: Find qualified tutors. This step is really, really easy. Post a job add in the Education/Teaching Jobs section of Craigslist. Put your requirements and $19.00-$30.00 an hour as the pay. Direct them to an application section on your website, you will get applicants.
If you have a college in your town that offers a Masters in education program this can become a never-ending supply of qualified tutors. Call the school and ask if they have a jobs board for recent graduates, many of them do.
Step Three: Marketing:
Your marketing strategy is going to be pretty straight forward. Keep an advertisement up in the lesson services section of Craigslist. Keep your website as the #1 result for “your area tutoring” and any other keywords that your research shows might get clients.
Make up some attractive flyers and plaster them across community bulletin boards in your target area. Check out grocery stores , restaurant, community centers and churches. They all get a lot of family traffic and many of them have community boards.
Make up business cards and get some displays. Ask if you can leave them in local shops frequented by families. Pet stores, toy stores, children’s clothing boutiques. Most business owners will say yes if you present yourself professionally. Leave one sitting on the credit card slide every time you get gas, or return a movie to the movie vending machine at the grocery store.
Step Four: Running your Business
A: Clients
When you get a new client go to their home and start with a consultation. Find out the child’s name, school, grade and teacher for the subject they are having trouble with. Establish what they are looking for out of the tutoring and the milestones by which you will mark progress.
When you get back to your office, start a file on the client and this should be the first thing in it. Then call or e-mail the teacher for the subject your client is having trouble with. Explain that your company is tutoring the student and you’d really appreciate a copy of the syllabus and her thought on what the student’s problems are. Besides being invaluable information for your tutors, it will make the teacher aware of your business and hopefully leave a good impression. Which could be an invaluable source of referrals.
Have a strict cancellation/attendance policy which you make clear to the client. I recommend at least 48 hours notice if they are going to miss a session, or they are still obligated to pay for the session.
B: Tutors
Your tutors are independent contractors, and you want to make sure the tax man treats them that way. That means you can not set there schedule and you need an invoice from them for each paycheck you send them. Create a “tutoring report sheet” they scan and email (or turn in person) to you weekly. Make it a spread sheet they can fill in. Put name of student, Time and date of session, and brief summary of session as columns then have them sign the bottom of the sheet. Have your agreed upon rate per hour (I say $19.00 per hour for 30 day probationary period then $30 per hour there after) In a signed letter of understanding that lays out your relationship. Trust me, this will make your life easier if the IRS ever tries to question whether or not they are employees.
Because they are independent contractors, you can’t decide for them when they do and do not work. With each new student take the information you got from your client interview as well as the day of the week and time they want to meet, and put it into a prospect sheet you mail out to your pool of tutors. Give it out first come first serve, as long as that tutor is doing good work.
C: Money
Get a business license and a checking account for your business. A lot of your clients will want to pay by check, and it is unprofessional to have them made out to your name instead of the business name. If they want to use credit cards just use Paypal. No one expects tutors to accept credit cards, so the option is a bonus.
Clients mail payment to you, they don’t give it to the tutors. There is simply too much risk of a check disappearing, and tutors don’t need to know what cut you take. Even if they always knew you were taking a cut it will rub the wrong way.
Pay tutors every two weeks by check or Paypal. Do not pay for any session they haven’t put onto a tutoring report
Keep all your tutoring reports and check stubs. You will need them come tax time.
D: Other Thoughts That Didn’t Fit Elsewhere
If you don’t want to answer your phone “Yourtown Tutoring, this is Me. How can I help you?” get an online voicemail with a local number. People expect tutors to have other jobs so they probably won’t be surprised to get a voicemail. Make the message professional and give the time frame in which you will call back.
Once you have a tutor that you trust and get on with well offer them $40.00 per tutoring hour if they take over the new client interviews.
Occasionally Relevant.