Online tutoring and courses are the new norm in education. This post will tell you how to become a successful private tutor. The useful tips explained in this post will help you become a tutor from home and whether to pursue the profession part-time or full time.
In India, the tutoring business is growing at a rapid pace. The emergence of platforms like Unacademy, online offerings by Time, Career Launcher, etc. shows how lucrative and profitable the online education segment is. Private tutors who have established their reputation can easily charge anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 per hour, some even going higher than this. Then, there are complete courses on offer which can start from Rs 5,000 to even a lakh rupees!
Subject Knowledge
Business Plan
Marketing And Competition
Insurance
Teaching Environment
Set Up A Website
Mode Of Payment
Cancellation Policy
Subject Knowledge
To start a tutoring business, you need to choose a subject in which you have deep knowledge. A subject where you don't rely on rote-learning but know the concepts inside-out. It's not necessary to have a graduation degree and depends on the country you live in. Educational qualification is highly valued in India. So if you plan to teach Physics to Indian students but don't have a degree in the subject, students won't enroll in your course. Having a degree from a prominent institute strengthens your reputation as a tutor. Attracting students also becomes easy then. It's not difficult to find subject experts who can't teach the concepts and theory to students in simple language. You may have all the theoretical knowledge in the world but if you don't know how to convey it, tutoring is not meant for you.
Next check the demand for lessons in your subject. Example if you are teaching Maths, English, piano or guitar, it helps to know how trending the subject is in terms of online tutoring. Teaching something specialized is a major factor that allows you to charge lucrative fees. Also, there is the need for regular lessons in the subject. Having a one-off lesson with a student and ending it there won't make up for a good tutoring course. Regular delivery of content is essential to become a private tutor.
You want to teach one subject or several, that's up to you. It's suggested to start out with one subject and then branch out further gradually.
Also read : Start Your Online Teaching Classes
Business Plan
A business plan is needed for every business and the same goes with tutoring as well. Having a plan is important and is overlooked by too many tutors. When they finally realize the importance of having a business plan, it's too late. Why a business plan? Partly because it gives you a set of concrete goals to work towards. What do you want to achieve in six months? In a year? What are your target students and what do they require from a tutor? A business plan ensures you have an answer to these questions. People also want lessons for different reasons. A parent might want their son to learn Maths to get into university while the someone else may want to learn the subject for acing an Olympiad.
You need to think about your market carefully. Think about how much you're going to earn in one or two years. Write down the topics to give yourself tangible goals. The business plan also provides motivation because the first year of setting up the business of private tutoring can be tricky and draining.
Marketing And Competition
Identify how other tutoring businesses and individual tutors are marketing themselves. Do you see flyers in shops or in your locality? What about business cards, online advertising, Google Adwords, Facebook ads? You need to analyze both online and offline mediums to identify marketing techniques.You can then find other ways to market your business which are unique. Promotion is the hardest part of tutoring. Unless people don't know you exist, there's no change to build a tutoring career with a bright future. Advertising is highly effective if you know how to do it.
Also read : Byju's - The Learning App
Insurance
One point often overlooked by people wanting to become a private tutor is insurance, specifically public liability insurance. Insurance is mandatory in the tutoring business and for tutors. You need to protect yourself in unforeseen circumstances; there's that one troublesome student who can disrupt your teaching. If a student gets injured while he or she is at your home? What if the student trips over something and comes down crashing on your glass table? Though it's a rare occurrence but you can't disregard it. Liability insurance is important to protect yourself just in case there are accidents or negative incidents with students at your home.
Teaching Environment
You need to have a neat and tidy workplace conducive to effective learning. There should not be too many distractions. It is important to dress appropriately and give the impression that you are a serious tutor.In case you live in a shared accommodation, tell the other housemates or occupants living with you to not disturb while you teach. Setting up a disciplined teaching environment is important for your tutoring business to be successful.
Also read : Start Teaching Students From Home
Set Up A Website
Having a website is a great way for students to find you online and expand you tutoring business. You can also put your website on flyers as part of promotions. Digital footprint is a necessity these days. You may come across a few tutors who have been teaching for many years. They have such a strong reputation that word of mouth publicity is all they need to find students. They have built a brand name over the years. But now, you definitely need a website to promote your tutoring capabilities. You can use WordPress to create a sample website. If you are not confident, hire a website designer though it will cost costs more money.
An advantage of creating a website yourself is that if you want to update the website you can do it easily on your own. Else you'll have to contact the web designer for even the smallest of requests. Make sure your website is mobile responsive. It may surprise you when you see that majority of the people search for information on their phones rather than on their computer/laptops.
Mode Of Payment
You should first offer a trial or a free first lesson to start. But in that trial lesson, make the payment mechanism clear. Otherwise, if you try and be too nice and relaxed about payment, people won't hesitate to take advantage of you and create difficulties and cancellations. You are self-employed, so be serious and lay out your payment guidelines. You can offer discounts which will encourage people to enroll for your lessons. Defining the modes of payment accepted and the payment policies are important to establish a solid tutoring business.
Also read : Teaching Sector are Benefiting by Work From Home
Cancellation Policy
You need to have a detailed cancellation policy to avoid problems and awkward situations. Inform this policy to students before you start teaching them. It also protects your income. Say, if someone cancels the lessons 24 hours in advance and if they have paid for a block of lessons, your policy can include the clause, " You don't need to pay for next week lessons."
Conclusion
This post details the basic considerations and points you need to follow to setup your tutoring business. Tutoring is a low cost, high-income business that's gaining popularity in India. Choose the subject of your expertise and get your business started. All the best!
Link : https://startuptalky.com/how-to-start-tutoring-business/
Author :- Devashish Shrivastava
June 23, 2020 at 09:45PM
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