Starting a home tutoring service is a small business that does not require much start-up costs or training. Essentially, this service is an excellent business for stay-at-home moms who love to deal with children and make some money on the side. Apart from that, this home business provides time flexibility as the tutor would only need to spend a few hours each day on tutoring. Of course, more classes can also be scheduled according to personal preferences.
In fact, a tutoring business can be conducted either within the comfort of the tutor’s home or at the home of the students. This essentially eliminates the need to pay for rental costs of any kind, with the only cost being transportation costs and the time spent on the classes.
Start Up Costs and Financing Sources:
Starting a tutoring business does not require much in start up costs. In fact, the bare essentials that you need to purchase are pencils and paper as well as some books, all of which will cost you less than $20.
Pricing Guidelines for Service:
Tutors normally charge between $15 and $40 an hour for their services. Rates are dependent on the subjects and the levels that are being tutored as well as the location where the services are offered. Naturally, services offered in larger cities will cost more.
Advertising and Marketing:
Advertising and marketing your tutoring service is one of the most crucial steps in order to ensure success in your business. In fact, there are many ways in which tutoring services can be marketed. The first thing that you should do is to create a profile for yourself. List down your credentials, including the details of your degrees as well as any previous tutoring experience that you may have. Apart from that, other teaching related experience such as peer tutoring while at the university may also help in building a strong profile.
Next, think about which area of study that you are interested to teach as well as the specific age group. Most tutors specialize in specific subjects like Arithmetic or History, while others may deal with just elementary students.
Once you have your resume all ready, you are then ready to approach the schools to market yourself. Inform any school teachers that you know about your expertise, experience and the services that you are offering. This is as many parents enquire with school teachers on where they can send their children for tutoring, which makes teachers the best people to promote you. Alternatively you can also approach the school counselor or principal about your services, as they may be constantly seeking tutors to recommend to the parents of children with problems in their studies.
The next thing you can do is to stick a small ad on bulletin boards located in stores around town. You can find these boards in laundromats, convenience stores and supermarkets. Some parents may notice your ad and call you up for a tutoring engagement. Apart from that, you can even design a nicely printed flyer, highlighting your services and credentials as well as your contact information and send them out to mail boxes within your area.
Another thing that you could do is to contact a local home school group in your location. Many parents of home schooled children require tutoring in certain subjects and may be seeking tutors for this purpose.
Recommended training, experience, or needed skills:
A tutor does not necessarily need to have a degree in teaching in order to be qualified for tutoring. However, teaching experience will help in building a profile, as parents will be more confident with your abilities. Furthermore, as a tutor, you need to seek out the latest syllabus and texts which are being used in classes so as to ensure that what your teaching is aligned with the current education system.
Additionally, a visit to the library could help in obtaining lists of books specifically on tutoring your areas of focus. Furthermore, you will be able to find a wide variety of material to present to your students in class from within the local library. You may even obtain creative teaching and tutoring ideas that will help draw the attention of your students during class.
Income potential:
The potential earnings from a home tutoring service are really dependent on the efforts and the commitment of the individual. If more time were allocated to tutoring, then more income will be generated.
There have been tutors who have successfully made an annual income of $10,000 to $15,000 tutoring just 20 hours a week from home.
Target market:
Students from Elementary Level up to High School
Success tips:
One of the factors influencing the success of a home tutoring service is the level of education and guidance that has been provided to the students. Usually, this is measured by the results attained by the students. Once a student scores an ‘A’ in a subject area that he or she has been poor in, your effective tutoring work will travel quickly by word of mouth as parents will make good recommendations to other parents. In fact, word of mouth is the channel that facilitates rapid growth in your business.
