It may be summer time, but back-to-school is right around the corner… Do you enjoy teaching? Do you have specialty knowledge? You can turn your enjoyment for teaching and your specialty knowledge into a business. You can become a tutor.
How Does a Tutor Make Money?
As a tutor you have a variety of choices on how you set up your business. You can offer online tutoring. You can offer one on one tutoring at your kitchen table. You can of course offer both. Online you can host your tutoring sessions in chat rooms. You can offer them on a membership site. Or you can pre-record them and offer sessions as information products. People can pay for “how to” sessions.
This means you can charge by the hour, by the membership level, or you can charge for the products your customer purchases.
What You Need To Get Started
The first step is to take some time and choose a tutoring topic or specialty. What are you going to teach? Who are you going to teach it to? What is the best method to teach it? Once you have the answers to these questions you can begin to create a business plan. The plan will include your business goals, pricing, competition and marketing ideas or strategy.
You’ll also need a bit of equipment. You’ll want a computer and an internet connection. You’ll also want to create a website to promote your business. If you’re holding tutoring sessions online you’ll need a means to make this happen. You can use a chat room or video conferencing. If you are creating how to tutoring sessions then you’ll need a video camera or screen capture software depending on your topic and how you want to teach it.
Marketing Your Tutoring Business
Your website may be the most powerful marketing tool you have. Content published on your website will attract potential customers. Your website will establish your credibility. It will convince people to hire you to help them learn.
In addition to your website, you might advertise online. Consider also embracing the power of social networking to spread the word about your services.
Partnerships are another way to build a business and a clientele. Once you have a few customers you might want to start a referral program. Reward them for referring new customers to you.
If you’re going to be primarily tutoring at your kitchen table, consider posting flyers around town. You might also connect with relevant business owners. For example, if you’re teaching people how to use a computer or computer software you might connect with computer retailers.
Finally, email marketing is extremely successful. It is a way to connect with people, offer value in the form of a newsletter, and to also market yourself. You can build a subscriber base by offering a free video tutorial or report in exchange for an email address. Make sure to have a data privacy policy for this.
What is your specialty? How can you use this knowledge to help others? If you enjoy teaching and you are looking to own your own business consider becoming a tutor. You can make a living helping others.
