As the summer holidays draw to a close, teachers and students approach the coming year with a combination of trepidation and excitement for the coming year. Parents are probably looking forward to life returning to some kind of normality, and tutors are mulling over how best to fill their lesson schedules for the coming year! But no matter where you’re sitting, the start of a new academic year is the perfect time to get on top of tutoring!

Students get ahead with tuition

Although the start of a new academic year is the perfect time to bring a tutor onboard to help a student on their education journey, you are likely to find a student’s peers are already taking advantage of additional tuition. With school resources stretched like never before, and competition for places in further education stronger than ever, the one-on-one support of a good private tutor can make all the difference.  Studies have consistently shown that students taking advantage of extra tuition outside of school outperform their peers.

Peers being one step ahead on tuition can be a positive thing in the respect of helping you to find a good tutor. You should be able to gather information on good local tutors, as well as seeing for yourself the results that they have helped others achieve. Qualified tutors are generally not hard to find, but tutors with proven track records and an established rapport with students are fewer and further between. Speaking with parents and other students will give you a much better idea of whether a tutor is a good fit for you than marketing materials or a website. Make sure you ask good questions around cot and frequency of lessons, and perhaps most importantly whether the student enjoys their tuition sessions. The school day is already long enough without filling the hours outside it with stress – a good tutor will be able to make the sessions engaging and fun, which hopefully the student can enjoy.

Teachers grow their wings with tuition

More and more teachers are turning to private tuition, either as a career in its own right or as a valuable second income for rainy days, holidays or unforeseen expenses. With everyone about to head back to school for another year, it is natural to reflect on past years and consider options for the future. As a teacher, you’re already on the front foot for a successful tuition career, with classroom experience and qualifications which are highly prized by parents, students and tuition companies. To be a successful tutor, you will need to do little more than making the decision to start offering private tuition and advertise your services accordingly.

The Internet has made plenty of tools available for tutors to advertise, and for students to find their tutors, and Tutorially™ can really put you centre stage. With tutor profiles that search engines rank highly, an established userbase of students who are looking for tutors today and powerful business management features that make running a tuition business a breeze; once you’ve made the decision to be a personal tutor, your next decision should be to sign up with Tutorially™ - completely free while you get your tuition business off the ground. Tutors can focus all their time and energy on teaching, letting Tutorially™ handle everything else!

Tutors, time to get busy!

 

Back to school time is, for a tutor, one of the best points in the academic year to acquire new students. New schools, new subjects, new challenges, as well as the possibility of tests and examinations looming, all combine to create a lot of activity in the tuition marketplace with parents and students eager to do whatever they can to secure the best possible education outcomes. Time to get ahead!

Make sure your website and marketing materials are up to date, and if you haven’t already done so be sure to ask your existing students for references and testimonials. Prospective students will place a great deal of stock in the experience of others, so if you have lots of happy customers, make sure you’re not the only one who knows! Tutorially™ can help you here, with easy requests for references via instant messaging and student reviews displayed prominently on your tutor profile for prospective customers to see.

Once signed up with Tutorially™ you can also manage your schedule, create automatic reminders for lessons, invoice students, track student progress as well as all your financial information from one access-anywhere portal. Running a tuition business has never been easier! All the time you save with a great tutor business management system can be dedicated to growing your business and delivering the best service you possibly can to students new and old.

Get to it

Good luck for the coming year from everyone here at Tutorially™, we hope you enjoyed your summer break and are all ready to get after it – let’s make this year the best yet! Whether you’re ready to look for a tutor, make a start as a tutor or become an even more successful tutor than you already are, we’ve got the tools to help you succeed.

There are many paths to success in the tuition business, from teachers who have grown beyond their classroom and want to work without the rigid structure of a school, to the student looking to minimise their debts and cement their subject knowledge by embracing private tutoring. At Tutorially™, we’re all about leveraging one of the best apps for private tutors to bring powerful results as quickly as possible.

One of the best strategies for tutors starting out is to learn from others. And if tutors can’t do that, how can we expect our students to? Tutorially™ spoke to their top 100 busiest tutors and found they share nine personality traits, plus a tenth common approach. Learn more below – there’s something for everyone, and following the advice of successful people is a great shortcut to your own success.

They know what motivates them

Successful tutors know what drives them. Why are they getting up each morning and giving it their all? Very often, a decision to ‘go it alone’ stems from a change in working or personal circumstances, or other major events in their lives. Londoner Nick Bains, for example, started his tuition business after a number of people had asked him for help with website design. As the ‘go-to geek’ (his words!) in his circle of friends, he found he was often in demand. A card in a few local shops and a bit of letting people know his services were available as a technology guide was all it took to get off the ground, and a valuable extra income started building. Then, two years after starting his part-time tuition service, the company Nick was working for suddenly closed its doors. That's when he committed to building his tuition business to the point he could earn a sufficient income from what had previously been a hobby. Setting up a profile on Tutorially™enabled Nick to increase his audience, spread the word further and add online tuition to his face-to-face sessions.

A change in working circumstances, a new baby, another major life change – successful tutors can often point to a specific point in time or motivating factor, which they return to when the going gets tough. It’s amazing what you can do by channeling the focus that got you to where you are today. And the drive that gives powers a successful tutor to even greater heights!

They leverage tuition communities

Successful tutors rely heavily on online communities of similarly minded people. Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets make it easy to connect with like-minded people. Instead of thinking of other people in your field as competitors, embrace them as mentors and friends. People who have travelled the path you are currently walking probably have a lot to teach you. Tutorially™ is full of tutors new and established, and with integrated messaging and blogging platforms, it’s a great place to learn from some of the world’s best!

They promote themselves constantly

The most successful tutors actively and shamelessly promote themselves and their brands through websites, social media and other more traditional marketing efforts to advertise their tuition business. People can't buy from you if they don't know what you're selling. Promote yourself – and your product and service – frequently. Make sure your underlying message helps people or makes their lives easier, to keep your customers coming back for more. Again, this is an area where Tutorially™ membership is a massive advantage – with Google ranking us consistently in the top 10 for some of the most searched terms in tuition, prospective students are much more likely to find you if you have a Tutorially™ profile, keep it up to date and add blog articles regularly to keep your audience engaged.

They take control of their schedule

Successful private tutors are masters of time management, adopting strategies that enable them to maintain full-time jobs whilst they start their businesses, as well as fitting in the rest of their busy lives. It isn’t always easy to balance a full-time job and establishing a new entrepreneurial tuition business, but it is very possible. Many of the best tutors report starting their day before the rest of their house, finding little chunks of time throughout their day, working once the family are asleep and otherwise scheduling their lives to carve out a few hours a week to continue building their business.

Multi-tasking can be your friend here. Responding to emails from your phone can be done anytime, anywhere. You might absorb a podcast or read some ‘how to’ guides during your daily commute on the train. Lunch hours can be used to create blog articles. Be mindful of time you could be using better, and make sure you take every opportunity to advance your business.

They consciously choose projects they are passionate about

Successful tutors boost their chances of success by focusing on business elements they are passionate about. Loving what you do makes it much easier to carry on when the going gets tough, as inevitably it will from time to time. We all thrive when our business interests line up with our existing skills, talents and interests – building a business that leverages those is the first step to success.

Pick a subject you love, teach it your way (mindful of the curriculum and the needs of your student of course!) and on your terms. Build a business identity that you can be proud of, and you’ll want to give it your all. When work stops feeling like work, success stops being hard!

They minimise their expenses

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but many people are so busy thinking about how their new income will fund that new car or family holiday that they can’t see the wood for the trees. Successful tutors, or indeed successful business people in any industry, maximise their chances of success by minimizing their expenses in both their professional and personal lives, while finding ways to invest in their venture.

Almost all successful tutors make every effort to first pay off debt, build up financial reserves for those rainy days and otherwise get their finances in order before launching their business. That way, they can focus on building it without financial stress. By having as little money as possible heading away from you, you can maximise the chances of being financially successful as a private tutor.

They are resilient

No matter how fantastic you are or how well things are going, in is inevitable that sometimes you will feel like you’re not making the progress you want. That’s pretty much guaranteed by the mind-set that drove you to start a business in the first place! The most successful tutors find ways to cope in the face of such setbacks. A lack of students, some less positive feedback, increased costs – these kinds of negative experiences are an inevitable part of running a business. The tutors who succeed are the ones that find the strength to keep going regardless. Persistence, perseverance and a determination to succeed will be rewarded.

They support others

As their businesses grow, successful tutors support others treading the same path. As we have already learned, emerging tutors leverage the experience of more established tuition professionals, and therefore those established professionals will offer the benefit of their wisdom and experience to those who follow them. But why? Surely you should be wary of competition? Giving back to the community that helped you build your business not only makes you feel good, but it makes your customers feel good, too, and further enhances your brand. You will become an authority in the tuition business, and all exposure is positive. The best tutors understand the value of being a contributor – the more you give, the more you will receive!

They build financial security

A recurring theme from the Tutorially™ top 100 tutor survey was their determination to build financial security and a sense of fulfilment from their tuition business, far beyond money. Extra money from a new side business is helpful, of course, but self-employed tutors are even more likely to cite a profound and enduring sense of satisfaction that they get from knowing they are creating useful products or services that help people. That's what keeps them going when the going gets tough.

The tenth (secret) secret!

If you're ready to launch your own tuition business, or to take it to the next level – to save you from financial fear and give you security and self-reliance, as well as giving you a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment – then consider applying these nine strategies to your business. Additionally, join us at Tutorially™ and create your FREE tutor profile. Spread the word, add online lessons to your service portfolio and manage your students like the established and successful tutors who already have!

Sign Up today! Students will find you easily, can check your availability for lessons and contact you . Once a lesson is planned, you can complete it online or face-to-face, track their progress and process payments. You can keep up with the latest Tutorially™ news by following us on Twitter, and liking us on Facebook.