Do you enjoy teaching others? Tutoring is a solid business idea if you like to teach. Freelance tutoring allows you to either earn additional income alongside your primary job, or you can make it a full-time career.

It’s relatively affordable to start a tutoring business, all you need is Skillbox for a secure payment system and, of course, knowledge in your chosen area.

The range of tutoring jobs available varies from academics and foreign language teaching to tutoring music and computer skills. Your transferable ability can be extremely valuable and profitable!

How you deliver your tutoring services will determine the topics that you select for your students.  If you prefer to teach in-person on a personal level, your topics will perhaps differ to that of teaching online.

Tutoring college students alongside teaching adults’ new skills may mean in-person is more appropriate due to the level of engagement required.

For example, online tutorials may be valuable to university students with limited time allowing you to create a business flow in another direction.

Skillbox caters for both online and in-person under one account!

Before you begin though, check out these tips for starting your freelance tutoring career.

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Start tutoring today!

The essential first step to starting a tutoring career will be to choose the specialist topics you’d like to teach. These must relate to what you have previously studied such as your A level choices, university courses, or anything you’re highly proficient in.  

Freelance tutoring can be incredibly lucrative, depending on where you pitch your services. Make sure you research your market before fully committing to a particular subject.

The reason being, tutors that are well established may have absorbed much of the client base making it difficult to break through in your local area.

Once you have selected what subject you’d like to teach, you then have to decide on where you will run your freelance business from; tutoring online remotely or visiting a student’s home in person.

When a student is unfamiliar with you the latter option may be more appealing. However, both methods come with costs be it travel, insurance, or an internet connection. It is best practice to reflect this in your fees.

Knowing your subject is the key to your success in freelance tutoring. If a student is pleased with the way you teach and perceives you as an expert on certain topics and subjects, then repeat business will be more likely.

You don’t necessarily need to be a qualified teacher in order to set up a tutoring business. Advanced knowledge of certain subjects or a specific industry can be enough for winning a solid client base.

When students are willing to pay for lessons this means their expectations are based on you improving their understanding of a certain subject or helping them pass their next exam.

Therefore, it will be important for you to monitor the education system, for example, knowing when schools and universities commence examinations.

Having a passion for teaching is essential in this industry, and so letting your students know you have a genuine passion for tutoring and showing enthusiasm when conducting sessions will reflect well on the learner.

Further to this, time-management and organisation are two focuses when freelance tutoring. Creating a comprehensive plan that supports both your business activities and putting together a daily structural plan for your lessons will keep your tutoring business in sync and operate smoothly.

Have you considered a business plan? Doing so will allow you to plan out all the relevant financial requirements in setting up a tutoring business.

Be sure to anticipate upfront costs such as stationery, books and notepads.

Costs and demand for your freelance jobs will fluctuate, especially during the start-up phase. It might take you a while to build up a client base. So be prepared for this.

As a tutor, planning and scheduling your lessons is an essential ingredient in making your freelance jobs a complete success.

Connecting with clients is easy with Skillbox! Having a dedicated ‘contact me’ option built into each freelancer’s profile allows communication to flow.

Once a client has made the decision to purchase your services, they will simply pay the requested amount which will then be released to your Skillbox account.

Ways on how a tutoring business can stand out from the crowd were recently discussed at The Tutors Association:

• Word of mouth is a great way to stand out for its free marketing and quality clientele
• Setting up your own website and building a social media presence is great for awareness and for credibility
• Blogging will allow you to show your knowledge on certain topics and advocate your expertise
• Getting involved with educational forums and advertising on teaching platforms, such as Skillbox, will help you become more discoverable and in touch with the industry.

 

Are you ready to launch? You will need time and the necessary resources to manage all the students yourself. Again, if you’re going at this alone, it can be made possible through Skillbox.

With our platform, you are able to utilise the buying and selling functions under one account, allowing you to buy other freelancers services if you require additional support.

The greatest challenge will be finding the right freelancers for you. Referrals are the strongest forms of recruitment, however, reading profiles carefully on Skillbox and checking out reviews will help you pick the cream of the crop.

DBS checks are also a very important part of the recruitment process and finding the right people.

Ideally, you will want tutors whose passion and professionalism for teaching will reflect yours. Having an additional pair of hands will help your business thrive in a competitive but rewarding market.

Learn enoght about how to become a tutor? Launch your tutoring career today by simply joining Skillbox for free!