The Ultimate Guide to Tutoring

This is the e-book I created to accompany the "1 Million Times Tables Challenge" .

Earlier this year I decided I wanted to help support 1 million children in finding their confidence with their times tables. I created a short online course to do this and will in time start taking it into schools.

This e-book offers a written explanation of some of the games presented in the course. Hopefully you can adapt them and use them with the children that you support in your lessons.

(Other resources are available in the "Tutor's Tutor" membership group if more inspiration is required or contact me for a 30 minute one to one conversation).

This video will walk you through SMART targets and how to create them in your lesson plan. In the second part of the video I will show you how I create a lesson plan. A blank copy is available here to download should you choose to use my template.

The first impression people will get of you is your profile. You nee to ensure that when it is seen you instantly capture their interest. They know that you are the person who will be the best for the tutoring that they need. You are not like everyone else. You are "the answer to a prayer!"

This short lecture will take you through some cheap and effective do's and don'ts of marketing your business

Appearing online will be a huge asset to helping you grow your business. Your website will act like your shop window, the job of your website is to entice people in to find out more...

Your website

Your website is one of the key players in your visibility to the world. Think about the image it portrays. I would suggest it needs to look professional yet friendly. You need to be visible and not hiding behind a logo or text. A website is probably one of the most important investments your business will make so give it careful thought both to its appearance and whether you will put it together yourself or whether you will pay a professional to do it for you.

1.   Your web site is a reflection of you and your business

If your web site looks professional, your potential clients will think you’re a professional who has enough clients and enough income to have a site built for you.

If potential clients visit your web site and it looks amateurish or outdated they will presume it’s because the business doesn’t provide you with the income to keep it professionally updated or they may think that the business has terminated and is no longer in existence. 

2. Your web site can help build your business locally

As I’ve mentioned if people are looking for a service, one of the first places they may well look will be online where they will hopefully find your website. If they find websites belonging to other tutors in the area you stand a high chance of losing this potential business.

If people also hear about you through your reputation, they will also need a means of trying to track you down and this method is quite an easy one.

3. Do you want to tutor globally?

Are you considering tutoring online to students living abroad or maybe English as a second language? If so you will need a website so that people from further off will find you. Although you may have work coming in from word of mouth in your local area, this won’t offer you many opportunities beyond a small geographical area.

4. Your web site can generate media interest.

“If a journalist is looking for an expert in your field to quote for an article, s/he is more likely to choose the business owner whose web site looks professional and clean than someone who looks like they don’t really know what they’re doing. And as most of you know, a mention in the media can be powerful for your business!” (Quoted from the online business blog: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/why-a-good-web-site-matters-to-your-business.html)

You've written your profile and you are online, how do you respond when a potential tutee gets in touch via phone?

The other option is that someone will contact you directly via your website. How will you respond, how will you make a great first impression?

We’ve considered the technique to use when someone rings; this is going to change slightly if they get in touch via the website. Their first impression will be drawn at this point and it will influence greatly if they decide to proceed or not.

Their point of contact may come in two forms. Firstly, via a website; your own or another one where you have submitted your details, or via a direct email.

Either way what is most important is that you respond quickly, even if it’s with an automated response stating that it is not convenient for you to respond right then, but at least they can be reassured that their message has reached you and someone will get back to them once convenient. This shows that you are not only professional, but also reliable, a good communicator and are interested in their request providing you do follow up. Nothing is worse than waiting for that call that never arrives.

How will you respond?

If they have not been specific about how they would like you to get back in touch, but have left you with both the email and address and phone number, I would recommend giving them a call. This way it is not only easier to establish more detail about what /who they are looking for. Common availability, the location the sessions will take place, agree a price and so on but also to start to build a relationship with you, giving them confidence in selecting you as their tutor. It is also more efficient than waiting for emails to flow back and forth.

When you first spoke on the phone or by email, etc. an impression will have been formed. When you actually get around to meeting face to face you need to clarify this impression and even enhance it further if you can.

I met a tutor once who turned up to do an economics lesson. The top few buttons of his shirt were undone revealing a lot of chest hair. In his hand he had a biro. The outline of the lesson consisted of him asking what the student needed to cover. The student replies. The tutor asks what the student knows about the subject. The student replies: nothing they haven’t been taught it yet but it could be in a mock that was coming up. The hour session consisted of the tutor trying to establish what the student knew, and the student trying to reiterate they hadn’t been taught it yet which was why he wanted to go over it now…

No preparation had been done, no questions had been asked in advance and the first impression upon meeting was one that was totally negative.

I often think that if I was to turn up and give a presentation having done no preparation, there would be (and quite rightly) a lot of negative feedback and I probably wouldn’t be invited back again. Yet for some reason, there are some tutors who think it is perfectly acceptable to turn up to a lesson with just a pen or a text book to read from and bluff their way through the lesson.

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Why you want to be a tutor will vary for everyone. One of the things that this might affect is where you carry out your lessons.

I've also attached an e-book that this video is modelled up that I offer as a lead -magnet on the Starr Tutoring Website, hopefully it will help you focus on what you want to offer as well.

This is probably the ultimate question that you have wanted answering from the outset.

There are so many variables it is very difficult to answer, but in the next couple of lectures, you will hopefully be better placed to put an figure in place to answer that question

This lecture is so important. Although tutoring has a relatively low start up cost compared to many businesses, there are costs you need to be aware of including: stationary, marketing, training, mentors, etc.

Until you are better placed to know what each of these will be, it is almost impossible to place a price on what you can earn.

Keeping in touch with those who aren't ready to make a decision yet, or you can't help right now can be a blessing in disguise. If you find you have a gap to fill you can always come back to them and tell them that you hope that they have been successful in finding a tutor, but if not or if they need any advise, you are there to help.

This can gesture can bring you the work you need when you need it most.

Do this from the beginning so you are better positioned to grow with your business. Lack of organisation could bring your business crashing down!