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Tutoring/education business

NoStupidQuestion

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After canning my previous idea, I've now set upon a new one! I'm setting up a new tuition business but am kinda lost on the order in which I should do things.

I have a vision of the range of services I would like to offer in the medium-long term, but I am aware that without much outside funding and without wanting to get into debt, it's better to start small. Therefore, as my initial "service", I was thinking to start small group tuition in my local area as that will be the cheapest option overall. I'm a qualified teacher of elementary aged children, so I can credibly offer that alone. I am reluctant to create a website for this stage however, as I'd rather my website show/offer the full range of services that I eventually hope to offer, rather than the single service I offer now.

My thought process here is that a high quality and thorough website will look more professional to prospective tutors that I will need to hire, and of course, prospective clients. Although we won't initially be able to offer what some people may want, we can potentially get registrations for future sales/data purposes, and that it might be better to turn prospective clients away than not to have any at all.

At this first stage, I would rather do localised advertising (leaflets, banners etc), but I feel I would be missing out on the large numbers of people who just want to book/register online, so not doing a site would be a missed opportunity.

Although a website can change as the services I offer change, I am one of these types who wants to appear "well-established", for many reasons (some of which are above).

So with all of this said, I feel the whole business centres around the creation of a website, even if I cannot necessarily provide all of the services listed yet. I feel that I am more likely to attract prospective tutors and clients with a high quality website. Do I go whole hog and just build the entire business right now and try and build the other services right away? This will obviously cost a lot more money so it doesn't quite seem to make sense.

I would be grateful if people could share their thoughts with me. I'm very open to the idea that all of my assumptions and thoughts are wrong!
 
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Andy Black

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After canning my previous idea, I've now set upon a new one! I'm setting up a new tuition business but am kinda lost on the order in which I should do things.

I have a vision of the range of services I would like to offer in the medium-long term, but I am aware that without much outside funding and without wanting to get into debt, it's better to start small. Therefore, as my initial "service", I was thinking to start small group tuition in my local area as that will be the cheapest option overall. I'm a qualified teacher of elementary aged children, so I can credibly offer that alone. I am reluctant to create a website for this stage however, as I'd rather my website show/offer the full range of services that I eventually hope to offer, rather than the single service I offer now.

My thought process here is that a high quality and thorough website will look more professional to prospective tutors that I will need to hire, and of course, prospective clients. Although we won't initially be able to offer what some people may want, we can potentially get registrations for future sales/data purposes, and that it might be better to turn prospective clients away than not to have any at all.

At this first stage, I would rather do localised advertising (leaflets, banners etc), but I feel I would be missing out on the large numbers of people who just want to book/register online, so not doing a site would be a missed opportunity.

Although a website can change as the services I offer change, I am one of these types who wants to appear "well-established", for many reasons (some of which are above).

So with all of this said, I feel the whole business centres around the creation of a website, even if I cannot necessarily provide all of the services listed yet. I feel that I am more likely to attract prospective tutors and clients with a high quality website. Do I go whole hog and just build the entire business right now and try and build the other services right away? This will obviously cost a lot more money so it doesn't quite seem to make sense.

I would be grateful if people could share their thoughts with me. I'm very open to the idea that all of my assumptions and thoughts are wrong!
If you’re going to serve people locally then what about starting by letting people know what you’re doing and maybe creating a simple Facebook page?
 

Val Okafor

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If you’re going to serve people locally then what about starting by letting people know what you’re doing and maybe creating a simple Facebook page?
Looks like OP is allergic to the Internet itself so even a Facebook page may be an overkill, so maybe word of mouth and a flyer.
 
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Stargazer

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A few things.

1) Almost every tuition centre in the world does two things. Maths and English. This is not by accident. That is the demand. As in Tsunami of demand.

2) Almost every child at Primary/Elementary school lives with in a small defined radius.

3) If you are starting and have no clients yet, which I assume you don't, then you wont need many to start as you can't magic hours out of thin air. By default you can only have them evenings and weekends.

So all you need to do is get a flyer designed and printed and then spend a few days posting them through doors in surrounding streets to where a school is. If you want to play it safe go to where the residential estates with 3 or more bedroom houses are as they will almost all be families living in them.

You do not need a website in the slightest and you certainly do not need a range of services.

You can add Science/Languages and get more tutors later on if you really must and have built some sort of reputation.

Dan
 
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NoStupidQuestion

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Thanks for all of the responses so far I appreciate them, especially Stargazer. I’m not allergic to the internet haha, it’s just that I don’t feel it’s a good idea to have a half-completed website.
 

Andy Black

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StrikingViper69

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A simple website can be:
Home page: list all benefits of studying with you, some testimonials and a contact form.

That's it, a one page website. You can also have people click through to your contact form.

It doesn't need to be fancy to be effective.

Have a website and phone number on your flyer, blast out a few thousand and see who calls...
 
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jdm667

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I do tutoring (math) for HS and college students.

Post some fliers at the local library to get started!

I was at the library a few weeks ago, and I saw a flier from a teacher offering English tutoring. All of the tear-offs with her name and phone number at the bottom were gone (there must have been 10 or more, so lots of people are at least considering it).

If you get busy with lots of students quickly, you will have enough money to hire someone to do the website for you.

If it grows a little more slowly, you can spend some time learning how to do a basic website yourself, while you wait for more students to come in.

If you want, private message me and I can send you a link to my tutoring website, so you can get some ideas. It doesn't take long to set up a basic one, but it can be intimidating if you are just starting.

Good luck!
 

NoStupidQuestion

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Update on this:

So we’ve found a location (local school) and are planning on running one day a week then hopefully planning on moving to two if there is enough demand.

We’re trying our local area first but we need to be very careful about where we target our advertising because it’s one of those areas with some deprivation and some middle class.

A part of me is thinking I should target a completely different area where the money is from the off, but I don’t have too much familiarity with them and am not local, so I think that maybe starting small in my local area is a good plan to test the waters.

We have produced our website and leaflet ourselves (using Wordpress and Canva) in an attempt to keep costs low and will be paying to get 10,000 leaflets printed and then more to get them distributed into people’s homes. We will also be sending them to all of the schools within a 2-3 mile radius of our location with a letter to all of the principals asking them if they wouldn’t mind disseminating. Many schools (weirdly) are against handing out such leaflets. The types of people often running schools just cannot see the bigger picture and the potential benefit to their pupils.

I’m constantly thinking about how I can turn this into a fast lane business. We thought about running multi-activity camps during the school holidays as many people will only tend to use tuition when exams are around the corner (as opposed to all year round). We have also thought about extending this idea into different centres across the city we live in. There is a fair bit of competition, and I’m mildly concerned that for elementary aged pupils the market isn’t going to be that big.

My original idea was a high-end agency. I still have that idea in my mind somewhere, but my concern about ‘disintermediation’ (tutors and clients arranging their own agreements once my agency has introduced them) not to mention the fact that the internet means that those parents who really want a quality tutor can find one without the help of an agency have kind of put me off. I only have limited funds to set up a business with and I have to tread carefully.

Apologies for the long post, I’m really trying to treat this like a personal blog to chart my progress and thoughts. I would be really grateful if anyone wanted to comment on anything I’ve written though!
 

jdm667

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Many schools (weirdly) are against handing out such leaflets. The types of people often running schools just cannot see the bigger picture and the potential benefit to their pupils.

It's funny you should mention that about the principals. When I called local colleges to see about getting on a tutor list, the person in charge would say no.

I think they wanted to give "first pick" of tutoring jobs to students who are working their way through college (totally understandable - I was there once!). It may be that the principals do the same so that teachers can get tutoring jobs on the side or during the summer.

My original idea was a high-end agency. I still have that idea in my mind somewhere, but my concern about ‘disintermediation’ (tutors and clients arranging their own agreements once my agency has introduced them) not to mention the fact that the internet means that those parents who really want a quality tutor can find one without the help of an agency have kind of put me off.

I agree with you on this - you would need to think about disintermediation, and the fact that parents can find tutors online. Competition is good though, it means there is demand. How can you can stand out?

MJ suggests looking at the language people use - go to forums (or find reviews of local tutoring companies near you). See what problem people are complaining about, and state right up front that you can solve that problem (of course, you need to actually solve it - but remember difficulty = opportunity!).
 
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Kepler

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A simple website can be:
Home page: list all benefits of studying with you, some testimonials and a contact form.

That's it, a one page website. You can also have people click through to your contact form.

It doesn't need to be fancy to be effective.

Have a website and phone number on your flyer, blast out a few thousand and see who calls...
Exactly just a short sweet sales page to coincide with your flyers
 

Stargazer

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Based on your posts and threads I deduce you live in Birmingham, UK.

So a few extras based on what you have written above.

1) Schools cannot point parents in the direction of private tutors. Who are you? What if you did something? What if you did nothing and a parent accused you of doing something? See the problem. Nothing to do with HT not being able to see the bigger picture, they will recommend online resources all day long. Indeed most schools in UK subscribe to these and give kids access for this very reason, eg Heggarty Maths, MathsWatch, Spagonline, Reading Eggs etc etc because it is the parent with the child.

2) Tuition is year round. There may be a peak in demand near exams but parents looking then get the worst Tutors as the good ones are already being used.

If you want to be good at Tennis you go consistently, not just for an hour a week for 6 weeks. Educated people already know this just like any sportsperson or musician know this. It is obvious.

And when I say obvious I mean obvious to any parent who places a value on Education. Income or ethnicity does not come into it.

So about the deprived area. Sure, on paper that may seem like a bad idea but there is a difference between generations on benefits deprived and just a poorer area of town with hard working but low paid workers.

The former may not care as much as you would hope, but the latter certainly do not want their children to be in the same boat.

Indian Restaurants will be closing like the clappers in the next couple of decades as the original immigrants hit retirement age and all their kids are Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants and increasingly IT professionals. (Generalization about jobs but you see what I mean)

3) Elementary or Primary in the UK has growing demand. Primary---> Secondary---> Tertiary

Primary is the foundation of what comes next. Kids who do well at Primary do well in Secondary. Kids who struggled with Primary school invariably struggle at Secondary. Again it it obvious.

You need to think what is it parents are really looking for. Hint. Maths & English is not it. Choice and Opportunity for their children is.

tutors and Tuition Centres have high churn rate of kids as they just address the Maths & English thing, not the real thing which I have written for you.

Dan
 

Kevin88660

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A few things.

1) Almost every tuition centre in the world does two things. Maths and English. This is not by accident. That is the demand. As in Tsunami of demand.

2) Almost every child at Primary/Elementary school lives with in a small defined radius.

3) If you are starting and have no clients yet, which I assume you don't, then you wont need many to start as you can't magic hours out of thin air. By default you can only have them evenings and weekends.

So all you need to do is get a flyer designed and printed and then spend a few days posting them through doors in surrounding streets to where a school is. If you want to play it safe go to where the residential estates with 3 or more bedroom houses are as they will almost all be families living in them.

You do not need a website in the slightest and you certainly do not need a range of services.

You can add Science/Languages and get more tutors later on if you really must and have built some sort of reputation.

Dan
Totally agree with what you say.

Singapore has a huge tuition market here. Most children attend them to boost their grades.

Go for common subjects, use low prices to gain market share quickly, get more students base and then try to organize into group classes for “mini scalability”.
 
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valuecreator

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I've been busy in the last few months to delegate the running of most of my businesses to be able to give most of my time to my education one.

This market is exploding and certain subjects are completely left wide open.

The institutions are completely out o touch with the coming realities of employment and economics in the 21st Century. In 1900, 90% of the US population was self-employed. We're going back to that. The education system is completely missing the boat.

The financial crisis we are in, which will turn into a depression, combined with the mass automation, is going to make alternative education even more important this decade.
 

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