How to Make Money Tutoring

Are you an expert in one, or several subjects, and love helping people learn? Starting a tutoring business can be the perfect way to make money while doing something you enjoy. It's easy to become a tutor, all you need is expertise, patience, and an open schedule.

As an independent private tutor, you set your own hours and fees. Your only responsibility is to your students, not to a company. Getting started may seem daunting, but if you follow these steps, you'll be teaching and making money in no time!

Instructions

1. Before you make any advertisements, get out your planner and figure out when you can tutor. Also, consider where you want to meet with students. If you are tutoring school-aged children and teens, it is common to meet at their homes. If you are working with adults, you can meet in a public place, such as a library or coffee shop.

2. Make a list of all the subjects you are competent to tutor. Tutoring is more informal than school teaching; you do not need any certification in order to work. However, you must be an expert in the subject areas you teach, whether that be writing, math, languages, music, or even sports.

3. Develop a fee schedule based on the difficulty of the subjects you teach, and based on the rates of your competitors.

   There are always many tutors available for easy subjects, and therefore you cannot charge very much. But for harder and rarer subjects, there are fewer tutors available, and so you can charge more. There are many competing tutors for elementary school subjects. But math, languages, and college subjects have fewer competing tutors.

   So, pick subjects that maximize your income!

4. Don't set your prices too low compared to what other tutors charge. Even if you are an excellent tutor, being cheap will give clients the impression that you are low quality. If you want a good idea of what other tutors are charging, respond to a few tutoring ads and ask!

5. One last step before you make advertisements is to come up with a reasonable policy for handling cancellations and late students. You can charge a cancellation fee, charge them for late time, or simple drop them from your client list. If you respect your time, students will too.

6. Once you have planned all the details, the next step is to put up advertisements. You should use a combination of fliers, online and newspaper ads, and word of mouth promotion. Put up fliers in places where potential clients and parents will see them.

   Campus buildings, libraries, grocery stores, laundromats, and coffee shops are great places to get the attention of adult students. If you want to reach school-aged children, ask the permission of the school before posting fliers. And don't forget about craigslist; nearly everyone looks there for lessons and tutors.

7. There are 2 schools of thought about stating the price in the advertisements. Some advise against it, because you cannot negotiate once it's printed. Also, it may also be confusing if you have a variable pricing structure.

   Some advise that you DO state the price, since more people respond to ads when they know the fee up front. You should experiment with both kinds of ads and see what works best for you.

   Always include your qualifications, degrees, and years of experience in the adverts!

8. Make sure you have a few references and a resume in case you are asked. Parents of minors naturally want assurances that you are safe to be around kids. But do not oblige a request for your SSN for purposes of a background check. That is over the top, and puts you at risk for being scammed.

9. Remember that if you make over a certain amount per year from tutoring, you will need to file taxes as a self employed individual.

10. If you follow the steps above, you will be all set to make money as a private tutor. There's nothing more to it, and if you make a name for yourself as a reliable and capable teacher, you will get many referrals and satisfied students.