How to Implement Your Tutoring Business Plan in 10 Simple Steps
Are you looking to start your own tutoring business?
To do that, you’ll need to have a solid plan of action first. Some of the benefits of having a business plan include better goal setting, organization, and cash flow management.
In this post, we’ll tell you how to achieve all of this. Read on to find out how to create and follow your very own tutoring business plan.
1. Get Qualified
You don’t necessarily need any specific qualifications to be a home tutor. However, having some will set you apart from the competition. It will also let your clients know that you possess the knowledge required to do the job well.
At the very least, you need a high school diploma. Consider getting a certification in education, too. There are teacher’s aide certificates and associate degrees in teaching for classroom tutors.
If you’re looking to teach English as a second language, get a TEFL, TESOL, or CELTA certificate.
Joining an association, such as the National Tutors Association, will give you some extra credibility, too.
2. Choose Your Premises
Where are you planning to teach? Do you want to tutor from home, from an office, or visit your students in their own homes? Before you can go any further with your tutoring business plan, you’ll have to decide this first.
An office will undoubtedly be more expensive, but could make you look more professional, and drum up more business.
If you’re looking to cut costs completely, you could tutor online. All you would have to do is set up your own website, or join forces with an online tutoring platform. Then, you can tutor from home, or pay for a room in a co-working facility.
3. Do Your Market Research
Every tutoring plan requires lots of thorough market research in order to be successful.
Take a look at the area you’re planning to operate in. Who will your students be? What are their wants, needs and priorities? Find these things out, and you’ll be well-equipped to start making money.
4. Find Your Niche
Being too general is a one-way road to failure. You’re much more likely to be successful if you have a niche.
Are you going to offer specialized math tutoring for SAT tests? One-on-one teaching for children with learning disabilities? French lessons for students looking to study abroad?
Find out what your specialty will be. You can do this either by identifying a gap in the market and catering to that, or choosing from your own specific skill set.
Once you’ve done that, you can start to build a successful niche business.
5. Choose Your Marketing Strategy
Think about how you’re going to promote your business.
When you’re starting out, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a huge budget for marketing. Ideally, you’ll want to keep it as cost-effective as possible.
First, you should identify the places that people in your target market will frequent. That could be schools, libraries, coffee shops, or shopping malls. See if you can advertise in those place by putting up flyers, and you’ll start to generate traffic.
Of course, you should also make sure you have an online presence. A good, informative website and social media profiles will make all the difference to your prospective clients.
6. Identify Your Resources
What teaching materials will you be using in your classes? Will you develop everything yourself or source them from a third party company?
Most importantly, how much is all of this going to cost you?
If you’re teaching traditional classes, you’ll need books and flashcards. For online tutoring, you’ll need a laptop with a webcam, high-speed internet, and a headset with a good microphone.
Identify exactly what you’ll need in terms of equipment and materials, how often you’ll need to buy them, and how much they’ll set you back. Then, you can incorporate these costs into your financial plan.
You may be able to claim tax refunds for these materials. Speak to an accountant to get some tax tips for entrepreneurs. This will help you save money in the long run.
7. Register Your Business
Before you can start operating, you’ll have to register your business. You may also need to obtain certain permits or licenses.
Specific regulations will depend on the area in which you’re operating. Make sure you do your research and follow everything by the book to operate legally.
8. Create Your Pricing Plan
Set out a plan for how much you intend to charge your clients.
If you’re not sure, take a look at your competitors and see what they’re charging. Remember, you can charge more for specialist services as well as advanced subjects.
You’ll also need to decide your policy for cancellations. If students don’t show up to class or cancel or short notice, will you still charge them? It’s important to lay this out from the start.
9. Define Your Goals
It’s not enough to simply want to start a business. No matter how great your teaching skills, marketing or location are, your business won’t grow unless you set out some clear goals.
Draft some yearly and quarterly objectives. Whether you’d like to get a high search engine ranking, sell a certain number of courses, or achieve a set grade average for your students, a goal and plan of action will help you get there.
10. Review Regularly
Once you’ve implemented your tutoring business plan, you’re not done. It’s an ongoing process from there, and following up on the plan with regular reviews is important.
As time goes by, the market will change, and you may have to make some adjustments along the way. To stay afloat, you’ll have to be versatile. Besides, there will always be ways for you to improve.
Reflect on your goals and analyze why they were or weren’t achieved. From there, you can make some changes to ensure the future success of your business.
Start Making Money With This Tutoring Business Plan
Once you’ve finalized your tutoring business plan, you can get started on your journey to entrepreneurial success!
However, you need to spend money to make money. If you’re struggling to scrape your capital together, you may be off to a shaky start.
If you need some financial advice to get your business off the ground, we can help. Read our advice on how small businesses can get money fast for some inspiration.