Tutoring Business

[jangnim]

I have a small business in my area in which I tutor people in many and varied subjects. My question is, what can I do to get clientel? It is hard to know where to advertise, and how. I'm in the yellow pages and I got a few clients just from that but it has been very hard to decide what to do next.

 

[chilibowl]

Do you tutor business? or do you have a business tutoring general academics? For business I suggest register with the local BBB (Better Business Bureau) and get involved with them I know here there are alot of people starting out,That look to them for support and advise.. And if you tutor general academics then go to the local high schools and talk with the faculty about sponsoring a add or possibly make a announcement about after school help.. I know you can take out 1/4 page add in the local school here for 50 dollars for the season baseball/football or what ever. that's way cheaper than a yellow pages ad.

Go to the people, that people go to for help, (in what you do) and advertise there.


GLGB

 

[jangnim]

Do you tutor business? or do you have a business tutoring general academics? For business I suggest register with the local BBB (Better Business Bureau) and get involved with them I know here there are alot of people starting out,That look to them for support and advise.. And if you tutor general academics then go to the local high schools and talk with the faculty about sponsoring a add or possibly make a announcement about after school help.. I know you can take out 1/4 page add in the local school here for 50 dollars for the season baseball/football or what ever. that's way cheaper than a yellow pages ad.

Go to the people, that people go to for help, (in what you do) and advertise there.


GLGB

I only tutor in the education field. No businesses at least yet. Here in the land of red tape AKA Pennsylvania, the department of education keeps such things under tight control. An ad in a local school paper or an announcement is basically out of the question.

Funny thing is, before I left full time teaching I was forced to do this same stuff for free....and now it seems no one values tutoring enough to pay a fair price. Don't get me wrong I have a customer here or there, but I haven't found the right medium for the business to take off. If you would like feel free to check my web site. http://carlhuthsr.com

 

[Linux98]

If you would like feel free to check my web site. http://carlhuthsr.com

Hi Carl, I'm not familiar with the tutorial/education field, however, I can offer advice on your web site.

You may want to consider placing a photo on the site - and I don't mean a photo of you on a fishing trip. Make sure you smile and look professional.

Keep black text on a white background. Black on blue is hard to read and it looks unprofessional. All BOLD text is a bad idea too. You can try a 12px sans-serif font like Verdana for the body text (this is verdana) and get rid of your serif fonts (like times new roman).

Search for "Dentist" or "Lawyer" in specific cities on Yahoo! (Yahoo is better at local searches). These are usually more personal and professional than your average site. In fact, search for business similar to yours in some of the big cities like LA, SF, New York..etc. You might also try searching for "**** consultant" because consultants obviously have to sell themselves rather than a product. The ones that are simple to use and professional are the ones you want to emulate.

Look at this page. See how you have the navigation down the left side of the page, that is good. Why isn't it like that on every page? Keep your navigation structure consistent. If you can't do that then your problem is not the navigation but the organization of the site. Also, stick with conventions; if "Home" and "Serivces" is good enough for IBM.com it's good enough for you too. Keep this in mind, when I need a tutor and I visit your web site: Don't Make Me Think.

As a professional tutor you will probably have to do some rain making. And that means business cards and a clean website so they can get more info on you once they forgot the smile on your face and the warmth of your handshake.

 

[damienjordan]

Hi, Carl!
I just checked out your website, and as a fellow educator and web developer, I would be happy to show you how to add some streaming audio to your website. That way people can hear your voice, your belief and enthusiasm. Audio is a very powerful way to take you website to a whole new level. If you want to take a peak at the source code at my home page, just right click anywhere in the white area of the page near the bottom, and you will see how the code for streaming audio looks. The name of my corporation is Educo Technologies, Inc. and we help businesses to succeed by leveraging their time through multimedia websites and Internet marketing (including lead generation as well as lead conversion). My personal passion is to support ministries who have a vision for stadium ministry. My vision is to fill stadiums for Jesus, and that takes substantial financial resources as you can imagine.

Let me know if I can help, okay?
God bless you, Carl.

Sincerely,

Damien Jordan

 

[Shannonkish]

Jang,

Advertise with local universities, schools etc. Send fliers. Place an add in the newspaper.

 

[heron]

jangnim,
Our state's schools hire tutors just as they would subs. You probably know the ins and outs of that in PA. Ours assign a list of students who were expelled, suspended, or pregnant and are unable to make it to classes temporarily. The tutors drive to their homes or public meeting places (libraries are cracking down on this now). Some friends tried this because they were paid more than substitute teachers.

The local colleges have learning development centers, where students are tutored and mentored in math, reading and ESOL. Students with diagnosed disabilities (including math weakness) also have approval for tutors to help them in other subjects. These positions are sometimes contract jobs, but at instructor level pay. Many students have grades high enough to get in to college, but lack skill or motivation in a single area.

Also--your competition might hire people on contract. I'm assuming that you want significant hours but control over your time. Working through these larger businesses under contract, you would still own your business and process taxes as you do now.

Offer to teach a continuing ed class. These are usually small and specialized, and would restore your visibility in the district.

Make your list of everyone who needs tutoring (identify your market) although you've probably done this, and more things will pop into mind.