Online Tutoring Guide – How to start a Tutor Business?

The pandemic has changed how billions of people across the globe are being educated. New strategies and solutions are being developed in order to meet the needs of the student community. These changes have definitely resulted in some degree of inconvenience, but they have also shown that there is room for innovation and that change is a continuous process; for better or for worse. This could also be considered to be the starting point for great institutional changes that are to come in the future of the education industry.

Just like it has affected the student community worldwide, this situation has affected the teaching community to the same measure as well. For over centuries they have been trained and are accustomed to a certain way of imparting knowledge and the sudden uprooting of all the training and beliefs have wobbled their fundamental processes too. Nothing is unachievable and we are here to help you get through this very challenge with flying colors. Just think of this article as yet another checklist and go through with it the same way you would for the others.

There are a lot of items on this checklist and hence without further ado, let’s get on how to start a tutoring business!

Step 1: Choosing your subject

The whole of your business plan will be based on this single and seemingly simple question- What do you choose to teach?

The course subject is what is going to determine your target student audience, your teaching methods, and many other factors. It’s extremely important for you to choose your course subject in the beginning phase of creating your online course

  1. What is the level of expertise that you have over the topic?
  2. Is there enough demand for that topic?
  3. are the questions you need to ask yourself in order to pin down your topic for the online course.

Step 2: Identifying your audience

The first step to start any kind of process is to study the background and understand the bearings of the end result. You need to research your target audience, i.e the student base, and craft an effective course outline. This is what will become your key to success in this e-learning industry.

Who is your target audience? - should be your main question here. Based on this question is what the whole your course plan will depend on.

To identify your target audience - here are a few simple pointers that will help you decide-

  1. Age of the student
  2. Student’s level of education
  3. Employment status of the student

Recommended: Use the New Year as an Opportunity to Re-Evaluate What You Know about Your Audience

Step 3: Structuring and creating an outline for your course

The main purpose of a teacher is to impart knowledge in such a way that it reaches the student and helps them grasp. In any given student group, there will be students with high caliber and some who will have to put in some extra effort to understand and learn what’s taught in class. Hence you will have to structure your study material in such a way that it holds good for all kinds of students. Now that you have an idea about what you will be teaching, the next step is to decide how you are going to do it. All you need to do is answer these for yourself-

  1. What is the primary goal to achieve?
  2. What should be categorized to be taught at the beginning, and what to be saved for later?
  3. How to connect one topic to another? and finally,
  4. How to evaluate the student’s learnings?

Step 4: Setting up an online class

The most important step of all. This is the age where people judge the book by its cover. Hence developing a creative yet eye-pleasing website for your online classes plays a pivotal role. This is the goal point. But, in order to reach the goal, you need to first learn the nuances of the business. Hence, one step at a time.

Given it is the first time it is not advisable to directly start off with your own eLearning website. It is not an incorrect path, but it is always good to start from the very basics and work your way to the top. Hence, choosing to launch yourself through youtube or social media platforms or any other eLearning sites would be the best option at this stage. This will provide you with the required exposure you need to start your own business in the later stages.

Once you get accustomed to teaching online you can then start planning your own eLearning platform. There are three ways in which you can develop your own platform-

  1. From scratch (on your own or by hiring a tech team)
  2. Using Turnkey solutions

When there is a constraint of technical expertise, money, and time the best option is to go with a turnkey solution. There are many providers who provide robust online tutoring software with prominent features such as LMS, video streaming, video editing tools, and much more. Some of the well-known soft providers are- Adobe captivate, Pinlearn, Articulate Storyline, etc.

Step 5: Student engagement

Without this, the very purpose of your online classes fail. Given it is no more face-to-face interaction, and there is no shortage of distraction on an online platform there needs to be a great deal of effort put in to make your sessions as interesting as possible.

This step requires a lot of practice and planning. The methods that suit others might not suit you. Hence you will have to think out of the box and come up with your own ideas or try a used and proven method or any kind of combination and see what works for you the best.

Here are some ideas to help you get started-

  1. Invite a guest lecturer
  2. Using animations in your presentations
  3. Conducting quizzes and healthy group discussions, debates
  4. Knowledge building assignments
  5. You can also make students present a session themselves by forming teams
  6. Always make sure to be in constant contact with your students, either through email, chatrooms, messages, etc

Recommended: 7 Ideas on How to Engage Your Audience on Instagram

Step 6: Marketing

Last but the step that needs high prioritization is marketing. All your hard work will be wasted if you do not market your courses or website in an effective way so as to attract traffic. The more you market and more the traffic, your ranking on the SERP will also increase which will then result in good visibility on all the search engines which customers use.

There are many tools that are available on the internet to spread the word about your tutorials. Below are some of the most popular ways in which you can market your business online.

  1. Multimedia advertising
  2. Social media advertising
  3. Content marketing
  4. Influencer marketing
  5. SEO optimization

You can also use tools such as google ads, SEO tools, personalized email, google analytics, and many others to make your marketing strategies foolproof.

It is completely normal to feel pressured and intimidated at first. Everything has its firsts. It takes practice for anything to get mastered. This is also an experience that one learns on the go. Be open to feedback and try and work on them.

Don’t get discouraged if something doesn’t go as planned. Take it in the stride.

We are always here to help you.

Do leave us a message and we will get back to you.

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