Starting a Tutoring Business

I’ve recently moved to New Orleans and started up a new tutoring business. It certainly helps that I did some tutoring in New York, though it has been a challenge to build a viable client base and business model without much of a social network. Add to that the current economy, and one would think I must be crazy to even think of this!

All of that said, Harrington Writing Professionals has been a success. Briefly, I am going to offer some tips to people who are looking to start their own tutoring businesses:

1. Choose a niche and know it. I am a writer. That’s my training. That’s what I am good at. I don’t tutor math or other subjects that I am less than 100% comfortable in. A niche helps a tutor to build a good reputation. I will branch out some for younger clients, but I want to deliver a stellar product. If someone asks me to tutor their child in Trig, I won’t do it even if I did reasonably well in Trig because that’s not my thing.

2. Advertise locally. Most of my clients come from posters that I have put up at universities and businesses in my target areas. It takes hours of touring campuses and main strips to get any payoff from the gruntwork, but it really is worth it in the long run.

3. Get listed in every business listing website/directory you can find.

4. Google Ads! They are expensive, but they work. Google Ads draw targeted clients to your site: people who are looking for exactly what you offer in your area. As a caveat, Facebook ads drew lots of web traffic, but no real business. Facebook visitors spent an average of 12 seconds on my site compared to 3:15 from Google visitors.

5. Don’t spend too much on overhead. A car can be important, but meet people at their homes, at libraries, and at coffee shops.

6. Network. Get business cards and pass them out to people you meet. Stay in touch with clients. Ask clients to serve as recommendations.

7. Choose your work/clients carefully. You are your own boss, so set your schedule and choose the type work you do on your own terms.

8. Don’t rely too much on the internet. You need a website these days, but it should be informational; it should help introduce clients to you and your services. Nevertheless, human contact is the key. Although I do edit/tutor writing via email, that is a tiny percentage of my business. Moreover, it’s hard to get readers to visit your website and it’s hard to get a good ranking in Google. One of the best ways to improve your Google rank for certain key words is to get other websites to link to you. That means you need help from friends, you need to be listed in directories, and you need to comment on a lot of other peoples’ blogs/websites and link back to your site. (But don’t spam!)

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