How to Set Up an Online Tutoring Business?

Rapidly advancing technology has created a lot of scope in multiple fields in this current tech savvy generation. As we know it most of the industries have integrated a great deal of technology. May it be automation of processes or virtual booking, managing logistics and now even schooling? And given that the last year took a major hit to all its markets and businesses due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

And a major industry that was affected in all this was the education industry. Due to the spreading pandemic, over 135 countries shut their schools and institutions. This drastically affected the curriculum and the academic plans of over 200million students.

This is when online schooling came into play. Though many virtual tutoring platforms existed already which provided students with additional coaching, there were no serious schooling curriculum online. And given the demanding situation this was the lone solution.

Due to this sudden spike in this business projections have shown the e-learning market worldwide is forecasted to surpass 243 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2022. Hence this is the perfect time for entrepreneurs like you to start your own tutoring business. In this article we are going to mention five simple steps on how to start a tutoring business.

What are you waiting for?

Let’s get started…

1. Know your customer:

These are the backbone of your business. Whenever you start a business the first question you need to ask yourself is:

Who are your customers? And

What do your customers want?

You need to study the current trends of the market and based on your findings you will have to decide who and what you are going to teach. Always take one step at a time. You can start off by concentrating on one category of customers and then increase your base by including other categories. Some of the categories you can look into are:

1. Their age
2. Academics
3. Geographic location
4. Their academic goal etc.

This is your first step in building your business. And this step is what defines your business model; curriculum and even marketing strategies that you will have to use in order to gain the right audience.

2. Choose a business and a revenue model:

Your business and revenue models will be your holy grail by which you will need to operate your online tutoring business. Running a huge business such as this can get chaotic at times, given the amount of things that needs to be managed. And hence having your plan in black and white will help you get some traction on what is going on, how to implement things and it will also give you a clear overview on which step goes after which step.

There are three types of business models namely:

1. Night school model
2. Academy model
3. Combined model

And you will definitely need a robust revenue model as well. You can either choose to go with any of the below or even combine them and form a suitable model for yourself too. Here they are:

1. Membership or Subscription fee model
2. A freemium model
3. Fee for one-on-one classes
4. Certification charges

3. Draft your course curriculum:

Based on your target audience and the subject matter of your expertise you will have to choose your course and draft a curriculum accordingly. Your curriculum needs to be on a regularly scheduled basis. You will have to take care of scheduling classes, projects, circulating study materials, tracking progress, maintaining libraries, attendance and multiple other tasks simultaneously. This would have been comparatively easier if it were the traditional face-to-face schooling. But given that this is going to be online and you are new to it, it is going to be challenging. However, by incorporating an efficient LMS (Learning Management System) you will be able to manage all the tasks effortlessly.

Given it is a virtual classroom, and the teachers might not be able to have a total control over the student community as in the physical school system, your curriculum and schedule should be drafted and executed in a SMART(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) way.

4. Develop your own virtual platform:

Getting the right online tutoring software plays a very crucial role in making or breaking your online tutoring business. Given the advanced technological solutions that are present in the current generation, the step that might seem really complex is in-fact pretty easy. Opposite to the popular notion of the business owner needing to know his technology, one can also build an online business without knowing literally anything about the technology.

Also, before you start off on your own it is always good and wise to know what your entire website should comprise of. These are the basic features you need to have in your online tutoring website:

1. In-built virtual writing board software
2. Document sharing facility
3. Dashboards for admin, tutors and students
4. Video and audio streamer
5. Notification alerts
6. Class scheduler
7. Progress analyzer and tracker
8. Review and rating options
9. Payment gateways etc.

And based on your time and financial commitments you have two methods to develop good online tutoring software:

1. Developing the application from scratch
2. Purchasing a turnkey solution

5. Promote your business:

The last and the most important step are marketing. This is the point through which you will be planning on setting a global footprint and gets the right recognition. To gain, retain and grow your customer base you need rank among the top in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Page) that’s how your traffic will be routed into your website. There are many ways in which you can earn an audience. And given the current situation everyone is glued to either one of the social networks or any other media platform over the internet and you should harness this point and make the most of it.

Here are a few marketing strategies that will help you spread wings:

1. Social media marketing: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
2. Multimedia marketing: Google ads, pay per click
3. SEO technique
4. Influencer marketing
5. Content marketing: Email marketing, newsletters, blogging etc.

These are all you have to do to get your own virtual school up and running. However, simple these steps might seem like you need to plan and execute these steps very precisely in order to have a successful business and make greater return on investments. Hope you got your doubts cleared and questions answered.

If you have any further queries or need help with any of the above steps do give us a call or leave a message. We will help you in setting your business up and running smooth!