Tutoring Business Tips

1. Your tutoring center should have a written cancellation policy, and give students and parents a copy of that policy. Children as well as parents are always busy in today's hectic world and this can create time-conflicting situations. Emphasize to parents how important it is that their son or daughter arrives on time and without too many cancellations or changes. Make a part of your cancellation policy that you reserve the right to charge the full hourly rate if a session is canceled without at least 4 hours notice.

2. Treat your tutoring business as your profession and be on time for your students.  But however much you don't want it to happen, there will be times when something comes up and you will need to cancel a tutoring session. When that happens, contact the parents as soon as possible and explain the situation, your schedule, and any extenuating factors.  

3. Before you accept any student, make sure you understand the parents' expectations and be reasonably sure that your results will satisfy their expectations. 

4. Ask the parents if it's OK to contact their child's teacher for additional insights into how best to tutor their son or daughter. 

5. Be honest with the parents about what you expect them to do to maximize the effectiveness of your tutoring.

6. With a tutoring business time is money.  At every tutoring session with a student, focus on having productive meetings and make every minute count. Keep the conversation on the work at hand and hold the student accountable for their work.

7. Make a folder for each student where you will keep not only their contact information, but also any notes about what material you cover with them, what you observe during your sessions, and what you plan to do in future sessions. Then as your sessions with that student approaches, you'll know where you left off and what comes next.

8. Tutoring is a very "results" oriented business, so always monitor results. Know your short- and long-term goals for each student.  Also know why their parents hired you - what results do they expect? When parents send their children to public schools, they sometimes have lowered expectations because they are not paying directly for it. But with tutoring, parents are writing a check every month to your tutoring center and they want to see results. If they believe they aren't getting their money's worth, you won't be tutoring their child very long tutor and your reputation will suffer. Always keep what results the parents expect in mind before every session, and make progress towards achieving those results at each tutoring session.

9. Carefully track each hour for each client. Keep a paper record where you write down the hours you spend tutoring and for whom every day. 

10. Learn to work with each student's strengths and weaknesses. Not every student is going to make progress in the same way.

11. Students want to know where they stand with you and what's expected of them. So at the first tutoring session, explain your rules and expectations, and tell the student a little bit about you. Encourage the student to ask as many questions as they need to. Tell them directly how to handle their personal needs during tutoring, such as getting a drink of water or using the toilet. This is particularly important if you are tutoring in your own home, rather than the student's, because the student is going to be uncomfortable for the first few sessions.  This is one of the main benefits of one-on-one tutoring, of course.

12. Parents are always interested in the progress their child is making, so consider sending out a weekly email to communicate with parents and try to meet with them at least once a month.  Be sure to save the emails you send parents and document what was said at your face-to-face meetings. I know this sounds like it takes a lot of time, but the more you communicate with parents, the more they will see you as being worth what they are paying you.  They will also be much more inclined to recommend your tutoring business to other parents.