How to Start a Tutoring Company: Creating a Digital Presence
Given the constantly evolving technology landscape, it can feel daunting trying to figure out how to best promote your business online. There are several ways to utilize digital media like creating an informative website, implementing a far-reaching social media presence, and designing an effective logo, to confidently showcase your business online without becoming a technology guru.
Websites
Websites provide a quick and easy method for potential clients to learn more about your business and how to contact you for your services. A website provides you with a platform to present and sell yourself as an effective teacher while providing useful information to potential customers and builds their confidence in your skills and professionalism. Students and parents alike are incorporating technology and the internet into their daily lives more and more, further emphasizing the importance of making your business accessible and credible with a good website.
There are various ways to create a website, depending on your technological expertise (or lack thereof) as an individual or as a company:
- Limited on time? Find a family member, friend, or neighbor for help. If you are not confident in your ability to use technology, odds are someone close to you – a family member or friend – would be able to lend a helping hand and design a simple website for you. This can save you time and money.
- Looking for more expertise? Hire a professional web designer. If you lack the time or technological confidence to build a website on your own, reaching out to a website developer would be a great option. You will likely see an increase in the quality of your website compared with using a website builder, but be prepared to pay a higher price for quality, convenience, and customization.
Web designers are everywhere and an easy way to find reputable designers to hire would be using Upwork or simply using Google to search for local web designers.
- Feeling confident in your abilities? DIY using a website builder. Online website builders allow you to design a website without technological expertise. These builders are user-friendly, making it easy for you by walking you through the process and allowing you to choose from countless templates to customize your website to suit your needs.
For a fully customizable website builder that does not require advanced tech skills, we recommend WIX.com.
When building a website, it is important to focus on outlining information that clearly and effectively communicates who you are and what type of services you offer. Here is a list of the most pertinent information to include:
- Contact Info – Make sure potential customers know how to get a hold of you and where you are located. This information should be prominent and easy to access so there are no hurdles for them to reach out.
- Services Offered – Students and parents want to be able to quickly and easily understand the subject areas you offer and the methods by which you offer your services (in-home/office/virtual). This is a great opportunity to sell your unique mission/vision and any niche markets you serve. How are you different? What do you do best? How do you connect with students? What are your areas of expertise? The more information you can provide about the what, why and how of your teaching philosophy and approach will help build trust and confidence amongst potential clients.
- Meet the Team – Providing potential customers with background information on you or your team’s experience/expertise can build trust and truly personalize your client’s experience. What degrees do you hold? What prior experience can you speak to?
- Testimonials – Including a testimonials page is an opportunity to leverage the positive experiences from previous students to win customers. Tutoring is a business that relies heavily upon word-of-mouth recommendations, and dedicating a section of your website to these reviews is extremely important to finding new clients and growing your business. Parents want to know that other students have succeeded in using your services and in today’s environment rely heavily on reviews as a part of their decision-making process.
- Expectations and Policies – Communicating clear expectations and policies with potential customers about payment and refund policies, scheduling and cancellations, and processes for communication will lead to long-lasting relationships and prevent issues.
In an effort to help you get started, we’ve organized these expectations and policy topics in our tutoring contract template.
Social Media
Even if you aren’t an active social media participant, it is important to consider using it as a tool to help you get your business started. It allows businesses to expand their reach by creating communities amongst current and potential customers and to build their networks. If you are a freelancer or small tutoring company, a great way to create a strong social media presence is to utilize the following websites and platforms:
- LinkedIn – Showcase your business in a professional manner while allowing you to find, connect with, and develop relationships with other tutors and tutoring companies.
- Facebook – Create a professional-looking business profile with easily accessible information in order to provide updates to your customers and community, further develop client relationships, and expand your customer base.
Pro tip: To take your social media to the next level, consider Facebook Adbuy, which is a way for you to share your message and tap into potential customers for a small fee.
- Instagram – Share creative images and video content with your direct community of followers. Creating an Instagram Business profile provides you with analytics of your profile and posts so you can assess and improve upon your online engagement.
- YouTube – Post and share videos with a large audience and increase interactions with potential customers. Posting instructional videos on YouTube can be a great way for people to find you and showcase your teaching abilities.
Creating a Logo
A logo is a highly customizable visual representation of your company that easily communicates to clients who you are and what you do. Logos are a great way to create strong brand identification and an association between your logo and the unique qualities that your business has to offer.
There are several ways to go about creating and using a logo for your company, depending on your technological expertise.
- Professional services – For those pressed for time or lacking technological expertise, outsourcing the job of creating a logo to a professional design company can be an easy way to get a visually appealing and effective logo. Similar to website design, freelance and design companies are available anywhere and are easy to find with a simple Google search.
- Design websites – Websites such as Wix.com and Canva make it easy for someone with an intermediate-level understanding of technology to design and download a logo. They offer a variety of visually appealing graphic templates that take minimal effort and time to edit and customize.
- Design software – Programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Logo Design Studio Pro require more technical expertise to use but allow more detail, quality, and creativity when it comes to creating a logo as compared to simpler websites. These tools, while highly customizable and offering high-level optimization, come with a higher price tag and require more of your time and effort.
Whether you consider yourself tech-savvy or tech-impaired, these options are available to help you leverage your digital presence to grow your business. Creating a logo serves to help you define your brand identity and can be used as a tool for marketing your business.