How to Grow Your Tutoring Business
Congratulations on launching your new tutoring business! Trust us, we know exactly how much effort goes into such a mighty feat. But if your tutoring business is at a point where you’re ready to grow and take things to the next level, then here’s a list of some of our best tips for growing your tutoring business:
Set goals and milestones
Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”
To grow your tutoring business, you’ll need to establish clear short and long-term goals in your business plan. These will be your “targets” to aim at. Examples may include goals like how much income you want to bring in each month from your tutoring sessions or how many students you desire to have.
Whatever your goals, aim high and make sure to set up achievable milestones along the way.
Decide if you want to grow or scale
Think about the difference between growing versus scaling. Growth can require extra capital, such as hiring extra tutors. Scaling, in contrast, increases revenue without necessarily adding costs.
Do you want to bring in more tutors so you can book more students? Should you charge higher rates for your tutoring sessions or diversify by offering discounted small group lessons?
There’s no right answer; you’ll have to work out the best big-picture strategies to achieve your unique business goals.
Do what the pros do
You’re marketing tutoring as a service, so consider applying the Ansoff model:
- Re-examine the markets you serve and your competition.
- Are there ways to sell more of your existing offerings (via market penetration)?
- Can you apply market development to find and fill unexplored gaps, such as overlooked niche subjects nobody else is teaching?
- What about developing new diversified services for existing students or teaming up with other tutoring companies instead of competing against them?
There’s no shortage of creative ideas out there, so do your homework and emulate the pro strategies of top tutoring companies.
Learn something new
You may be a subject matter expert on the topics you tutor, but when it comes to business, there’s always more to learn. Apart from researching on your own, it could pay off to invest in education and training classes.
A certification program or even stand-alone business courses (like University of Virginia’s Business Growth Strategy, taught via Coursera) can provide invaluable insights to help your business reach the next level!
Rethink your branding and marketing
How’s your branding holding up? Is the brand name catchy and compelling? Do you have a distinctive logo, color scheme, or brand guidelines? Is your website attractive and functional? To gain more from your tutoring business, you might need to invest in a professional brand makeover.
Hand-in-hand with branding comes creative marketing and advertising strategies. Many tutors try to do everything on their own, but you can find affordable, talented help from experienced marketing and design freelancers on platforms like Upwork. Or, if your budget can bear it, you might try a full-service digital marketing agency.
Get your finances in order
If you’ve been operating your tutoring business for a while, you’re probably aware that you have to save back enough to pay taxes to the IRS. Even if you’re only running a small business from home, Uncle Sam will want a cut if your self-employment income exceeds $400.
While growing, your business plan should forecast extra expenditures and potential revenue increases. Track those numbers diligently, so you don’t underestimate taxes and leave yourself in a bind.
If profits are running high, consider re-investing in the business to grow faster. How that looks depends on you. Some businesses reinvest 30% – 50% of profits; some invest all profits for a duration to really get the engines revved up.
Use a flexible tutoring platform
Many tutoring businesses subscribe to an online tutoring platform or software that can be used for remote virtual classes as well as scheduling, messaging, and other routine tutoring business functions.
Make sure to select a tutoring platform that’s flexible and offers the right features to handle growth. The tutoring software Pearl, for example, was built by tutors, for tutors, with all these considerations in mind!
Streamline your business model
Your small tutoring business uses processes, whether you think about them as such or not. Sit down and spend some time taking an objective look at your processes and workflow.
Look for inefficiencies that can be reduced or eliminated so your workflow can improve — leaving you with more time and energy! One way to cut down time billing clients is to try Pearl’s user-friendly payment management features.
Leverage testimonials
Nothing generates buzz like old-fashioned word of mouth, so a few ideas for getting the word out are:
- Ask clients to share their student outcome stories on social media.
- Offer a discount to those willing to make referrals.
- Create a Google Business profile and share the direct link so clients can easily leave reviews.
- Post testimonials of parents and students on your website.
While our list is short and sweet, these concise but powerful strategies should help you jumpstart your tutoring business’s growth in no time!