Advice on starting up a computer tutoring business

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scottishf wrote: »

Well I would need money to print off copies of tutorials,

Have you not got a printer. You can pick them up for about £30

Print the tutorials as required. Hopefully your student will already have paid you for the lesson before you need to print the tutorial so sorted

scottishf wrote: »

I was hoping to have somewhere I could rent to teach,

... and I'm hoping for an Aston Martin One-77 :cool:

But until you have got the business off the ground and running with a good, proven income stream, I would suggest starting out as I proposed earlier

scottishf wrote: »

and I would need computers

You appear to already have one

scottishf wrote: »

and teaching aids...(whiteboard etc)

Not necessary unless you are teaching a whole class full of people.

One to one tuition can be carried directly out on a computer

If you do happen to secure say a class of 20 odd candidates, then consider renting a hall/conference room by the hour. They could probably supply you a writeboard, flip chart, etc as part of the rental.
Get the students to pay in advance (or at least a good deposit) and use that to cover the rental costs

scottishf wrote: »

Probably also need money for brochures and advertising etc, incase I didnt get the demand I was anticipating.

An advert in local shop window will cost you about £1 per week

You can probably get an advert in a local rag for about £10-£20

You can get about 5000 flyers printed for less than £100
I would hope 5 hour lessons would cover this cost, and I wouldn't recommend wasting money on that amount of flyers unless you have managed to already secure orders for 5 hours actual paid tuition.

bibbly

Just a thought but I think you might need public liability insurance? I'm sure someone will be able to advise though as I'm not certain...

gettingready

[FONT=&quot]Interesting replies, will subscribe as this is something I am thinking of too.

You cannot compete with colleges as they often offer very cheap (or free) computer courses so I would give up on the idea of "classroom teaching".

I personally would concentrate on one to one, at student's home service.

Lots of people who are computer shy do not want to attend classes but will be happy for a tutor to come home to them and show them bits and pieces. You can tailor this type of training to individual needs - something that colleges cannot do, all courses are "set" there.

Teaching this way your outlay is minimal (travel cost, time to prepare the lesson). You are using student's computer/electric etc How MSN is that?

Manuals? You can email those to your students - they can print them themselves (or vie online). If you set up a little website with "username access" you can give that access to your students, they can download the manuals from there.

As someone said before - you need to start walking before you go running. I personally would star this way.

You said you have BSC and ECDL - none of those are teaching qualifications, what makes you think you can actually teach?

No, I do not mean to be rude or anything just that I know lots of people think that because they know something they can teach it. Knowing something and being able to teach it to others are not the same thing.

Have a look at TAP (Institute of IT Training) and MOS Master Instructor (Microsoft)... TAP you can just do a course, for MOS MI you need to have 3 years teaching/training experience.

I have both TAP and MOS MI - thinking of going solo too as not interested in working for anyone else.. so will be watching this thread...

All the best [/FONT]

Mrs_Money

I've done this in the past (6 years in Adult education teaching beginners). But funding issues and red tape got in the way and our local school's adult education just couldn't function any more - largely due to the availability of free courses from government projects. These free courses were, in the main, rather lightweight - but then beginners are often not in a position to judge that.
While I was teaching these classes, though, I got a few requests for private tutoring and did some for a while - about £15 per hour I think I charged, but that was about 6 years ago - going rate now is £20 per hour. BTW - I'm an English teacher!:rotfl:
But- I got a lot of requests for set up help with buying a computer, broadband, wireless etc and printer problems - not my area, but my son occasionally does this and the work seems to be out there - good if you are a "techie"! There are many elderly first-timers out there who need help with set-up, I see some of them in my day job.
BTW - a word of warning, in my experience, if you provide a tutorial booklet at the beginning, some folks may just have that and not want to pay for any more sessions! I usually gave info sheets related to whatever I had taught in that particular session.
Good luck with it - I believe you can do it with no outlay. You only need knowledge, transport and a printer!

Edit - you don't need a teaching qualification - only patience. You can work for your local FE college and they will put you on a teaching course, if you're willing.

patman99

Yes, your local FE college is a good start especially if they do not currently have anyone with the ability to teach the subject already on their books. You get paid to teach and they put you through PTTLS and CTTL certifications for free.
You can still offer one-to-one tuition as well.

Savvy_Sue

patman99 wrote: »

Yes, your local FE college is a good start especially if they do not currently have anyone with the ability to teach the subject already on their books. You get paid to teach and they put you through PTTLS and CTTL certifications for free.

Before you rely on your local FE college, bear in mind that the cuts have gone deep, and most staff (probably all new staff) will be on zero hours contracts, meaning they can and will cut your hours at a stroke if it suits them. They may also not be taking on non-qualified people at this stage.

Hermia

scottishf wrote: »

Well I would need money to print off copies of tutorials, I was hoping to have somewhere I could rent to teach, and I would need computers and teaching aids...(whiteboard etc) Probably also need money for brochures and advertising etc, incase I didnt get the demand I was anticipating.

I think there will be more demand for one-to-one tutoring in someone's home. I think the people who want tuition are going to be the people who are too overwhelmed to go into a college environment. I work in a library and we offer free computer training. One thing I often notice with the newbies is that they get confused/nervous if their computer doesn't look exactly like ours. Even a few buttons being in a different place on the keyboard freaks them out! We are always being asked to recommend tutors who will go into their home and teach them how to use THEIR computer.

I think the sort of people who will go into a college environment may be wanting some sort of qualification. I don't know what your local area is like, but ours already has quite a lot of computer classes in various places.