Becoming a private tutor- all questions here

pootlepod

Hi there, I have been thinking of becoming a tutor for a while now, so have read the thread from the beginning, it's been a great help and I've been busy checking out the links. I have done tutoring in the past when I first qualified as a teacher. One thing I have been wondering is how you take payment and what your terms are? Do you receive payment upfront for a month/half term or every week? If that's the case, what terms do you have in place to cover yourself from last minute let downs. I'm a parent myself so I know things are bound to crop up and want to be reasonably flexible but also don't want to be messed about and lose money.

Gazing_On_Sunsets

I tutored for about a year, and I'm going back to it in a few weeks as redundancy looms. I took cash on the day mostly, but one student who was a visiting professor wanted intensive English conversation for 2 months, 3 nights a week and he paid me a big wodge of cash upfront. (Which I didn't ask for, and it blew my careful budgeting!).
But generally I just take cash on the day, and if they cancelled I was pretty relaxed to be honest. Any time someone cancelled it was understandably unavoidable. However, if I'd found that someone cancelled a few times I'd be annoyed and have to think about charging them, or dropping them - I always had enough demand that I didn't have to waste my time. But I think it pays to be flexible if you can.
EDIT: of course, you yourself might need to cancel at short notice too. So if you've let the student off, then it's easier if you need to cancel.

Tutor

Hi everyone,

I've been reading the posts on this forum and I've found lots of useful information. I'm an English and French tutor and have been tutoring after work for 2 years now. I'm keen to quit my current job and start tutoring full time. I was wondering if anyone here is a full time tutor and if so, do you manage to find students all year round? I am only registered on one website but that seems to be enough to get me work from January until May. I realize that in order to tutor full time, I will have to work on my marketing but I was hoping for some feedback from anyone who is already doing it.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

suzie_wong

Tutor wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I've been reading the posts on this forum and I've found lots of useful information. I'm an English and French tutor and have been tutoring after work for 2 years now. I'm keen to quit my current job and start tutoring full time. I was wondering if anyone here is a full time tutor and if so, do you manage to find students all year round? I am only registered on one website but that seems to be enough to get me work from January until May. I realize that in order to tutor full time, I will have to work on my marketing but I was hoping for some feedback from anyone who is already doing it.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Hi Tutor,

I tutored 'full time' (or as full time as it was possible to be) for 2 years. I had no problem with most term times, although after a long school holiday it took time to get going again. The worst time was between early July and the end of August. From early July things start winding down at school, so the children wind down as well!
You may want to consider putting a few postcards up in newsagent windows. I did this when I started tutoring. I got one pupil from it, but then loads of others through word of mouth. September is always a busy time for me- I probably get one or 2 calls a week then for people wanting to start tuition.
Personally I chose to avoid those tutoring agencies that take a chunk of your income from every lesson- there are others that charge a one-off fee to pass your details onto someone, but nothing thereafter.

I found that unfortunately I just couldn't earn quite the amount I needed, so after 2 years went back to teaching at school part-time, and carried on the tuition as well.

Good luck

Tutor

Hi Suzie,

Thanks for your reply. You're advice has been really useful. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience of finding it difficult to get students after the summer holidays? I wonder if anyone has found a way to overcome this?

suzie_wong

Tutor wrote: »

Hi Suzie,

Thanks for your reply. You're advice has been really useful. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience of finding it difficult to get students after the summer holidays? I wonder if anyone has found a way to overcome this?

It isn't that I had trouble getting the students after the holidays, more that it takes a while to get going again! Most people tend to think they will let their child settle into beng back at school before they phone, and then by the time they get around to it, it's halfway through the month!! The same applies in January. I would say October and November tend to be busy, as are February and March. April is a bit sparse because of the Easter holidays, then it goes mad in May and June with everyone preparing for SATS and GCSEs. I guess that means that I am only earning the full amount that I could for half of the year, hence the fact that I took up classroom teaching again!
I love tutoring but do find that people take advantage sometimes, and tend to forget that I am doing it to earn a living, not for a bit of extra 'pocket money'!!

Trixi

I've recently advertised myself as a tutor and have had my fist potential tutee contact me today (yay!). I'm an NQT (so am fully qualified but not teaching) and was thinking of charging £20 per hour as this seems to be the lower end of the 'going rate' but this student is working for their A level so I am worried that I won't be charging enough...

I do expect to have to work in my own time - researching the exam spec.s and preparing or marking work but am not sure how much of this cost to pass on to the tutee, especially as I am new to this! Can I ask if £25 an hour, for A level, seems reasonable to those who already tutor?

suzie_wong

Trixi wrote: »

I've recently advertised myself as a tutor and have had my fist potential tutee contact me today (yay!). I'm an NQT (so am fully qualified but not teaching) and was thinking of charging £20 per hour as this seems to be the lower end of the 'going rate' but this student is working for their A level so I am worried that I won't be charging enough...

I do expect to have to work in my own time - researching the exam spec.s and preparing or marking work but am not sure how much of this cost to pass on to the tutee, especially as I am new to this! Can I ask if £25 an hour, for A level, seems reasonable to those who already tutor?

Yes, definitely. £25 an hour for A level is reasonable. Noone will have any complaints at paying that. You could possibly get a little more, but as you are just starting out, you probably want to get a few more pupils, and you won't put anyone off charging that. Good luck.

Trixi

Thank you. Just wanted the reassurance that they won't laugh in my face!!!

summerday

I agree Trixi, £25 is fine. I often think how many other qualified professionals/tradesmen charge way more than that per hour, we qualified teachers deserve to paid in line with our training and qualifications, too. Maybe when you have more confidence and experience you could go up to £30/hr. I only do primary tutoring and charge £25/hr, all clients seem happy to pay that esp when I lend them extra resources to use at home etc.