online tutoring business plan

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How to Start a Tutoring Business

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .

Tutoring can be a lucrative side business that you can grow into full-time income. There are several advantages to starting your own tutoring business, like a flexible work schedule and low upfront costs.

If you want to apply your knowledge to help students achieve their academic goals, consider channeling that passion into learning how to build a business. Here are nine steps you can use if you’re wondering how to start a tutoring business.

ZenBusiness

1. Identify your client

You should start out by deciding who and what you want to tutor, since deciding who you want to sell your services to influences your entire business plan . Here are some questions you should ask about your ideal target client:

Which grades do you want to tutor? The subject matter and teaching style for a high school sophomore will be different from a college freshman or a middle schooler, for example.

Do you want to tutor for a specific test? Many tutors specialize in a lucrative niche (more on this below).

Do you prefer group tutoring or one-on-one? Depending on your preference, you might want to tutor in mini-classes or work with more one-on-one sessions.

Do you want to tutor locally or online? Decide whether you prefer working only with local clients or if you’re comfortable tutoring online, often via video chat.

2. Build your subject matter knowledge

Your expertise will be your money-maker when starting your tutoring business. After deciding who your ideal client is, your next step is to build your knowledge in a given subject. Here's how to do it:

Find a niche to teach: Starting a tutoring business focused on STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) is great because they are in-demand skills. Within those subjects, you can narrow your niche even further by focusing on trigonometry or how to write a college-level research paper. You could also find a niche in a standardized test, like the SAT (for college admission) or LSAT (for law school). This can be a highly profitable route — an SAT prep course from The Princeton Review can cost up to $899.

Assess your strengths and weaknesses: When you’re starting a tutoring business, you’ll want to know what you have to work on within the subject matter you’re teaching. A great way to do this is to take a practice test in your chosen field. If you decide that tutoring for the LSAT is what you want your niche to be, you’ll want to take several practice tests. Evaluate your performance and identify the gaps in your knowledge.

Put yourself on a study schedule: After learning your weaknesses, it’s time to sharpen your skills. Take note of how you can compensate for your weaknesses. What study tactics are you using? How do you stay productive? This information will come in handy when you’re coaching students through their own practice sessions.

Stay current with the syllabus: You’ll need to be familiar with the required texts and materials in current education standards. During the off-season, like summers or winters, dedicate time to learning what teachers are assigning during the school year to ensure that you’re prepared when student vacations are over.

Learn how to teach effectively: When it comes to how to start a tutoring business, it isn’t enough to just have knowledge. Teaching is another skill you need to build if you want a successful tutoring business. Learning how to communicate complex concepts while you adapt to student learning styles is how you can build a profitable tutoring business with satisfied clients. Brush up on your communication skills by reading books and watching videos on the subject.

Consider getting certified: While the United States does not require any certifications to become a private tutor, it still may be something you want to consider. Getting certified, especially with the National Tutoring Association, can boost the reputability of your services. There are also additional tutoring certifications that may be useful for you to obtain.

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We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

3. Choose a tutoring business model

There are a few different business models you can choose from when starting your tutoring business. These include:

Buy a tutoring franchise: If you prefer to operate within an existing business model, you can consider joining a tutoring franchise, like Kumon or Sylvan Learning. However, buying a franchise does have its disadvantages — including startup fees and a lack of freedom — so it’s important to do your research.

Run a home-based tutoring business: This option is great if you are looking to keep startup costs down. You can designate space inside your home to use as your tutoring space — and if that's all the space is used for, some things related to that space could be tax-deductible. Be sure to read the specifics so you don't end up paying more in taxes, or fines, later down the road. As a home-based tutoring business, you can decide whether you'll meet clients in person at your home or whether you'll run an online operation.

Be a traveling tutor: If you don't feel comfortable putting your home address out there, you could decide to travel to your client's home for tutoring sessions. This could also increase your attraction with parents since they won't have to take time out of their busy schedule to drive their children to lessons. Your mileage or other travel expenses could also be another tax deduction.

4. Register your business

If you’re wondering how to start a tutoring business, you’re probably operating as a sole proprietor, especially if tutoring is your side hustle. However, there may come a time when you want to look into selecting another business structure, like an LLC.

With an LLC, you'll have reduced liability and the choice to be taxed as either a sole proprietor or corporation. Also, attaching “LLC” to your business name can boost your professional appearance. Once you've decided on the right business entity for your tutoring business, you're almost ready to register your business. But first, you'll need a business name.

Choosing a business name

Make sure you choose a business name that is both unique and available in your state. A good way to check availability is by doing a quick secretary of state business search.

If you’re operating your tutoring business as a sole proprietorship and choose a business name other than your legal name, you’ll need to file a DBA, or “doing business as,” name when registering your business. Make sure you research your state’s DBA requirements to ensure you’re completing the process properly.

When registering for an LLC, you will usually be required to include the term “limited liability company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” in your business name.

5. Separate your business and personal finances

It’s always a practical idea to separate your business and personal finances, especially if you’ve formed an LLC. When you mix your personal and business finances, you “pierce the corporate veil” which can risk your legal protections. But even if you’re simply operating a sole proprietorship, keeping this divide makes bookkeeping easier, which ultimately makes your job during tax season that much smoother.

Open a business checking account . You can collect cash or invoice payments and deposit them in this account. Try to only use funds from your business account to pay for business expenses, so all your transactions will be limited to one account and one set of statements.

Apply for a dedicated business credit card . Many people don’t realize that you have a business credit score separate from your personal credit score. Building your business credit history boosts your financial health and can grow your business down the line while helping you gain access to reliable funding from banks and other lenders.

6. Create a business budget

After you decide what tutoring services you will offer, it’s time to calculate your startup and operating costs.

Learning how to create a business budget can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before. However, it’s necessary for any small business and will prepare you for success. To avoid costly errors and maximize your profit, create a budget to help you responsibly manage your finances. Business expenses you want to factor into your budget include, but aren't limited to, writing materials, printer and ink, marketing materials and invoice and bookkeeping software.

Seek funding if you need it

If you intend to find a location to rent and employ additional tutors, your startup costs can significantly increase. You may want to consider applying for a business loan or opening a business line of credit to cover your increased expenses. If this is your first business venture and you haven’t built up much business credit, a traditional bank may be hesitant to offer you funding. However, there are alternative lenders who might look at other factors, such as the financial health of your business and your personal score, to make determinations about lending money.

Alternatively, you could try bootstrapping your business and securing loans from friends, families and supporters, or you could try crowdfunding sites to raise any capital you might need to get your tutoring business to the next level.

7. Determine your pricing

If you’re starting a tutoring business, you’ll want to make sure you set competitive rates that cover your costs while appealing to clients. According to Glassdoor, a private tutor with one to two years of experience can expect to earn $14,000 to $42,000 per year, or a national average of $22 per hour, depending on your rates and how much you work. Here are a few ways you can determine a fair pricing point for your tutoring business:

Research the competition: Are there other tutoring services in your area? Even if they’re not specializing in the same niche as you, what hourly rates are they charging their clients? This can provide you a baseline for how to price your service. You can even consider charging more if you offer more value than your competitor.

Consider location: When pricing services for your tutoring business, consider which communities you’re targeting. Can your prospective clients afford to pay premium rates for your tutoring services? For example, when it comes to a standardized test like the SAT, students in certain school districts may not seek out private tutoring at a high enough rate for your business to prosper at the price you desire, but in other school districts, private tutoring may be more of the norm.

Factor in your experience: While a teaching license is not required to become a private tutor, it can boost your credentials. Also, you can use any relevant college degrees or past teaching experience to increase your prices. However, if you don’t have any of these, you may want to consider lowering your price points until you have more experience under your belt.

8. Market yourself

You'll need to get the word out about your new tutoring business, so coming up with a marketing plan that not only is effective but is within your budget is key. Below are a few ways to get started.

Perfect your elevator pitch: Create a brief, catchy elevator speech to help communicate your tutoring services concisely, especially when you’re pitching your services by word-of-mouth. For a tutoring business, some points you want to address in your elevator pitch include who your target client is, their pain points and how your tutoring services solve them.

Offer a discounted rate starting out: Getting your first client can be tough, especially when they ask for past client results and you don't have any. Offering a discounted rate can help you get clients even with little-to-no experience. Since you’re offering a discounted rate, request a positive testimonial from those first clients. These testimonials will boost your marketing potential when seeking new clients.

Build your online portfolio: Creating a small-business website adds another degree of professionalism when starting a tutoring business. Use your online portfolio to list any experiences you have with tutoring or related fields. You also want to list any degrees and tutoring certifications you have. The right portfolio will attract the right client and will land you the job.

Make business cards: While more businesses are going digital, business cards can still advance your branding and marketing strategy. Since many tutoring businesses work with local clients, having a business card to pass around within your community can help spread the word about your services.

Set up a referral system: Never discount the power of word-of-mouth marketing. It's often the bread-and-butter strategy for many tutoring businesses’ marketing success. A satisfied client who owes their passing grade to your tutoring services can skyrocket your value. Start networking with your clients to increase your business.

9. Prepare yourself for tutoring challenges

Starting a tutoring business can be a great way to earn a side income or even replace your day job. However, there are some not-so-great aspects of tutoring that you should be aware of and prepared for.

Your schedule needs to be accommodating: Many of your clients will be school students that are unavailable during the day. If you’re tutoring college students, their availability can be even more limited. Your schedule can often be erratic as you do your best to accommodate each client’s availability. You should be prepared to sacrifice your evenings and weekends for your clients.

Tutoring will test your patience: Some clients will struggle more than others with the subject matter. Coaching your students and being mindful of their learning speeds requires practice and patience. Do your best to learn different teaching styles to better gel with your clients learning styles. It’s your responsibility as the tutor to meet students halfway and figure out what works for them.

You need to appease the parents: As a tutor, you’ll not only be working with students but you’ll also be working with their parents. You’ll likely be selling your services to parents rather than students and it’s important to keep them happy while creating a comfortable learning environment for your students. You might need to build some customer service skills to keep your clients happy.

Zoning issues: If you plan on tutoring in your home, you need to ensure you’re complying with any zoning regulations. Zoning requirements would vary depending on where you live — both your state and county. New York City, for example, allows businesses to be run out of homes but limits the percentage of space in your home you can dedicate to your business. Check with your county clerk's office or consult a business attorney in order to stay compliant.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

Tutor Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 8,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their tutoring service. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a tutoring business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Tutoring Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your tutoring service as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Tutoring Business

If you’re looking to start a tutoring service, or grow your existing tutoring service, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out how you will grow your business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Tutoring Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a tutoring service are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

The second most common form of funding for a tutoring service is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund a tutoring service. They might consider funding a tutoring company with a national presence, but never an individual location. This is because most venture capitalists are looking for millions of dollars in return when they make an investment, and an individual location could never achieve such results.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a tutoring service.

Your business plan should include 10 sections as follows:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of tutoring service business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a tutoring service that you would like to grow, or are you operating a network of tutoring businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the tutoring industry. Discuss the type of tutoring you are offering. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target market. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of tutoring you are offering.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

• Exam preparation : this type of tutoring company provides exam preparation and training materials for high school students, undergraduate students, and recent college graduates preparing for college entrance exams such as the SAT, ACT, GRE, etc.
• Primary school tutoring : this type of tutoring specializes in helping students in K-12. This type of tutoring is typically subject-specific – math, literature, history, etc.
• Occupational and advanced academics tutoring : agencies may sometimes specialize in occupational certification for those entering the workforce as engineers, mechanics, technicians, etc.

In addition to explaining the type of tutoring you provide, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include placement goals you’ve reached, the number of new contracts, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the tutoring industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the tutoring industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the tutoring industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5-10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your tutoring service? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: elementary students, middle school students, high school students, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of tutoring you offer. Clearly, high school students would want different subject tutoring and would respond to different marketing promotions than professional certification clients.

Try to break out your target market in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most tutors primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target market. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other tutoring services.

Indirect competitors are other options customers may use that aren’t direct competitors. This includes peers, teachers, or graduate students. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who needs help with grade improvement and test preparation will hire a tutoring company.

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What types of tutoring services do they offer?
• What is their pricing structure (premium, low, tiered, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regard to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to engage your services?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a tutoring service, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product: in the product section you should reiterate the type of tutoring that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific courses or subject help you will be offering. For example, in addition to high school level math tutoring, will you provide GED preparation, or will you be specializing in certification preparation for a specific occupation?

Price: Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place: Place refers to the location of your tutoring services. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your tutoring office located next to a high school or near a retail district, etc? Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers.

Promotions: the final part of your tutoring marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to schools and teachers
• Reaching out to local websites
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your tutoring service, such as serving customers, attracting future applications, processing paperwork, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect your 100 th student to successfully improve their grades, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect your Xth student to excel at a specific exam, or when you expect to launch a new location.

Management Team

To demonstrate your tutoring business’ ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in teaching or tutoring. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in education and/or successfully running small businesses.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your tutoring office, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a $100,000 contract for helping employees achieve certification, that would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for curriculum, employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing your tutoring service:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Cost of equipment like software, office equipment, etc.
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office design blueprint or location lease.

Putting together a business plan for your tutoring company is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the tutoring industry, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful tutoring service.

Tutor Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my tutoring business plan.

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Where Can I Download an Online Tutoring Business Plan PDF?

You can download our Online Tutoring business plan PDF  here. This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.

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How to start an online tutoring business: a complete guide, learn how to start an online tutoring business with our complete guide. find out why it's profitable, steps to get started, and key benefits..

Online tutoring provides educational support in an online, virtual environment where the teacher and student work from separate physical spaces. During the pandemic, this practice became widely popular as a way to maintain academic progress during remote learning.

Tutoring services may be provided through an external website or a learning management system (LMS). Academic online tutors can help students answer questions, write papers, and study-specific academic disciplines in a virtual learning environment.

This article discusses many reasons to start an online tutoring business, including its profitability and consumer demand, as well as some essential steps to create a successful online tutoring business.

Are Online Tutoring Businesses Profitable?

Depending on how you charge for tutoring services with your online business, tutoring can generate a very comfortable income. It has minimal overhead and high demand for online tutors across various disciplines.

As a subject expert with solid teaching skills, you could generate as much as $10,000 monthly in earnings. While there are no specific requirements or credentials to start an online tutoring business, you should at least have a high school diploma or GED.

According to Forbes, the online tutoring market is estimated to reach $325 billion by 2025. As the technology around online teaching apps continues to evolve, now is a great time to jump into tutoring in a virtual space.

The top subject areas in demand for online tutors include the following:

• Test Prep (SAT, ACT, AP, etc.)
• English tutors
• High-level math courses (calculus, trigonometry, college algebra)
• Languages (Mandarin, Spanish, and English)

If you are a subject matter expert in any of these, you already have many critical skills to start tutoring pupils within your target audience. Below, let’s look at some benefits of starting your business.

Key Benefits of Starting an Online Tutoring Business

Remote work significantly increased in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, and many professionals are seeking a job that offers the ability to work remotely. In addition to remote work opportunities, there are several significant perks when running an online tutoring business.

The first is flexibility. Not teaching in a brick-and-mortar school allows you the freedom to reach a larger audience and the power to set your hours. With this level of freedom, you can determine your priorities and have more energy to create a meaningful impact on the students you help.

Online tutoring is also a rapidly growing industry. While social distancing measures brought on by the pandemic significantly increased the demand for tutoring platforms, the need for online tutors isn’t going anywhere. Even after restrictions began to subside, the market for online tutors grew from $8.36 billion in 2022 to $9.68 billion in 2023 , with a compound annual growth rate of 15.8%.

Additionally, you can reach communities needing your services when you tutor online. Rural communities have more difficulty recruiting and maintaining highly qualified teaching staff. Online tutoring platforms offer more opportunities to close achievement gaps with the help of highly skilled subject matter tutors through tutoring websites. E-learning and video conferencing make it easier than ever for students in underserved communities to connect with subject matter experts through online tutoring sessions.

The last benefit of starting an online tutoring business is that it is relatively cheap. You just need to have a solid marketing strategy and business plan in place. While these require a lot of time, you can do it with minimal overhead.

You can follow the steps below to help you hit the ground running and build a quality online tutoring business.

Steps to Start Your Tutoring Business

The majority of people seeking online tutors are middle school and high school students because they are starting to prepare for college entrance exams and workforce readiness. 

They need help in specific academic disciplines, writing skills, interview skills, and soft skills like study habits and organization skills. This means you need to know what you will teach and who your target audience is before you start your online tutoring business. Follow these steps to help you get started.

1. Determine what academic areas you want to teach

Take stock of your experience, education, and previous jobs. Use this to structure the services you will provide and build around that. Depending on your qualifications, you will decide which areas to focus on. You need the following details.

• Do you prefer elementary, secondary, university, or a combination of levels?
• What subject matter (English, math, languages, test prep, or other) you excel at.
• How far you want to reach (domestic or international).

2. Decide on the business model that suits you best

You can run your business as a sole proprietor (DBA) because the paperwork is less cumbersome and easier to file, or as an LLC if you want the liability protection to keep your personal assets safe in a lawsuit. Both business models have their benefits, but you must understand which works best for you.

Once you have decided on the best option, you will register your business.

3. Determine what technology and software are needed to provide your services

Some essentials include the following:

• A reliable computer and high-speed internet access.
• Doc cam, webcam, or a digital whiteboard.
• Membership to applicable teaching apps and online platforms (Google Classroom, Quizlet, Google Hangouts, etc.).
• A CRM platform for easy client communications and payment scheduling.
• A tablet or digital drawing pad (if applicable).

4. Decide on your pricing

Online tutors can make anywhere from $20/hour to $100/hour, depending on their level of expertise and the subject matter they teach. Business owners should decide on an hourly rate that brings the following things into consideration:

• The income you need to meet your basic needs (rent/mortgage, utilities, food, gas, insurance, number of dependents, medical care, etc.)
• Your level of education and expertise
• How much vacation time you plan on taking (remember, you won’t make money on your days off, so you need to plan accordingly)

5. Decide a marketing strategy for your business

Whether you are running a full-time business or a side hustle, you need to figure out how to reach potential clients and convince them to use your service. Some marketing practices that may help you increase awareness of your online tutoring business include the following.

• Social Media accounts for your business (TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
• A business website that uses SEO best practices
• In-person events sponsored by schools and other educational institutions (parent nights, education fairs, college nights, etc.)
• Start getting word-of-mouth referrals through online parenting groups.
• Ask for testimonials once you start gaining clients.

6. Create and use a tutoring contract template

This contract should outline the scope of your services, responsibilities, and payment details. No body likes to do the legal work, but it's an important part of protecting your business.

Tutoring License and Other Requirements

If you want to start an online tutoring business, you must meet some educational requirements. First, you must have a minimum of a high school diploma or a GED to become an online tutor. If you want to tutor a higher grade level or a specific topic like test prep for college entrance exams, you should have a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited college or university.

A tutoring certification is another credential that will be useful as it increases your credibility and professionalism in the eyes of the parents and students who will use your service. These certification programs will require a few hours of training and background checks. Their price varies depending on the type of certification you are going for, but you can typically expect it to be around $250.

You should also highlight any areas of specialization and work experience that align with the subject you are tutoring on your website and other marketing material.

How to Create a Tutoring Business Plan

Your business plan acts as a road map for your business by laying out your brand identity and how you will organize each aspect of your business. This is an essential step and shouldn’t be glossed over. As part of your due diligence, you will write a plan that assesses each business category and how you plan to address it.

Your business plan should include the following:

• A company description - Who are you? Who do you serve? What service are you providing, and how will you deliver it? What is your mission and vision statement?
• Market research - Analyze your competition and learn what others charge and earn within your niche.
• Your marketing strategy - How are people going to know you exist?
• An operating plan - This is the blueprint for how you will turn your dream into a reality.
• Team description and responsibilities - Even if you are solo, describe the role and responsibilities you will handle within the business. If you plan on outsourcing any of your duties, explain who they will go to and their function.
• Your financials - Answer all of your money questions. How much will it cost to start? How will you fund it? What monthly expenses do you expect, and what system will you use to track it all?

Discover Practice and Level-Up Your Online Business

Running an online business requires a lot of moving parts. Practice was created to help small business owners navigate some of these pieces more easily. If you want to level up your online tutoring business and streamline how you operate it, from scheduling to managing your services, Practice can help!

Get started today and become part of our community.

Legal is the least exciting part of a business. But it's important. We worked with our lawyers to create a tutoring contract template, free for any tutor to use. Let us know where to send it:

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