Anyone interested in starting an Online Tutoring venture ? I would like to partner with .....

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Permalink Reply by Scott Palat on March 16, 2010 at 12:21pm

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I was vacationing in the Rocky mountains of Colorado. Normally, I get an email notifying me of a post on the forum, but for some reason, I wasn't notified of your post.

It sounds like you are looking for a marketing rep. My advise it to pre-screen anyone who you are considering and make sure they have experience with all types of online marketing.

I also recommend you invest into your website. What is your website? Free search engine traffic is the key! Paying per click can get expensive and many kids will click your ads if you're not careful.

Ask any questions you need to here and I'll be happy to guide you.

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Permalink Reply by Uneize on March 16, 2010 at 8:43pm

Thanks Scott for your reply. But, I do NOT think free search engine (or even paid online adverts) can bring in much clients. Many successful online tutoring firms like TutorVista, TransTutors, Home Tutoring Online etc. all have OFF-LINE presence; they make personal contacts with schools, teachers, parents etc. Some people distribute leaflets, flyers etc. to schools, home mail boxes, etc.

I think off-line presence is the key. I have been in this industry for a little over a year. So far, without an off-line presence (i.e: Front-end), I am almost ready to give-up the venture since just off-line presence does NOT make much business.

Could you please advice me as to whether are there any ways that I could find a good marketing person, considering that I am based in South-Asia, it is not possible for me to reach UK or the US and market the services ?

Thanks in Advance !

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Permalink Reply by Scott Palat on March 16, 2010 at 9:48pm

That's funny you say that! I did first attempt to do business with school districts when I launched ehomeworkhelp.com back in 2003. We had meetings with the superintendents of schools and almost had a few districts sign up. The one mistake we made was not catering to the state run tests that coincide with the No Child Left Behind Act. We were just offering tutoring.

The companies who did offer services to better those specific test scores landed those contracts, but since they committed so much to schools and those same schools ended up having to cut back, those companies who were relying on that income are being forced to adjust their plans. I am glad I didn't go down that road myself. I know of two separate companies that had major setbacks by putting all of their eggs in those school district baskets.

Offline marketing can be good, but it's all about testing and you must have a website on any handout or flyer.

As far as seo not being the way, you are incorrect. Seo is a very good method to generate lots of website traffic and assuming your website does a good job of converting, you will be able to generate clients of your own. You might need a video to convert best with your website. Check out one I did at OwlOnlineTutoring.com. That video converted very well when I was offering the 1 hour online tutoring session for $35.

Online paid advertising can be tricky, but seo is definitely a great long term plan for any business.

Unless you have a lot of money to hire a marketing expert, I recommend downloading my free report and asking questions here.

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Permalink Reply by Uneize on March 17, 2010 at 12:48am

Hi ... again many thanks for the reply.

But, to me, the problem is severe. It is very difficult handling the Marketing part and tutoring delivery. I have already launched INSAF Global (www.insafglobal.com), providing one-on-one, live online tutoring for ACCA and CIMA exams of the UK. But, as it is professional accountancy exams, the student population is not much. And I want to move into school market. We can provide one-on-one lessons using high profile experienced tutors at US $ 15 / Hr.

This is competitive pricing and I assure the tutors are graduates with tutoring experience. But, the biggest question of course is, how to SPREAD THE NEWS without an affiliate in the West ???

Please advice me...

thank you for your kind help.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Palat on March 17, 2010 at 9:14am

My advise is to NOT cheapen your online tutoring service for only $15 per hour. You don't EVER want to be the cheapest tutor out there and it's very EASY to justify higher prices if you and/or your tutors simply call the parents and consult with them about their child's learning needs.

This type of service is not offered by other tutoring companies, because they only care about the bottom line. Assuming you are offering 1 on 1 tutoring, you can charge up to $150 per hour (I actually have a client who charges that amount). We used to charge between $25 - $40 per hour based on the monthly package that our clients signed up for.

Either way, you don't want to be the cheapest. Trust me!

Your goal should be to maintain happy clients for months/years to come. It just comes down to communicating with the parents if you are targeting the K-12 market.

Hope that helps!

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Permalink Reply by Uneize on March 17, 2010 at 9:30am

Scott ....................

$ 150 per hour ........

This is too much for a Sri Lankan ...... I can tell you a truth that, a formally trained Government teacher in Sri Lanka with a Bachelor degree (whose 12th Grade results would be at least an "A" and Two "B"'s) receive a MONTHLY salary of $ 150 per month in their first 3 years' duty !!!

I can assure that this is NOT cheap tutoring, but finding some of the BEST teachers in the world you can, where you HAPPEN to be able to pay them less !!!

And, Scott, could you please tell me, do you have any insights into the UK market, if possible ???

You are helping and encouraging me ..... Many Many Thanks ........

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Permalink Reply by Scott Palat on March 20, 2010 at 9:22am

By no means am I even recommending you charge $150 per hour. I am only telling you that I actually have clients who charge that amount.

Like I said, we used to charge between $25 - $40 per hour.

I don't have any insight to the UK market unfortunately.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Palat on March 17, 2010 at 9:10am

Yes, posting and handing out flyer's can work very well, but the actual flyer itself is the key to your success. It comes down to testing.

I do know that you'll want to include a website url on the flyer and it's a must to have your smiling picture or pictures of your tutors on your website. A phone number is also important.

To achieve your goals of 400 hours per month, you'll have to get started. You can post your flyer's here for reviews.

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Permalink Reply by Uneize on March 17, 2010 at 9:19am

Hello Scott,

Many Thanks for your reply. I have not seen somebody taking interest like this, as in most of the forums, the moderators "just leak" without looking after the forum posts, even for months !!!

So, Thank you !!!

We have already coached a number of ACCA and CIMA students. But, the problems we have are complex. 1- Students are sponsored by their employers and they are not allowed to select a tutoring provider in their own. 2- When we approach business firms, we are not in a position to compete with larger tuition providers and of course, firms are not ready to provide their trainees to a non-famous tutoring provider, even though we provide free sessions !!!

These are the problems that mainly pushed me to turn on to the school market. I hope parents would consider a relatively cheap tutoring provider and I am sure we can convert students to clients after a trial lesson of an hour, (We have done that with ACCA & CIMA).

Is my business plan correct ? But, still I feel the problem of not having a like minded entrepreneur working in the front-end !!!

Expecting your reply, if I did NOT give you problems ...

Kind Regards !!!

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Permalink Reply by Scott Palat on March 19, 2010 at 9:42am

I know what you are going through...I really do!!

I can totally related to your situation, but I am not sure I have all the information necessary to help guide you.

How big is your company?

Are you just getting started?

How many tutors do you employ?

My approach was to control my destiny with my online tutoring ventures. When I say that, I mean that I didn't want to be married to a school district or 1 contract that could end at anytime.

This is why I love the internet and the fact that the people who need to find my information, find it because we put it out there with our articles, blog posts, videos and forums like this.

It's almost instinctive that parents and tutors inquire about my online tutoring and online tutoring business programs after they find my helpful information.

I built TutorFi.com entirely around this concept. Our members are able to build out their websites and add value in the form of articles that parents are actively searching for. Most parents contact our tutors after reading some of their articles and learning more about each tutor.

This is what attracts parents to our online tutoring service and specifically speaking, that particular tutor who's information and website they are looking at.

You can certainly go out and try to land contracts, but it's hard and sometimes you have to bend over backwards to please the school districts or organizations.

A website, good content and seo helps you get found by people that really need your services. After all, they wouldn't have found unless they were actively searching to a particular academic solution.

If you want more assistance, please be more specific.

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Permalink Reply by Uneize on March 19, 2010 at 10:02am

Scott,

Many Thanks for your valuable opinion and the time you devoted for me !!!

I am, of course, not looking for any school districts or contracts, since, as you said, I might have to perform much to please them. Instead what I am looking for is, an INDEPENDENT role in tutoring venture. Yes ! It is exactly like what you mentioned. If parents need tutoring for their children, there will be an OPEN / INDEPENDENT way for finding us, such as, SEO, Online adverts etc.etc.

In this way, we will not be tighten with a fixed contract or something similar. But, the problem comes is, HOW BEST INTERNET IS ? - when it comes to popularizing tutoring services ? In my current online sector which provides ACCA and CIMA tutoring, I have lost much time being advertising online since the industry is captured by famous players and thus, students do NOT search for ACCA or CIMA tuition in search engine.

As you may recognize, a person should search for key words for our services to be shown in a search result. But, what would happen a very small percentage of the student population searches ? The inquiry rate would be lower. The reason for the low search rate is, they get word of mouth (OFF-LINE) advertising from their friends and colleagues. Likewise, is not the nature for school children also ?

Is not it true that parents find tutors for their children by word of mouth or some form of OFF-LINE advertising, rather than searching in internet ? Scott, could you please advice me as to how effective the SEO etc advertising ? I know TutorFi has a top Google result, but is it possible for everyone ?

And, I have an specific problem which is, NOT having a correct partner, WHO SHARES THE SAME INTEREST AS MINE in the UK or US. I read about such problem in another forum also where an entrepreneur had stated that his main problem when he started the business was to find a right partner. We are not getting started in ACCA and CIMA. We have already coached a number students SUCCESSFULLY with a pass rate of 99 % !!! But, unfortunately, for those courses the inquiry rate is low; students who already know about our services come to us repeatedly, but the inquiry rate is very low. That is why I am considering about school market which is considerably larger than professional accounting education. Also, as you have advised previously, I will design a poster along with my web-master and would up-load here for your review.

Is it fine ?

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Permalink Reply by Christian Stapfer on March 19, 2010 at 10:24am

Just a quick (and perhaps rather foolish) comment: if you have successful students, as you write, couldn't you make them help you acquire new students?
For example, you could offer them some free tutoring hours for every new paying student acquired...

Regards,
Christian

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