Tutoring Business: How to Offer Interactive E-Learning Services

Originally published at Tutoring Business

Are you passionate and enthusiastic about education and especially, the e-learning industry? If you have a positive answer then the tutoring business is what you should think about. Of course, if you haven’t already started working on it. Do you have any skill or knowledge experience that is required in the market and preferred by modern learners? If yes, you are a perfect fit to start your online teaching business and share knowledge, skills, and experience. Your industry of experience does not matter cause today, especially after the pandemic, people are highly interested in learning, sharing, or implementing online educational activities.

The Power of Tutoring Business

In case you are looking to start an e-learning experience, you should have focused on the right point. In the following paragraphs, I am going to show you exactly how to do it. At first, we will start with the primary elements in the tutoring industry such as the huge size of the market, the key segments, the way revenues, and profits are generated, and so on. Then we will discuss the key concepts not only to starting a tutoring business but also to offering interactive e-learning solutions and succeeding in the process!

The e-learning market size is increasingly growing along with more and more education providers going digital and relying on these services to have their influence on the new talent development process.

Being a tutor offers incredible job flexibility, while also giving you an opportunity to do meaningful work in your community. When you are a tutor (mentor or coach), you have an influence on the learners’ lives and help guide them toward educational success. At the same time, tutoring allows you to manage your own schedule and set your own rates. You are the decision-maker here. And there is even more here when you set up an online tutor business, you can even work from home or anywhere you like!

Even if you have already considered starting a tutoring business, you may still not be sure where to start? In this article, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step process for starting and planning your teaching business. Are you ready? Let’s go!

Before You Start Your Tutoring Business

It is not a surprise that in order to start a personal e-learning business, first of all, one requires a high level of education. In some spheres, one should have a certification or diploma as proof of their knowledge. For other cases, the training objectives and free consultation are enough for the learners to choose this or that specialist.

Top 6 Steps to Start Your Personal Educational Business

Step 1: Prepare Your Business Plan

Every strong business starts with a strong plan. This is a kind of written description of your expected business as well as a business strategy. A business plan is your vision of:

• how your business will be organized;
• how it will operate;
• how profitable it will be.

You may make research and shape a general opinion about writing an effective business plan. It should represent your expectations and make it easier for you to manage the continual process according to this plan. A typical business plan covers the following points:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Market Overview
• Sales and Marketing Strategy
• Operating Plan
• Organizations and Management Team
• Financials

As your business is just getting started (and probably you are still the only employee), your business plan does not have to be incredibly in-depth. Mainly, you will use this plan as an opportunity to set goals, create your marketing strategy, and predict your business expenses.

Step 2: Find a Good Tutoring Software

When having your business strategy, the next step is to set up your classroom. First of all, find the right tutoring software. Of course, having a personal educational platform is great but not everyone may afford it. However, there are various e-learning website builders that offer many advanced features and automation tools. By creating a website with such an e-learning technology, you will get an opportunity to have a personal, professional, and presentable website through which you may organize the overall teaching process and offer advanced services saving time and energy.

Uteach is such a website builder for teachers or any kind of education provider (life or business coach, marketing consultant, yoga coach, or fitness trainer, and even a makeup artist). Here it is possible to create a teaching platform without any kind of tech knowledge. So, U can teach, no matter your industry or level of tech experience.

Get started with Uteach now or book a free demo to learn more.

Register

FREE DEMO

Step 3: Prepare Your Home Office

Find a place in your home to conduct your online tutoring. This location should be away from any kind of noise so that you easily concentrate and your voice be clear during the virtual classes, webinars, or while recording video courses. of the house and has plenty of light. The next thing to consider is your background phone. Position yourself so that there is a clean, neutral background behind you in video calls.

Another essential point is that you should also ensure that all the required technological devices for tutoring are available. Of course, first and foremost, you need a computer which will be connected to the internet. You may check out which e-learning tools and techniques may be helpful and make it easier for you to illustrate and share concepts with your students from a distance.

Step 4: Set up Your Rates

In the eLearning business, you are your own boss and you are to get to decide on the rate you charge for the services you offer. The rates for eLearning services significantly vary from tutor to tutor. Typically, this depends on the education level, the subject area that is taught, or the specific learning needs of the students.

Analyze the prices in the market and find an optimal price that will be profitable for you and affordable for the learners. Make sure you do not offer a great difference with the competitive market. However, sometimes you must do offer a different price because you offer something more or something really unique. In such cases, make sure you present the matter in description or in a free introductory video so that there does not arouse any misunderstanding related to your quality knowledge.

It is accepted to believe that tutors who charge the highest rates are those who teach in-demand subjects that require significant experience and familiarity, such as for instance, college-level math and science. Tutors who have training and experience working with students with special education needs also typically charge relatively higher rates.

Step 5: Prepare Your Educational Material

Choose the type of content you want to share. Focus on one or more types or methods of teaching such as live meetings (virtual classes, webinars, online lessons, etc.), online video courses, textual material (different formats of files, blog articles, etc.), visual content (images, videos, infographics, etc.) and so on.

Choose the best format and work on it. Make a lesson plan, strategy, and prepare all the material, for instance, plan the course content and record the courses in advance. Or if you are going to conduct live lessons or webinars, prepare the plan and get ready for it. Write down all the points you are going to discuss during these virtual meetings and make some notes that will help you become more fluent when talking.

During this process, consider the factor of time. Make sure you will manage to cover all the points and offer at least several minutes for answering questions. Consider the complexity of the topic when dividing the time.

Step 6: Establish Your Web Presence

As you are an online tutor, and your success comes through digital channels it’s crucial that you have a strong online presence. There are a few ways you can go for when building your web presence.

The first one, of course, is your website. An SEO-friendly website will promote your services and help to reach the target market when potential learners look for services similar to what you offer. Yet, building your personal e-learning platform adds credibility to your business and can also help to build hype for your services. Luckily there are user-friendly and cost-effective website building tools, as I have already mentioned above. You have an opportunity to set up a site in a matter of minutes.

The next point is to invest in social media channels. These days social media is a great support in the online learning process as people are everywhere on these channels and it is easier to find them there and attract with interactive educational content. Set up business accounts on the social media platforms where your potential students are most frequently visit and are more likely to be found (usually, Facebook and Instagram are the right choices to start with).

Planning your marketing and advertising in advance would be a great idea. Promoting your services through Facebook ads, banner placements, education flyers distribution near colleges and study centers, and creating a landing page would get you more leads for your e-learning business.

Make sure you include essential information like your subject areas and, of course, a link to your website. You should also encourage reviews on your Facebook page, so parents and students can leave testimonials, increasing your credibility.

Create pages on different directories and make it easier for people to deal with your services. If your business is not already on Google My Business or on Yelp create these pages. There are even more directories that may be general or related to any specific industry. Make a list of them and start registering your business on them. Now is a good time to set one up. Adding a page on such platforms encourages more clients to leave reviews, and it can help direct new potential clients to your services.

How to Keep the Learners Interested in Your Interactive E-Learning Services

These days online tutoring classrooms offer all the required tools and techniques that make the “one-to-one”, or the “one-to-many” training sessions easier and more effective. As an online education provider, you can do the following activities during the tutoring sessions:

• Face-to-face video conferencing.
• Speak to each other with a high-quality and excellent voice.
• Write, type, erase and draw in distinctive colors on the digital advanced whiteboard.
• Text chat via instant messaging (live chat).
• Upload and share files.
• Alter messages progressively with the other person seeing what you are doing.
• Access the session from any kind of device.

Most tutoring organizations offer a free demo link to get familiar with the platform. You may start a free trial and use the tools. It is advisable that you go through all the features in detail, before taking on your first tutoring session or even deciding on any specific eLearning tool.

Gaining students is good but keeping them engaged in your educational material is even great. Below, I am going to mention some tips that will help you increase engagement towards your eLearning content and gain loyal customers.

When your online tutor profile is public, and you have already experienced a couple of online sessions, you have to do some actions in order to attract more learners to take part in your training sessions more.

1. Keep your profile updated

Today people are interested. They like to know others well. Especially, when they learn something from you, they should know you very well in order to trust you and your knowledge experience. Then, consider what your potential learners are more likely to want to hear from you. Include a video message in your profile. Recently, this form of content adds far more value than a simple and basic content profile.

2. Ask for ratings and reviews

Student feedback like ratings and reviews should be apparent on your tutoring profile. The most ideal way would be to ask your students to rate you just after the session. The more and better reviews and ratings you have, the better your chances will be to appear on the first page.

3. Availability is a big issue for most students

Try to be online in hours when your learners are also available. If your available timing does not correspond with those of the learners, they will not take part in your classes. Continuously follow the time zone of your potential students.

4. Quickly respond to the session requests

In case you receive a message from any enquiring student, be helpful to them. People like to get advice or guidance before starting something. Getting this advice from a professional is even more preferable.

Hopefully, this little article was useful to you in understanding online tutoring and it will be useful for you when starting your online tutoring business. Keep a good job!