Tutoring questions

Local libraries sometimes have bulletin boards where you can put up an ad or a business card and our supermarket the same. Also families sometime call schools and ask if they have tutors to recommend. If you have contacts in other schools, try to get your name put on their list of tutors for when parents call.

I wouldn’t go into great debt to start a tutoring business. Tutoring isn’t the kind of business that will get you out of that debt quickly.
Good luck.

I agree. Be very careful about spending too much money up front. I tend to buy materials as I see the need with my students. For example, my training is primarily in reading and writing, but I’ve just picked up two students who really need OCN much more than the other programs I’ve been trained in, so I’ll be ordering the OCN kit on Monday. (I’ve got the book.)

A year ago, when I started my tutoring business, I was concerned about making ends meet. Currently, I wish I knew someone who had your qualifications to refer students to….I’m really overbooked, so if you decide to move north of Atlanta, let me know!

One thought might be to contact parent organizations for children with special needs in your area. I did give several presentations about reading and negotiating the special ed process when I started. I got very little from these talks initially but, surprisingly enough, one year later about 40% of my business is directly or indirectly related to my presentations.

I never advertised in the local papers, primarily because the ads are expensive and people I knew did not get any business out of their ads. Personal contact seems to be most effective. Maybe you could contact local public schools to see if they would let you give a presentation about teaching reading….I also get quite a few referrals from teachers I know or have worked with.

Alternatively, you might want to contact local private schools to see if they would like to have a contract reading specialist on-site part-time. A friend has made this arrangement work well for her.

One more thing to remember, which was really hard for me when I started, is if someone contacts you but does not wind up working with you, don’t take it personally. There are a ton of reasons that they will choose another path which have nothing to do with you competence or ability to succeed.

Good luck….and relax!
keb

Oh heavens, I wouldn’t want to get into great debt— I would like to take the LMB training and that sort of thing. Not sure if parents around here would know what the heck that was— not the most sophisticated region of the country. I want to buy a few things and I was more or less told it would take about a year to get going. Not sure I have enough to live for a year.
But big debt— no way. Someone I know suggested $20,000, and I was thinking, no way!!! You do have to pay those things back. :-)

I’ll contact some schools around here. Someone even suggested a private school almost accross from my house. I was surprised, but she said it was known as the Strattera school :-).

If you go around to schools what do you do? Do you talk to principals, give them cards, write something about yourself, what?

Too bad I’m not in the same town as some of you. Any parents in Albuquerque around here?? But I am not planning on moving.

Someone— Victoria, I think, suggested local weeklies (not the bigger papers). So I chose one with a good size distribution. She also suggested ISER and the city webpage, which I’m sorry to say has no ads.

Hmm good idea re: reading specialist. I don’t have a degree in that but I might know more about reading than half the reading specialists out there.
Which doesn’t say as much about me as it does about a lot of reading specialists!!

I have heard many people say that eventually they do get more students than they can take.

Also what’s your caseload folks?

Thanks ahead of time.

—des

Hi des,

I’ve been thinking about tutoring for reading - the kids who fall through the cracks in the school system, like my son did (does). I was talking to someone at our local “Parent Resource Center” and they have a list of tutors in our area, and I just had to fill out a form and send it in. They are paid by the school system, who gets state money to run them - and they keep a list of resources for parents of special needs kids, run programs, etc. All the schools refer parents with questions to them.

Do you have the equivalent where you live?

Lil

Hmm, good question. I haven’t heard of such a thing but that doesn’t mean much having only been in the city a bit over a year now. But I should look this up— perhaps a reference to it exists online.

Great idea.

I have decided to ask my sister for the money, but before I do I am going to look *very* serious. Have a business plan, go to a couple free home business workshops etc.

Also try for something during the day, part time job; working for a school as someone suggested, or even tutoring seniors in computer skills— might even have someone who could refer me clients there. And they might have grandchildren. I can try the free routes of advertising there.

—des

Dear DES,
All of the tutors we’ve used (or even interviewed) came via recommendations from the school resource teacher. They all had flyers that they distributed to the resource teachers at the elementary schools nearest their homes. As a parent, I would be very unlikely to try to find a tutor through an ad in the newspaper. I’d much rather have a personal recommendations.

I don’t know what the public school situations is like in your area, but here in Colorado, the elementary schools have several para-professionals, several of which work under the direction of the resource teacher. You may want to look into those sorts of job opportunities. That’s also a way to get parents to know who you are, and possibly could be a good source for recommendations.

Good luck starting your business!

Kay

Oh, Keb!

I have a great big favor to ask you. I took OCN training this summer and LOVED it! But I rarely tutor math, so I cannot justify the cost of the kit. It contains a large number of some of the materials and I would only need a few.

What I really desire to buy is just ONE set (or two?) of the “Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication Family Fact Sheets”. The kit comes with a set of 30 of each. To buy just that alone is about $69, and I just absolutely have no need for 30. What I am not sure of is exactly how many fact sheets there are in all in one set.

There are a few other items that come in multiples and if you do not need that quantity, I might be interested in a few other things like one or two “word problem rules” (comes with 30), a cardboard number line (5), etc.

Just let me know if you think you’ll have an extra and I’ll give you my email address.

Thanks!
Janis

Kay, I would not take a paraprofessional job. Might be good advice for some but for me no way. First of all, the pay is horrendous. I might make more working at McDonalds, esp here in beautiful Albuquerque. The second that I might/ well likely WOULD have more experience than the teacher I worked with it. I would be so frustrated when the teacher did the wrong thing that I prolly wouldn’t stand working there for more than a week. Since I think many teachers don’t have a clue, it would be likely. I am 55 not 25.

However, the other ideas are good ones. I think that the school flyers etc would be a good idea.

As for the ad, that was actually Victoria’s suggestion. She suggested local weeklies. We’ll see if this works out or not. I am running the ads for a set period of time. Obviously if I get no leads that way I would not continue.

BTW, Janis sure is right about that. LiPs comes with a clinical set, I think that Seeing Stars and OCN should too, though i guess they have not been around as long.

—des

I do get some results from local ads. Best has been online local websites.

Consider broadening your subject base. I do have a couple of students in reading and advanced math, my central subjects, but right now I am up to my neck in second language students — basic French for English speakers and English for French speakers. They are nice and I can do it.
Do you have any second-string subjects?

Also, in all your advertising/informational materials, make sure you list “study skills”. This is an amorphous term used for kids in upper elementary and junior high who are falling apart academically although they jumped through all the required hoops in earlier grades. It almost always means very poor reading skills, horrible writing skills, fragmented and often incorrect math ideas, and so on. You can help these kids a lot by first teaching the missing skills and second teaching them how to put their work into a big picture.

I sent you private message. Let me know if you don’t receive it…I’ve never used the private msg thing before!

I had hoped that if I referred to you by name at least twice you might enter the fray. :-)

>I do get some results from local ads. Best has been online local websites.

Yep too bad Albuquerque city does not have ads, perhaps there are informal websites like the books “Unofficial ______”. Something to look into.

>Do you have any second-string subjects?

Well not for kids exactly— I am saying I am tutoring in reading, early math, handwriting, other language arts, computer skills, and community living skills. I *could* definitely teach seniors computer skills. This might have a handy thing of being during the day time and then afternoons and early evenings for the kiddos.

Also have art skills…. hmm.

>Also, in all your advertising/informational materials, make sure you list “study skills”. This is an amorphous term used for kids in upper elementary and junior high who are falling apart academically although they jumped through all the required hoops in earlier grades. It almost always means very poor reading skills, horrible writing skills, fragmented and often incorrect math ideas, and so on. You can help these kids a lot by first teaching the missing skills and second teaching them how to put their work into a big picture.[/quote]

Great idea! I have not done a flyer yet. Thinking about this. I know a desktop publisher and she can definitely help me here.

—des