Tutoring is an easy job, especially if you like teaching children. While tutoring may be easy, it can also be hard. Many tutors are former government teachers, who have left the standard teaching environment for one reason or the other. These reasons usually include a huge workload and unbalanced work-life culture. Before you can become a government teacher, you must undergo the necessary training and attain the proper degrees or certificates. These highly-trained teachers make the tutoring field very competitive. With such competition, you may not be able to get students to tutor.
Another thing that makes tutoring hard is the hours you have to keep. Tuition classes can only take place after school hours. As a tutor, you will be teaching afternoons and evenings. You will also teach during the weekends. This could take a toll on your health.
Tutoring may also require you to travel. You may get students to tutor who is far from your home. While you can charge the parents for your transportation, it still eats into the extra money you could be saving.
Despite these drawbacks, tutoring is still a very lucrative job.
You don’t really have a boss as a tutor. You only have to update the parents on their child’s progress. Apart from the communication, you have to maintain with them, you are the boss. You decide on the curriculum and method of instruction. You negotiate your pay by the hour. You can become financially successful as a tutor, once you get the hang of it. This may seem impossible, but it is not. There are tutors who earn up to S$10,000 a month. They are excellent tutors, and they do not break down from stress or fatigue. How can you become a financially successful tutor?
Through Word-of-mouth Recommendation By Current Or Ex-students
Becoming financially successful as a tutor means you have to gain popularity. Before you can be popular, however, you need to be great at what you do. Based on how well you tutor your students, you can get reviews from them. These reviews come in the form of word-of-mouth recommendations. Your students, current or past, can tell others about you.
By referring more students to you, you gain recognition and more students. These students will tell other students about you, and the cycle goes on. Word-of-mouth recommendations make sure you stay in business. Constant tutoring means more money in the bank for you.
Pace Yourself Throughout The Week
This is very important if you want to succeed financially as a tutor. Constantly pushing yourself will not be of great benefit to you. Yes, tutoring involves a lot of work. Nevertheless, you can lose business if you become sick on a regular basis. If you start to feel exhausted more often, getting frequent headaches; you need to stop.
Take a minute to look at your schedule and see how you can adjust it. Try to see how you can take off some hours for rest and some ‘you’ time. What many people do not realize is that tutoring or teaching is a very demanding job. It takes the same toll on your body as physical labour does. So, while you should schedule in tutoring lessons as much as possible, try to carve out time for yourself. You won’t be any good to your tuition students if you fall sick.
Only Rest During Lull Periods
Tuition classes work just like a normal school timetable. Sometimes even more than that, as you will be scheduling weekend classes as well. While rest is important, to be successful you need to keep up with the competition.
Don’t take days off during the week unless your tuition students are travelling. Take a holiday like a normal teacher would. During the Christmas and New Year holidays, you can take your break. Everyone else will be on break then as well. Once school resumes, tutoring resumes as well.
Give Preference To Those Within Your Home Vicinity
One thing that can really affect your finances as a tutor is transportation. You could charge hire per hour if your students live far away, but you may not save as much as you could. Try to get tuition students in the area where you live. You can hold tuition classes in your home, or walk to their houses for lessons.
If you must have students that are far away, they should be fewer than those nearby. If you have tuition offers to choose from, those who are in the immediate or nearby locality should have the first choice. This will reduce the cost of transportation and increase your finances.
Open The Option To Tutor More Than One Child Per Session
Tutoring more than one child per session increases what you earn per hour. If the parents have more than one child, offer to tutor the others as well. Keep the option on the table once you meet the parents, so that they know that you can do it. You can also hold group sessions with all your tuition students. This could be during the weekends.
Organize a class in your home, and all the students can attend. Tutors typically earn not less than S$9000 for group tuition sessions. Tutoring more children per session will increase your finances.
Conclusion
Just like any other job, tutoring requires commitment and determination. Thinking that tutoring is an easy-breezy affair may bite you in the tail. Having the passion for teaching alone isn’t enough. You also need to be patient and the hardest working person that you know. The determination to succeed will ensure that you stay on top of the competition.
Encouraging your students and influencing them positively will gain you more students. Having a full schedule but making time to relax keeps you refreshed for the next session. Before you know it, you will be a financially successful tutor yourself and not have to worry about not having a steady income.
Want to be a successful tutor? Check out these articles to help you:
3 Tips to be an Effective Home Tutor for Primary School
5 Things All Great Private Tutors in Singapore Have in Common
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