Job Discussion Forums

[rneary2]

Hey guys. Anybody have any good recommendations on how to go about finding private tutoring lessons? Maybe some good online forums? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

[getbehindthemule]

Offers came to me due to the following factors:
1. I made a positive impression at my school (It takes time to build up trust anywhere, no place more so than in China).
2. I made friends with my work colleagues (some lucrative private work came my way on their recommendation of me).

I find private work tiring tbh and I don't enjoy it so I don't look for it. I'm down to one small class (4 students) once per week. The extra cash is great for going out for dinner and drinks over the weekend though I must say
But if I was desperate to save up some cash, I'd find plenty now with little to no effort after three years in the same job here.

If you have no contacts and are looking to start from scratch, I'd recommend setting up a seperate WeChat account. Set your username as Mr./Ms. Neary - English teacher. You'll be swamped in no time. (disclaimer: I've never done this but it seems like a great idea!)

Rates: I wouldn't work for less than 300/hr for Oral English. I've taught small English classes (3-5 students) from a set curriculum at rates of 600-1000/ class (2 hour of my time with maybe 70-90mins teaching time).

Location: I learned my lesson the hard way a few years ago, where my commute on a Friday evening was nearly as long as my lesson (ended up 300 for more than 2 hours of my time). It's really not worth the hassle if you have to commute in my opinion. Also I would avoid the popular 'coffee shop' lesson.

Note: The above is just from personal experience. Perhaps others can weigh in?

[Jmbf]

This is copied over from one of my previous posts - sorry if it's a bit repetitive but I feel some of the points are relevant to this OP's situation. Please bear in mind that the private tutoring industry is incredibly diverse and there is often no 'one-size fits all' strategy. Any teacher looking to do well will need to make some adjustments to suit the conditions in their own area.

Reputation, reputation, reputation:

Above all, establishing your reputation comes FIRST and that takes time. Running around aimlessly taking on private students without an overall game plan is what leads to many of the problems commonly associated with private work. It's important to know that these problems can be minimised / avoided with good planning and a bit of effort.

Tutoring is a two way street. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to be serious about it yourself. If you treat it too casually, then don't be surprised when issues arise. I've often seen tutors who are regularly late, don't do proper needs assessments, don't put in the effort to put together a lesson plan or bring the appropriate lesson materials, don't provide any feedback / assessment to students and parents etc etc...... and then they complain that their students cancel on them, or that they can't find new students, or they can't attract students at the hourly rate that they want.

Tutors who put in a bit of effort, try to be professional and develop their reputation usually have a better time of it. I make my stance very clear at the beginning, I can pretty much guarantee to significantly improve the student's English but only if the student / parents are willing to be serious about the lessons and commit to them. Do a proper needs assessment and take the time to THINK about each lesson's focus and tailor your plans / materials to each student. Have some kind of roadmap / assessment system (this doesn't need to be overly complicated or computerised) so that you can monitor the student's progress and report it to the student / parents regularly. Have a system in place where lesson payment is collected for the month in advance and tuition fees are forfeit if they don't show up unless you get suitable notice (usually at least 24 hours) AND with a reasonable excuse. If your reputation is good enough you can insist on these points and more.

Having a good setup:

To do well and still maintain a decent work / life balance you need to have a good setup.

1. Have the students come to you (no travelling time)
2. Schedule students back-to-back for maximum efficiency
3. Have a good system for monitoring student progress
4. Have a great resource library on hand
5. Fill up your daily schedule with a wide age range of students

Building up your student base:

Building up your private student base is a matter of establishing your reputation and networking. Be professional and friendly and you will naturally have some people come to you for lessons. Some teachers let it be known that they are available for private classes purely via word-of-mouth while some are more active about advertising their services. Be careful though - you might have to be subtle about it (different places have different levels of tolerance for teachers taking on side work). Depending on how open / obvious you want to be about operating as a private tutor, you can either advertise online, distribute leaflets, talk to people or generally let it be known that you are willing to tutor students privately.

I've found that targeted ads can be very effective in initially building up your student base. Think carefully about the layout and content of your ads. Highlight your experience, qualifications, any special programs you can offer etc etc. Make sure to include some pricing information as well. If you don't want to specify your full price range, just say hourly lessons from XXX. You might also want to think about where to post these ads. I'm continually surprised at how many bad ads there are for tutors. Once you have achieved a 'critical mass' of students then word-of-mouth referrals will take over as your main source of new students.

Offer something more than general English classes:

Also importantly, try to put together a program and offer something 'targeted' - rather than just offering general 'oral English' classes. Find out what's popular / trending in your local area and try to cater to that demand. IELTS / Cambridge YLE / Phonics / Business English or whatever it might be. If you can find and establish yourself in a niche field then you can do very well.

[twowheel]

Jmbf,

Very sound words of wisdom, glad you reposted them. Many thanks for doing so.

+1

twowheel

[getbehindthemule]

[rneary2]

This is all very excellent and useful information. I've put much thought into these topics before. However, what I'm truly looking to get out of this post is this:

Without a student base, what is the best way to start obtaining private lessons? Best online resources? I know there's plenty out there but I was looking to see which ones other people have had success using.

Again, all other information and advice is also greatly, greatly appreciated!

[JoThomas]