Earn $30k to $70k as A Math Tutor Part Time

Eric Earle
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Earn $30k to $70k as A Math Tutor Part Time

This podcast will reveal some simple strategies to get your first clients, grow your business, and market your services online as a tutor in any subject. There are five mistakes even experienced tutors make that can be costing you a LOT of money. Are you falling into any of the common traps? You might be surprised. Eric Earle has started 4 different tutoring companies and been working in the tutoring industry for over a decade. Currently he runs his tutoring businesses remotely and travels around the world looking for awesome surf spots. Along the way, Eric has discovered some tactics that are insanely effective to establish a tutoring business from literally nothing and grow it into a full time enterprise. One of the biggest myths he came across is that you have to lower your rates when you’re first starting out. This is super pervasive and it’s simply not true. You can charge premium hourly rates right from the start, you just have to do it properly. Eric will show you a foolproof method in this podcast. Don’t discount yourself. Charge what you’re worth. Whether you’re just starting out as a tutor or a seasoned pro with a thriving business, the hacks and secrets in this podcast will help you land more clients and scale your tutoring more effectively. You can use these strategies regardless of whether you’re meeting clients in-person or tutoring them online. This podcast will make you money! Eric Earle is a tutor, entrepreneur, and investor. After science and math tutoring changed the course of his life, Eric saw the potential of tutoring to make a significant positive impact. He grew his tutoring business in Portland, Oregon, and soon needed to hire a staff of other tutors to meet all of the demand. He is also the founder of mathtutoraustin.com and the national tutoring platform zoomtutor.com as well. It was at a neurology clinic high in the Himalayas that Eric had an epiphany: he realized he wanted to go to medical school. The problem was, he’d already graduated from college and hadn’t taken any of the math and science classes required for admittance. He went back to school to work his way through calculus, physics, organic chemistry, and biochemistry but the topics were unbearably difficult. Eric hired a tutor and, with diligent work, was able to turn himself into a top science student. This experience with tutoring showed Eric that there is no limit to what we can become with the right teachers. He now supports tutoring and education through his businesses. He is here to share what he has learned about business, investing, tutoring, and life though this podcast. Hopefully you find some of his teachings valuable.

  1. EPISODE 1

    Why Tutor Math?

    So, why should you be a math tutor? Math is one of the most important subjects. Many families are interested in getting their math issues solved—and they can pay a good amount for it. If you have some skill in math (and it doesn't even have to be much skill), you should be able to make 30,000 to $70,000 as a math tutor, working for yourself or for a tutoring company. The majority of tutoring involves just algebra and geometry. Rarely you'll get into some calculus with certain more advanced students. There are two main types of tutors. There is the rogue tutor who is out making a living and finding clients on their own. And there's a company tutor who works for someone else and has more steady work that way. Both lifestyles can provide significant freedom and flexibility, which is one nice thing about tutoring in general. There's even the opportunity to do a combination of these, working for a company while you also build your own business on the side. Jobs in STEM fields are increasing right now by 8% to 9% per year. So there's demand for learning mathematics, and it's one of the toughest things for people to learn. For whatever reason people get stuck in algebra and geometry. So there's high demand for tutors in those areas. And parents want their kids to do well in math because STEM jobs are great and are on the rise. So, if you like mathematics and you've always done well in it, this could be a good job for you. Many people find meaning in being a math tutor, because you're helping people one-on-one to grow and expand. So, if you have solid skills in geometry and algebra, the other thing you’ll need is some communication skills and empathy. That's an overlooked area of math tutoring, which can set you apart. There are many people who can do math, but few who can teach it. Speaking of teaching, who am I to be teaching you about running a tutoring business anyway? I've owned multiple tutoring companies. I started my first company six years ago, and before that I was freelance tutoring for years. So I've been involved in tutoring for over a decade. And I have many stories to share. I've hired quite a few math tutors because I own a company now that specializes mainly in mathematics. In my first company I found math was about 90% to 95% of our business, so I focused my second company just on math. One of the great things about tutoring as a business is that you can build long term relationships with your clients. We’ll see in a later lesson that building these long term relationships is a big key to growing your business. Many tutors miss out on that opportunity. Math is really set up well for long term relationships because kids are enrolled in various courses simultaneously. And improving requires significant effort. So kids often need help for years, or even all through high school. I've hired people with PhDs who weren't great tutors. The best tutors are people with the ability to communicate. You don't have to be the most polished speaker in the world, but if you have genuine desire to help people and empathy, you should be able to make good money as a math tutor. And it doesn't have to be full time. You can do this 20 hours per week and make a good living while pursuing other interests. We have tutors who love music and are constantly creating. They spend more hours making music than they do tutoring! They have good lives. Tutoring gives you freedom because you're either going to be an independent contractor or working for yourself. These are just some of the reasons for being a math tutor.  We're going to go over all the tips, tricks, and tools of the trade in this course. I’ll show you how to make yourself stand out. And one of the most important things to know is how to get your first clients. Then we’ll see how to keep those clients on a long term basis, and how to get them on a steady schedule from week to week.

    4 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    Your First Clients

    When I started tutoring I made a profile on universitytutor.com and forgot about it. For a couple months no one responded to me. But then I got a few requests, and I started working with those clients. And I liked it so I started looking for other ways to find more clients and grow my business. But those profiles were the first step. So if you’re just starting out as a tutor you should absolutely create profiles on various tutoring websites.  There's universitytutor.com, varsitytutors.com, tutors.com, care.com, and others. Just start Googling and you’ll find them. The most important would be universitytutor.com, because that gets you some leads you can keep for yourself. Sites like varsitytutors.com will allow you to work as an independent contractor through their platform. You can make some pretty good money that way.  Pro tip: a good way to get started is with a hybrid approach where you work a little for yourself and also do some work for a local tutoring company. Find those companies where you can get some hours and get established in the industry.  Local tutoring companies will often pay higher rates than the big national companies. And you can find those by searching “math tutor Miami” and looking at the websites that come up organically. If they are ranking high on Google, they're going to have some inflow of leads. So those would be the biggest major areas to look for your first clients.  There are also other places where you can do job postings. And most of this is free. You might spend $10 to $15 total as startup costs, which isn't bad. Make a post on Craigslist advertising your tutoring services. When I was studying for the MCAT I found a great tutor through Craigslist. So you can definitely find people there who are looking for tutors. It's $5 or $10 to post at the time of this course, depending on the city.  So those are some basics for getting your online presence built up. You want to think of yourself as a little tutoring store. And you need to think about how you can get people to start passing by your store who are interested in your services. After I got my first clients through universitytutor.com, I started wondering how I could expand my business further. And one simple thing I did was print out some of those pieces of paper with 10 slits at the bottom, where you can pull one off and take it with you. It's very simple and inexpensive. There are templates on Google and you can just write “Math tutor, Miami. $35 an hour.” And describe what you do. Talk about your background, and how you’ve always had a passion for mathematics, and why you want to teach. And then put the 10 slips with your email and phone number and the words “math tutor” at the bottom.  And you can go around the city posting those up places. There are many places with free boards where you can post them. I'm from Portland and we have grocery stores with message boards. I got my second client from a community center. I went and posted a flyer with those pull tabs and someone ended up finding me through there. So that is an idea as well. One little tip is that you should pull off a couple tabs when you put these up (so it looks like people are already interested). Maybe there are only eight left or something. You can get that done in a few hours. Think about coffee shops, grocery stores, community centers, medical clinics, yoga studios, and anywhere there might be good clients. Focus your energy on wealthier zip codes. Do some research before you start posting. Look for wealthy zip codes that are easy for you to drive to. You want to maximize your time.  It's going to be hardest to find your first few clients. But once you get a few clients and do a good job you’ll get a referral. And things will grow from there.

    6 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Grow Your Business

    After the first couple lessons you know how to get your first clients. And once you have a client the question becomes how to expand, develop, and move your business forward.  One of the first things I want to touch on is the importance of getting into a weekly schedule with your clients. You should be meeting each client at consistent times each week. Generally, as a tutor, you’re going to be busy in the afternoon after school, and in the evening. Middle school and high school kids get out of school, come home, unwind, maybe have sports practice, and are ready for tutoring around four or five pm. It can be hectic as a tutor if your schedule is always changing every week. That can make it difficult to build consistency in your life. I encourage people to establish a set time for meeting with each client. You might work with Johnny every Tuesday at six, for instance. So then for the next person who wants to book a time, you can say, “Hey, I have a slot open at 7:30 on Tuesday evening. I could fit you in there. Would that work?” This way your schedule will fill up. It’s much better than having to email your clients and find different times every time they need help with something. This brings consistency to your life and helps you grow your business.  Another thing to look at once you have a couple steady clients going is developing a web presence. That can be making a website or doing some social media. It’s easy to set up a website today on Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace. You can do some research into those. I think Wix is on the cheaper end. Squarespace might be a bit more expensive, look more sleek, and have a few more bells and whistles. Spend a few days setting up your website and get some writing on there.  Write about your philosophy and what sets you apart as a tutor. Why should they hire you? It's important to not just write about math, but also about how you teach math. What is your teaching philosophy? Maybe you cater to the whole person. Maybe you think it's important to spend time talking to people about how their day was. Even small things can help set you apart and make you likeable. You want a parent to read this and say, “Oh, yeah, this is someone who I'd like to hire, bring into my home, and introduce to my child.” So set that philosophy up. If you get a decent website it could start to rank on Google and people might start finding you organically.  During the early stages of establishing your tutoring business, you'll have to go out and do some work. You set the fliers up, do outreach, make profiles, and build the website. But eventually people start coming into your business through referrals and your website, and you can get a good business going.  It’s probably prudent to get a Twitter going, a Facebook page, and maybe an Instagram. Think about who's going to be hiring you; it's probably going to be moms. Personally, 99% of the people contacting me in my tutoring businesses are moms. Sometimes it's the dad but that's rare. Think about where moms hang out online. Where can you find them? Well, there are a lot on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So you can try to find your niche and your audience by posting helpful content. Maybe make a video about your tutoring philosophy! If you have a client who really loves you, have them record a short video about how much they've loved your service, and post (if that’s ok with them, of course). Pin that on top of your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. Link those all to your website. Make it easy to book a consultation on your website. So if someone comes across your Facebook page, they could end up seeing the video, going to your website, and signing up.  You want to build out a presence and some credibility. Once you do, people are going to see you as an expert and perceive you as more credible. Maybe you’ll be able to charge a higher rate. Because now you are not just some guy. You have legitimacy. You have a Facebook and Instagram and you're writing helpful things there. People are making videos about how great you are. And parents see that and think, Wow, this person knows their stuff! They're writing about algebra and geometry, exactly what my daughter needs help with right now. And they're writing about employing educational strategies. This is someone worth hiring.  Another great approach to grow your tutoring business is to get on some lists. Local community centers and neighborhood organizations will often have lists to help parents who are looking for tutors. Sometimes schools will even have these lists. So you can contact some local schools and say, “Hey, is there a tutoring list? If there is, can I put my name on there?” A lot of times, you'll have to write down what subjects you do, whether you do in-home, and how your charging works. Then you can start to get inbound leads that way from people wanting your service. Parents are inquiring at the school about where to find a tutor and the school refers them to this list. So it’s a great referral.  Reaching out and connecting with schools and making some partnerships is always a great idea. That can be through the front office to get on the tutoring list, as we just saw, or it can be with the counselors. Parents will often bring up with their counselor that their child is not doing well in school. If you have some connections there, and you've done the hard work of building relationships, you can get some leads coming in that way too, and your schedule will start filling up.  Once your schedule fills up to 90% capacity, you can aise those rates again, depending on the city you're in. You can also think about charging a bit more if you're doing in-home sessions and offering a discount for online tutoring. Some people might want online and that's not a bad gig. You can book sessions back-to-back and you could even be doing it from Hawaii. You could be sitting on the beach doing tutoring sessions and make money that way. So think about whether you want to offer online, and how you want the pricing to work.  One of the big keys is just getting your clients on a steady schedule, where they're coming back each week at a certain time. This way you’ll have more predictable revenue and can retain clients more easily over longer timelines.  Those are the main ideas on how to grow your business after getting your first clients. By now you have the tools to get a legitimate business going. Let’s continue with the next topic.

    7 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Responding to Leads

    I keep my iPhone on me—I keep it very close. And when I get an email from a new lead, I try to adhere to my five minute rule: respond to every lead within five minutes. There is a study suggesting you are 300% to 400% more likely to convert a lead into a sale when you respond right away. We live in a world where things happen fast. People want to get things done quickly.  Influence is based on emotions, which are highly sensitive to timing. People feel differently about things at different times. To sell to people, we need to pay attention to timing. One of your main advantages as a tutor is that you’ll be thinking of yourself as a business. In your personal life you don’t have to respond to things right away. But in business you do.  Imagine someone emails you at 9:30pm and they're thinking about tutoring. They say, “I'm looking for a mathematics tutor, can you help me?” Well, many tutors lose business because they don’t respond for two days. Finally they say, “Oh, yeah, I can help you.” But by that time it's done. You've lost that lead. Maybe they’ve changed their mind. Customers are fickle, and emotions change. Two days from now they might not feel like they need a math tutor anymore. Maybe they are feeling better, or maybe they decided it's hopeless. Plus, they probably sent emails to multiple tutors. That’s what people do. We get on Google, do some searching, and put out a few feelers to see what comes back.  So boom, you’re the tutor who responds within five minutes and you're the first to email them back. Your promptness immediately demonstrates that you are on top of your game. This creates a halo effect. Now this client is going to see you in a positive light, and will perceive anything you do more positively from that point forward. They're going to think, this person is on top of it, organized, efficient, and is probably going to be a good math tutor.  Compare that to the slouch who responds in two days. No one is going to want to work with them.  The five minute rule is simple but it has revolutionized my business. You can have success either by emailing people or calling them. However, one big secret I’ve discovered is to text your clients. At some point you could even get a business iPhone to text them on. Think about it, we text our friends and people we're close to. If you're iMessaging clients, you develop a bond with them before you even meet in person. Plus, it’s really efficient because you can be messaging five people at once. So if you get an email from a new lead, and email them back within five minutes, you might offer your number and ask for theirs. Offer to text them and set something up. Then move the interaction to text. This way you're going to develop rapport in that relationship, just by using technology to your advantage.  It’s also helpful to meet people where they are comfortable. Some people just prefer to talk on the phone. Others like email. You can suss that out in your initial email. Most of the time, people will email you for their initial inquiry, rather than calling. At least that's my experience.  Imagine someone emails you and says, “When can we have a call?” In that case, you probably don't want to keep emailing them and writing long explanations. They've mentioned a phone call, so they probably want to get on the phone. Get their number, send them a text, set something up, or give them a call right away.  It's going to help you in your tutoring to read some things about motivation and psychology. And it's also going to help when you're dealing with clients. One phrase I use a lot, once a client signs up, is to say, “thank you for choosing to do business with us.” There's research backing this up. This phrase reaffirms that it is their choice to do business with you, they could be working with someone else. You're affirming their autonomy and telling them you appreciate them for choosing you.  If you start listening now, you’ll notice that many companies do this. You’ll hear it on airlines, “Thank you for choosing United.” It's all over the place. I always chuckle when I'm in my seat and hear them use that line. They wouldn’t go through all the trouble of making sure all their employees say that during every flight if it wasn’t important.

    5 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Hone Your Messaging

    How can you write about yourself in a compelling way? A lot of being successful as a tutor actually comes down to writing. You need to write an advertisement. Maybe it’s on Craigslist. Or you might have a website. You need to figure out how to write something that gets customers to raise their hands.  One of the biggest mistakes people make is they start off talking about themselves. They say, “I'm an expert tutor, and these are the reasons why you should hire me.” That's not going to work. You have to start out talking about the customer. You want to dive into some emotions. I would say, “Are you struggling with math? Have you struggled for a long time? Has it been difficult to get A's on reports?” People are motivated either to gain pleasure or avoid pain (and most of the time it’s to avoid pain). You want to talk about things that are painful for your customers, that they could avoid by getting tutoring. Maybe they feel like they are falling behind their friends. Maybe it’s a parent, worried their child might get a D in mathematics. Or afraid their kid might not get into a proper college—or any college. If someone is looking for math tutoring, they're worried about their child’s math performance. Your customer is not the A student trying to get an A-plus. That's maybe 1% of the time. I had one client whose daughter was a math genius and just needed help to get even better. But that is very rare. Most of the time it’s people who are struggling. They have a B, or they have a C, or they have a D, and the parents are really worried about it. So if you focus the beginning of your writing on these pain points, it is going to immediately connect with the customer. They're going to be reading other ads saying, “I went to Harvard. Look at me.” But people care about their own emotions, desires, and fears. Not about you. We want to tap into that pain in our writing so we can ultimately help alleviate it.  In your opening sentences use the word “you” several times. There's research showing that “you” is one of the most powerful words for getting the reader’s attention and increasing sales. People pay attention to those three letters, y-o-u, because everyone is interested in themselves. Instead of writing “we can help you get better at math,” try, “do you want to get better at math?” Get in the habit of phrasing things in terms of the buyer, and what the buyer wants. After a paragraph or two about the customer and their pain points, we can start to talk about ourselves. We can say, “I'm an expert in mathematics. I've been working with kids for twelve years.” I would also say things like, “Of course I know mathematics. That's the easy part. Many people know math. But what makes me unique is that I am also a strong communicator, and I'm doing this because it's purposeful to me.” Using this kind of phrasing does a number of things. First, it shifts the focus away from your math abilities, so the reader won’t even question those. You firmly establish your math skills and get them focused on whatever sets you apart from other math tutors. In my experience, everyone is going to agree with this. I say this to parents all the time and they always say, “Oh yeah, of course you have to be good at mathematics. But can you communicate? That’s the important thing. Can you teach it?” And I say, “Oh, yeah, let me tell you. That's the number one most important thing.” You can learn some skills for phrasing things in ways that connect with customers. Just like you learned mathematics, you can get better at communicating. Consider reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. He goes over many of the tips I'm giving you here. Another great book about this stuff is an audio program called The 10 Best Kept Secrets of the World's Greatest Communicators. How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less is another one I’d recommend. Find that on Amazon, it's a great book.  If you're writing a tutoring profile or advertisement, you're talking to the buyer. Start by putting their wants and needs first, then give some ideas about yourself. You can charge people for the first session, but it’s a good idea to say, “if you're unhappy about this session, I'll refund you.” That's taking a little risk, but it's only an hour of your time. You don't have to do this. Many people are opposed to offering refunds. But any time customers are contacting you their concern is whether your services are going to work. Will you be any good? That uncertainty could prevent them from making a purchase with you. They're worried. It comes down to fear and worry, again. They're worried about their child’s math performance. But they're also worried they might pay for something they don't want and get stuck with it, which is a terrible feeling. So we want to try to reduce that worry as much as possible. We can say, “The first session costs $35, but if you aren't happy with it and you don't want me as your tutor for a long time, I'm happy to refund that for you.” That's going to put them at ease. You've decreased their fear and anxiety.  That kind of a guarantee is something I would put at the end of your advertising, or your bio, or your profile. Then you could finish up with a few ways to contact you.

    6 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    Business 101 for Tutors

    If you're working for a company like varsitytutors.com, tutordoctor.com, or a local tutoring company, you can think of it like Uber driving. Uber uses contractors. The difference between a contractor and an employee is that for a contractor, you can choose to open your Uber app and select a trip. You don't have a manager telling you to go pick a ride up, right away. If that happened, you would be an employee and they would be withholding some taxes for you.  As a 1099 contractor, you are essentially your own business. Many people prefer to be contractors because you can work whenever you want. You can decide Wednesday nights are when you’ll practice your guitar. Whereas for an employee the company could say, “Put down the guitar, you have to go get this guy.” The way a 1099 works is that if someone pays you over $600 in a given year they are supposed to report that to the IRS. If you make less than $600, they probably won't even report it. But when you reach that point the company will report your earnings to the IRS. So you’ll want to claim those earnings on your tax return as well. Otherwise, the government is going to see that things aren’t adding up. If you're also working another job, like maybe you also work 15 hours a week for Amazon, and you have a W4 from them, you could do the maximum withholding for that job. That means they're going to take the highest possible amount of money out of your paycheck. Usually this would get you a tax refund at the end of the year. But if you're also doing some self-employed work, you won't necessarily get a refund but you won’t owe a bunch of taxes all at once, which is nice.  Consider starting an LLC for your tutoring business. There are many benefits to doing this. First, it’s going to give you some protection, because of what's known as the corporate veil. If you have an LLC, that entity is doing the tutoring and the business, not you personally. You want to create a separate bank account for the LLC to make it seem as separate from your personal life as possible and draw that distinction. You could even pay for things through that account, like if you're driving to a tutoring session, you could pay for gas with that debit card. Or if you have to buy a textbook or something, you could do it with that debit card. And the nice thing is that you're going to be able to write that off on your taxes come tax day. For example, let's say you earned $1,000 so you owe 20% to Uncle Sam: $200. If you've also been investing this year, and you spent $500 getting a website going, now at the end of the year instead of owing $200 to Uncle Sam, you only owe $100. So you just saved $100. The W9 is going to be a simple form that your employer will send you. Just fill in your name, social security number, and address. They're supposed to have that on file for you.  If you get advice from an attorney or other business professional, they're going to want you spending money setting things up. But we want to do this for $30 in startup costs. So keep things cheap initially, see what's working, then invest money later.

    5 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    Selling on the Phone

    When tutors get on the phone with new leads, many make the mistake of starting off talking about why they're a great tutor. But if someone is calling you, they don't want to hear five minutes about you. They're stressed and anxious and they want to talk about the problem. They want to tell you what's going on.  Sometimes a potential client might even start right in and ask you, “What are the prices?” or “How does this work?” You want to shift the dialogue to talk about what's going on with them. Say, “I'm happy to get into the nuts and bolts of what we do. But can I just ask, what's going on? What are you struggling with right now?” And normally they'll say, “Oh, wow, my daughter has been having a hard time in math this semester.”  You want to get an accurate assessment of the picture. My initial question right off the bat is usually when the trouble started. “How long has this been going on? A long time? Or just all of a sudden this last semester?” The answer to this question makes a big difference. If they've been struggling with math since they were five, that’s not the same as if they just started struggling last week. Normally the parents will say they've been struggling for a while but this last year has been really tough.  We really want to get to the root of the problem, so keep asking questions. “Why has this past semester been so hard for her?” And this information is really going to help you show this client the benefits of mathematics tutoring. They might say, “Gosh, she got Miss Jasmine, the worst math teacher ever, and she's really struggling in this class” or “She's having some mental health issues and is struggling this year.” Now you have some good information.  This is where you can normalize what is happening. I spent time volunteering at a suicide hotline, and one of the most important things we did was normalize what people were going through. It makes us feel much better. So you might say, “Let me tell you, I've had this conversation so many times. What you're going through, I've heard that from other parents, and it sounds pretty normal to me.”  You should also ask whether the parent has tried to help the child already (they always have). And you can even make a joke about Khan Academy videos, because that's how parents have always tried to deal with the problems at first. The parent has spent a lot of time watching Khan Academy lately, trying to learn the material so they can help their child with it.  They’ll say, “I've been watching Khan Academy and trying to help her myself. But Gosh, it's just…” And this is where I normalize their struggles again and say, “I know, for whatever reason, it never works to teach your own kid. It's tough. That's really normal. I hear this from a lot of parents, it's hard. And people want people want help with it.” Many times, I'll also acknowledge how hard the parent has been working. I like to say, “I mean, gosh, you're working full time, too? You're cooking? You're the chaperone? And you're also the math tutor?” They like that. When they call you, they're stressed out. You want to acknowledge some of that. And now it's a good point in the call to start transitioning into talking about yourself. Talk about how normal their problems are and how you’ve helped other people through this same thing. Start telling them a little about how you work. What is your approach? Develop a little bit of philosophy about what works best in tutoring. You could say, “I work on an engagement model” or “I use a holistic model where I focus on the whole person.”  If you do some research online about active learning, there's plenty of stuff on it. It's the best way to teach mathematics. It's based in research and science. People learn mathematics best when they verbalize their mathematical thinking. So you could tell the client, “I like to use active learning and engaging type strategies, because it's more than just knowing mathematics. It's about being able to explain things in five different ways.” I always tell people that when I’m hiring tutors I look for people who can explain things five or six different ways. Because then if one way doesn't work they can just try another way to explain it. That's reassuring to parents. They like knowing you can get the idea across somehow.  And talk about how you take a person centered approach and believe in creating rapport and creating a relationship. One big reason tutoring works is because it's not just a professor standing up at the front of a lecture hall, it's a one-on-one personal relationship. You develop rapport and the student feels comfortable asking questions and diving deeper into things. The first call is also a great time to set some expectations for the overall relationship with the client. Say things like, “I focus on building long term relationships, and helping people over time. I wish I had a magic wand and I could just say poof, you’re fixed. But unfortunately, I don't. And it takes time to get better.” This way you’re teaching them what to expect. You’re conditioning them to the idea that this is going to be a long-term relationship. They realize you’re not going to just give up on them.  And that's going to be good for you and for your business as well. Because we want to focus on having long term relationships with people. Some other tutor might only come in and be a quick fix and help the student for one test. Maybe you get four hours of work out of that. But if you're communicative, and you develop a relationship, you could have four years of work. If you're only doing four hours of work at a time, you have to keep getting new clients. But if you develop long term relationships, you have this phone call once and then you're set for four years. You have Tuesday and Thursday at six booked out. The big key to the phone call is making sure to start by learning about what makes the customer tick and what's going on. Every story is going to follow a similar arc, but there will be nuances. You want to be able to communicate that their problems are really normal, and reassure them that you can help make the issues go away.

    7 min

  8. EPISODE 8

    Customer Service Tips

    We've all heard the customer is always right. But what does that mean? Jeff Bezos said when he was starting Amazon he would sit an empty chair at the table during meetings. And that would represent the customer. For every decision he thought about the customer. How is this going to benefit the customer? And really, that's why we are tutoring. We want to help the customer. They should have a seat at every decision we make. Any website we're making, or ad we're writing, or tutoring session we're doing is about the customer.  Adopt the attitude that you work with the customer and together you're going to decide on a good plan for them. That's going to make you stand out from other people. Because customers are actually pretty savvy. They're going to subconsciously realize they have a seat at the table with you. They can feel that. And this attitude doesn’t just make the best business sense (which it does, Bezos is the richest man in the world), but it's also just the right thing to do. The customer should have a seat at the table. It's not about what you can get. It's about what you become and what you're able to contribute in the process. Keep a long term orientation and focus on how you can contribute to these people. How can you make a difference today?  I've interviewed people who said the reason they wanted to tutor was because they were trying to make some extra cash. Wow, okay. Maybe they'll be a decent tutor. But if all they want is money they're probably not going to be amazing. I’m looking for the person who says, “I did tutoring in high school, and I loved helping people.” That's a better tutor, someone who cares about not only mathematics but about helping people.  Develop the mindset of you're in this to help people. Give the customer a seat at the table. When you do this, customers are going to want to buy from you. They're gonna want to do business with you. And it starts to change every aspect of your business.  There are businesses that refuse to refund people when they aren’t happy. They get argumentative with customers. And that's because their mindset is, “What can I get from this?” Well, no one's gonna want to do business with people who are trying to get things out of them. A better mindset is, “How can I contribute?” People are going to want to do business with that person. They are also going to refer you to more clients automatically.  Imagine you are emailing someone and they tell you they have already found a tutor. My mindset is, “That's wonderful. I'm really happy for you. If you ever have any questions about education at all, or need some resources or anything, send an email. I'm here to help. Even if you need help finding other tutors or something.” Focus on how you can actually help the person in any way. It's morally right. It feels good. And it's great for your business.

    3 min
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About

This podcast will reveal some simple strategies to get your first clients, grow your business, and market your services online as a tutor in any subject. There are five mistakes even experienced tutors make that can be costing you a LOT of money. Are you falling into any of the common traps? You might be surprised. Eric Earle has started 4 different tutoring companies and been working in the tutoring industry for over a decade. Currently he runs his tutoring businesses remotely and travels around the world looking for awesome surf spots. Along the way, Eric has discovered some tactics that are insanely effective to establish a tutoring business from literally nothing and grow it into a full time enterprise. One of the biggest myths he came across is that you have to lower your rates when you’re first starting out. This is super pervasive and it’s simply not true. You can charge premium hourly rates right from the start, you just have to do it properly. Eric will show you a foolproof method in this podcast. Don’t discount yourself. Charge what you’re worth. Whether you’re just starting out as a tutor or a seasoned pro with a thriving business, the hacks and secrets in this podcast will help you land more clients and scale your tutoring more effectively. You can use these strategies regardless of whether you’re meeting clients in-person or tutoring them online. This podcast will make you money! Eric Earle is a tutor, entrepreneur, and investor. After science and math tutoring changed the course of his life, Eric saw the potential of tutoring to make a significant positive impact. He grew his tutoring business in Portland, Oregon, and soon needed to hire a staff of other tutors to meet all of the demand. He is also the founder of mathtutoraustin.com and the national tutoring platform zoomtutor.com as well. It was at a neurology clinic high in the Himalayas that Eric had an epiphany: he realized he wanted to go to medical school. The problem was, he’d already graduated from college and hadn’t taken any of the math and science classes required for admittance. He went back to school to work his way through calculus, physics, organic chemistry, and biochemistry but the topics were unbearably difficult. Eric hired a tutor and, with diligent work, was able to turn himself into a top science student. This experience with tutoring showed Eric that there is no limit to what we can become with the right teachers. He now supports tutoring and education through his businesses. He is here to share what he has learned about business, investing, tutoring, and life though this podcast. Hopefully you find some of his teachings valuable.

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