Any tutor, even the most qualified and experienced, periodically experiences problems finding students. What can we say about young teachers who have only recently started giving private lessons. They need to talk about themselves and advertise their services in order to get their first student.
In order to talk about themselves, tutors most often use two sources: Internet sites for tutors and online advertising platforms. Let's evaluate both outreach options and see how well they help in finding students.
Advertisements on online bulletin boards
Advantages
Most often, a standard ad can be placed for free. They may charge you money for the design of an ad or the priority of its display in searches.
Some parents are still looking for tutors exclusively on advertisement sites. There are few such parents, but they exist. Perhaps one of them will turn to you for help.
What you need to be prepared for
Finding students depends, to some extent, on luck: you may find a student the day after the advertisement is published, or you may wait for several months without success.
You won’t be able to tell about yourself in detail, attach a video presentation, add reviews from your students, or conveniently structure the information.
The ad needs to be updated and resubmitted, because after a week or two it will be difficult to find in the general stream.
Questionnaire for Onlinerepetitor
Advantages
What you need to be prepared for
If you are a beginner tutor and you need to find your first student as soon as possible, use all possible ways self-promotion: place ads on the Internet, register on thematic forums and, of course, create a profile on
Tutoring is not only a productive use of knowledge acquired during university studies, but also an excellent opportunity to increase income. Some people turn it completely interesting activity into the main means of subsistence.
It is not surprising, since the cost of a 90-minute lesson with a student in the provinces is rarely less than 600 rubles, and for St. Petersburg and Moscow this figure can be 3-4 times higher.
Most of the tutors have a main job - they are teachers in schools, colleges or higher education institutions. educational institutions. For them, finding a student is not a problem; often their own students become them.
However, if a person decides to take up tutoring seriously and wants to receive decent money for it, fully ensuring his existence, he needs to approach the issue of finding clients very responsibly. There are many ways to recruit students, the only difference is cost and speed.
Printed publicationsNot the best rational decision, but can bring results. Choosing a tutor is a responsible event, it can affect the entire later life student.
Newspapers, in turn, do not cause unconditional trust at modern people and are often associated with fraud and false information. The limited size of the ad will not allow the tutor to convey to the potential client all the necessary information about his advantages and merits.
The ad is too dry and condensed, more like an advertisement financial pyramid or other “scam” than offering the services of a qualified specialist. The reach of the target audience is also not up to par, because the tutor’s potential clients are middle-aged people with good earnings and high school students.
According to statistics, newspapers featuring free classified ads are most often purchased by those interested in real estate or cars. Yes, they may be part of the tutor’s target audience, but they are unlikely to view pages with such advertisements.
Another option is paid advertising in news media. This is a guaranteed waste of money, and most likely there will be no results. An additional unpleasant bonus may be an advertisement for intimate services next to an advertisement for the provision of the services of a competent and intelligent tutor; they are very popular in modern advertising publications.
Posting printed advertisementsThe method is inexpensive and relatively effective. The main thing is to know where to glue. Suitable areas around schools, bus stops public transport, entrances in residential areas and advertising boards near large shopping centers.
In all these places, a large number of parents of potential students constantly appear. In addition, some students are unusually responsible and look for a tutor themselves, clinging to any information about a competent teacher. However, there are places you should avoid.
Not the neighborhoods, but the schools themselves. Strange, isn't it? After all, it is there that a gigantic number of students for every taste are concentrated. But insidious competitors await the tutor in schools - local teachers.
It's no secret that the vast majority school teachers He does tutoring as a part-time job. They will be very unhappy that someone is trying to steal their piece of bread. IN best case scenario competitors will simply rip off your ads.
In other situations, they can create anti-advertising, ruin your reputation, and even call the specified number with threats and insults. It is worth adding that some school teachers - bad specialists, accordingly, the quality of their services leaves much to be desired. Their fears are completely justified.
2. Elite residential areas.
Wrong contingent. These people have everything, including first-class private teachers who can even teach a monkey how to write poetry. They don’t need an ordinary tutor with mediocre performance indicators. But don’t confuse just expensive housing with the most prestigious penthouses and cottages.
3. Public transport.
The announcement will be seen by many people, but it will hang there for 2-3 hours at most, after which it will be torn down by the conductor. The effectiveness is practically zero, and resources are wasted on advertising.
Internet advertisingThe most popular place to find students. Large advertising sites are full of advertisements for hiring tutors in a variety of school subjects. Each ad is viewed at least several dozen times.
The free nature of such advertising is another advantage. Don’t forget specialized forums where you can carefully advertise your services. Social networks are a treasure trove for students. Their advantages and capabilities cannot be ignored:
Gigantic the target audience
A large number of specialized groups allows the tutor to convey necessary information directly to the consumer
Possibility to create own group allows you to describe all your advantages as efficiently as possible. The ability to use your own corporate design in it will give potential students additional confidence in the tutor.
It's all free
Another option is to create your own website. But this is only suitable for well-known tutors - the time and money spent will not always correspond to the result obtained.
The Internet is almost ideal for finding students. The disadvantage is that the possible monetary costs will not always pay off.
Tutoring agenciesPerfect option. The student base is huge. People trust these organizations. The most important advantage is that the tutor pays only for real students. The company itself will find a suitable student and offer him to the teacher.
Payment will follow only after the first lesson conducted and only on the condition that the cooperation between the student and the tutor continues long time. Each student will cost the tutor approximately 100-130% of the cost of one lesson.
He who does not take risks does not earn
There is no need to be afraid to offer your services to potential consumers; you need to be afraid of missing your chance. It doesn’t matter where the tutor places his advertisement, the result will be in any case, the only question is timing and quantity.
The problem of finding students usually faces novice tutors. Experienced teachers have good reputation And most of students come to them based on recommendations. But in order to achieve such a result, you need to work a lot and improve your teaching talent!
Quite recently, I wrote about the fact that I have been working as a tutor for six years (I started in Irkutsk, and now in Moscow). She told me how she started teaching and about her impressions over six years of working with children. And with this note I will begin a short series of materials about the nuances of tutoring - I hope that this will be useful to those who would like to try themselves in this role. And today we’ll talk about where a future tutor should start, namely, how to find students.
So, let's start with the fact that you don't just go to tutors: it is assumed that you know something well school subject or are knowledgeable in one area or another. And most importantly, you feel the strength to teach others and know how to do it. But if there is no teaching experience, unlike desire, then it is not necessary to immediately think about pedagogical education. In your environment there will always be a child of neighbors, friends or relatives who could use help with “your” subject. Of course, since your goal now is to gain experience, there should be no talk of any payment yet. Try to learn as quickly as possible to determine what gaps there are in your mentee’s knowledge, what his character is and how best to interact with him. Feel the needs and demands of the child himself and his parents.
After you feel that you have found a way to explain in simple words things that are difficult for a child, that you have found your own method and approach - you can slowly begin to look for “real” students. Although it is necessary to take into account that each child will still have to select his own key, and it is not worth projecting the experience of relationships with the first student onto all the others.
With the advent of the Internet, there are many opportunities to find students. Old methods like newspaper advertisements don't work well these days, although in small towns or quiet areas of cities it is still possible to post advertisements on porches or information boards without them getting lost among the dozens of similar ones that are posted and then torn down. But since I found students mainly through the Internet, I’ll tell you more about this.
Firstly, there are now many intermediary sites between the teacher and the student. From the teacher’s perspective, it looks like this: you need to register on the website, providing scans of educational documents and your personal data. Then go through a short telephone interview, during which the manager will make sure that you are not a “fake” and ask clarifying questions about your professional skills. But you don’t need to pass any “exams”: the company will constantly keep abreast of your work and collect feedback from students, and thus your reputation on the site will be formed. After a conversation with the manager, registration will be completely completed and access to the applications of students registered on the site will appear. All interaction with them or their parents prior to the first meeting occurs through the manager.
Such sites usually provide students with the opportunity to find a teacher for free, but the tutor charges a commission of one or two lessons for each student, depending on how long the lessons with the students are planned. You need to pay the site only after the first lesson, when it has already become clear that the work will continue. If only one or several lessons took place, the commission amount will be recalculated.
The most popular of these services is “Your Tutor”. Among the disadvantages: sometimes registration can take a long time (you have to wait a couple of weeks for a manager’s call), and there is also competition: you can’t always have time to secure the application you like, or the client will ultimately choose not you. But nevertheless, this is one of the best ways find students. Once the work has begun, you will not be abandoned: if you have any problems or questions, you can always contact the manager assigned to the application. After a few months, the site necessarily collects feedback about the tutor from the student and his parents, which affects the reputation on the site.
I found many students in Irkutsk through advertisements on the Avito website and in thematic groups“VKontakte” - and this was enough to recruit a sufficient number of students in the first year. The next day, I practically didn’t have to resort to the help of websites, because word of mouth started working. Friends and relatives of my last year’s students called, and some of them even had to be turned down because there was no free time left.
It’s worth thinking in advance about what ages you want to work with. If you are a teacher by training junior classes, then such a question will not arise. But if you are a “subject specialist” (or simply well versed, for example, in Russian, because you graduated Faculty of Philology), then you need to decide whether you will take on kids, teach only middle grades, whether you will take on exam preparation, and whether students or adults should contact you. All this information should be immediately added to your advertisement for seeking students.
It should be noted that the search for students in Irkutsk, a relatively small city, differs from the search for students in the capital. In small towns, word of mouth begins to work very quickly, advertisements on social networks and sites like Avito work very well. There is a lot of competition in Moscow, and almost no one pays attention to familiar advertisements, for example, on VKontakte. Intermediary sites helped me the best.
Pledge large quantity students - of course, your competence. But in order for students to want to evaluate it, it is first of all important to create an attractive ad. It should be brief, but as informative as possible: the subject you teach, what classes you take, whether you accept students at your place, visit them or study via Skype, cost of classes, telephone number. You should not “flirt” with potential students or be familiar in the text. You must prove yourself as serious man, offering a good, necessary service.
How many students to take, everyone decides for himself, depending on whether it will be his main occupation or a part-time job, and on own strength and opportunities. We will talk about how to organize the training process in the next material.
Good day, dear readers!
Today I will introduce you to interesting thoughts about tutoring. Recently I accidentally met one beautiful woman, tutor in mathematics and computer science Vera Alexandrovna Bobkova.
I also came across her website by accident, looking for articles for tutors. And I didn’t get out until the end of the evening, as I read her blog, articles on the Unified State Exam, and so on.
I decided to get to know Vera Alexandrovna better and asked her to answer frequently asked questions from beginning tutors. She kindly agreed and this is what we got!
— Vera Alexandrovna, what do you think are the main qualities a tutor needs to make it interesting, not boring and understandable?In my opinion, one of the most important qualities A tutor is the ability to establish contact with any student and with his parents. This quality is based on the fact that you strive to see it in every person. better side and you turn to this side of him.
The tutor must not only know his subject well, but also be able to explain it. This means that you present the material - new to the student or familiar to him, but poorly previously mastered - at a level accessible to this particular child, at a pace that is most suitable for him and in words that he understands.
The most important quality of a tutor is a sincere desire to help the student!
A good tutor always radiates optimism and is an enthusiast of his work. Regardless of your mood and well-being, when it comes to work, you should be able to leave your problems at the door and set yourself in an energetic and positive mood.
And the most important quality of a tutor is a sincere desire to help the student. If you are sincere, extremely patient and friendly, and “give your best” in class, the student will definitely feel this and will respond to you with gratitude and diligence. He will forgive even your mistakes, some flaws caused by your inexperience.
— Where is the best place to find students for a beginning tutor?It depends on where you live. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other million-plus cities, people are already accustomed to using the Internet.
Therefore, to search for students, you can register in the databases of special Internet services that provide tutoring services.
Where can a tutor find students?
Some portals such as
- “Your tutor” http://repetitors.info/,
- "Association of Tutors" http://www.repetit.ru/,
- “Your tutor” http://repetitor.in/ has branches in many cities of Russia.
- Company " Highest mark» http://high-ball.ru/ - in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
There are services that work in certain city or areas. For example,
- "Repetit-Center" http://www.repetit-center.ru/ - only in Moscow
- “Virtual Academy” http://www.virtualacademy.ru/ - in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In the provinces, parents, and they are the ones who most often look for tutors for their children, trust the Internet less. They prefer old, tried and tested methods: recommendations from friends, advertisements in newspapers.
Therefore, in addition to registering on the tutor portals available in your city, you can “post” an offer about your services in local newspapers. For example, in Ivanovo, the newspaper “From Hand to Hand” prints such advertisements for free.
— Very often, beginning tutors worry about their first lesson. How to prepare for it?For the first lesson, you need to know as much information as possible about your student: his name, school, class, personal characteristics, health status, the situation at school with your subject, what he wants to get from studying with you. You can get this information when you talk to your parent on the phone when you make an appointment.
It’s even better if before the first lesson you meet with the student and his mom (or dad), look at each other, get to know each other and thoroughly discuss all the points of interest to both parties.
Of course, you need to carefully prepare for the first lesson. If you have found out what a student is currently going through at school and what exactly he does not understand, then you need to prepare an explanation of this particular material. Think through examples, problems, remember all the definitions, formulas, facts, theorems related to this material. Be prepared to remind the student of them if necessary.
Vera Alexandrovna with a student in class
Write, draw, give analogies from life, use any means that seem useful to you. Try to explain in such a way that the person understands. At this time, do not think about how you look, whether you express yourself correctly, that is, do not think about yourself. The main thing for you is to convey the material to the listener. You will see that in this case your speech will be emotional, intelligible, incendiary, and understandable.
Try to ensure that already in your first lesson the student feels success and progresses in understanding your subject. So that when he comes home, he tells his mother: “I understand! It turns out it’s so simple!” - and rushed to the table to solve problems.
— What mistakes do beginner tutors make?The first mistake is this: diligent, the responsible person, who wants to become a tutor, tries to study the subject to perfection, “to the point of complete scholarship.” It is covered with textbooks, solution books, all kinds of manuals, and collections of problems. As a result, he drowns in a pile of material and does not even get to his first student.
To avoid falling victim to such a mistake, you need to remember the Pareto rule, also called the “80/20 rule.” According to this rule, eighty percent of problems can be solved using just twenty percent of knowledge. In order to start tutoring, you just need to know the basics, the main thing, to understand the structure of your subject, to see the interconnection of individual parts. You will study each topic in detail in direct preparation for lessons with a specific student.
Try to improve and avoid mistakes!
The second mistake is made by those young, reckless people who do not prepare for classes at all, following Napoleon’s principle “The main thing is to get involved in battle, and then we’ll see.” As a result, a person begins to tutor without a foundation, trying to teach children what he himself does not know, and also having no idea about teaching methods.
It is not surprising that most often nothing good comes from such tutoring. It is these “would-be tutors” who later say that they don’t want to be tutors, because “all the children are so stupid, they don’t learn or understand anything.”
The third common mistake: a novice tutor is afraid that he will not find students and therefore tries to cover as many age categories as possible. I often see advertisements for young tutors foreign languages, where they indicate the age categories of students from preschoolers to adults. And recently a girl wrote to me who wants to teach English language preschool children. She was asking for advice on whether she should first try to work with neighboring children - teenagers 15 and 16 years old.
Beginning tutors should take into account that preparing preschoolers for school, tutoring primary, secondary, high school, adults are quite different things. Different both in content of classes and in methodological approaches, because here we need to take into account age psychology.
— Is there anything you can recommend reading for someone who wants to become a tutor?Since there are no universities where they teach “to be a tutor,” no textbooks for tutors recommended by the Ministry of Education exist in nature.
For those who want to become a tutor, I would advise reading Anna Malkova’s book “I am a tutor” and my e-book“How to become a tutor”, which can be downloaded for free.
Book by Vera Bobkova How to become a tutor?
In addition, novice tutors will find it useful to read articles on tutoring blogs. For example, on your blog, Leah, or on mine - Articles for tutors
— What advice can you give to those who really want to start tutoring, but are hesitant and lack confidence in their abilities?If you really want to seriously engage in tutoring, then I would recommend that you definitely take the training “How to become a tutor. Young fighter course »
This course is designed for beginner tutors in any subject. It addresses the following questions common to all tutors: fears of beginners and overcoming these fears, what literature is needed, whether it is necessary to register an individual entrepreneur, searching for students, talking on the phone with parents, conducting the first meeting and the first lesson, methods of conducting classes, creating motivation for learning .
Are given clear practical recommendations with examples, checklists, homework. As one of the first buyers of this course wrote: “Everything is very accessible and clearly presented. I didn’t even know where to start, but now everything is falling into place, everything is laid out right on the shelves.”
After completing this training, you will learn what, how, in what order and why you need to do in order to become a successful, highly professional tutor. As a result, your fears, indecisiveness, and uncertainty will be replaced by the desire to take action as soon as possible, quickly find your first student and start studying with him.
I wish success to all aspiring tutors! May you have more smart, diligent and grateful students. Believe me, tutoring is a very interesting, noble and promising activity in every sense!
It is practically no different from teaching, with the only difference being that the tutor must independently find students for himself. It’s good if many years of work experience allows you to use the principle of “word of mouth” and parents or acquaintances talk about the teacher’s abilities by word of mouth. But what should those who are just setting foot on this path and don’t know how to work do?
Deciding on the direction of activityBefore you start looking for clients, you should think carefully about what categories of students you would like to work with and what direction you are most interested in. There are teachers who specialize in working with younger schoolchildren, some prefer preparing for the EGE or working with adults. Depending on this, the search path for students will be determined.
Where to look?The first way is to place advertisements on online platforms that specialize in selecting tutors. There you can specifically indicate the circle of students who interest you and the method of work (stationary lessons at home, in the office or remotely via Skype). You can use regular online ad sites.
Another option is to do it the old fashioned way: for example, if your specialty is preparing for school, then you can post printed advertisements near kindergartens and at bus stops. If your strong point is preparing for the Unified State Exam, then you can offer your services in special groups social networks, there high school students usually look for help in mastering knowledge.
And don’t think that by posting or posting an ad, hundreds of people will immediately start calling you. Excellent result– two or three requests, and your task is not to miss these clients. Starting to work with them and showing good results, these students will recommend you to friends and acquaintances, and then you will be guaranteed a good circle of customers. Client base a tutor has been working on it for years.
Learn to interest children, come up with a highlight of the lesson, and then before you know it, you won’t be able to find a window in your schedule for a new student.