How to become a Tutor

Becoming a private tutor has always been popular amongst educators. Some do it for extra cash, others do it as a full time career but all do it for the pure love of teaching. There’s nothing in this world like the feeling of satisfaction when your see both children and adults of all ages progress with their learning.

There are a number of ways of becoming a tutor. Some are full time teachers and lecturers, others part time. However you don’t need to have been or indeed be a teacher, to be a tutor.

Steps to becoming a tutor

Strangely enough and in common with many other trades and professions, you don’t actually need to hold any qualifications or teacher training certificates to be called a tutor (this does sound a little crazy). However, we assume, that like the majority, you will have/want training and experience in your area of expertise. Also you are far more likely to secure work if you are fully trained, the tutor market is competitive with the best rates paid to the best candidates.

Qualities of a great tutor:

• Patience – learning can be a challenge at the best of times, but the chances are you’ll be teaching people who are struggling with the subject matter (hence the need for a tutor) so will need to be be super patient.
• Subject matter expert – whatever you are teaching it’s best to know the subject inside and out, you’ll more likely be in a home situation and not a classroom so may get more detailed questions from the student. You’ll need to build your credentials and their confidence in you, a  good way of doing this is by demonstrating your knowledge clearly and in a plain English approach.
• Great communicator, love and passion for teaching – being a clear communicator isn’t enough, you’ve really got to love teaching. This passion is infectious and you’ll get far greater/faster results if you’re passionate towards teaching. Students will see much better results, you’ll also get more referrals and earn more money – so a real win-win.

Benefits of freelancing as a tutor

There are many benefits to freelancing – being a freelance tutor:

• Control of your destiny
• Flexibility of work
• Management of your time
• Greater tax benefits being a freelancers
• Doing a job you enjoy
• Huge feel of satisfaction
• A feeling of giving something back

To be honest the list in endless, as we said, few jobs are more satisfying.

You can use our Freelancer Calculator to work out exactly how much you could potentially take home as a freelancer/sole trader tutor.

Finding work as a tutor

Word of mouth is great, but only works if you know lots of people (see this page on finding work as a freelancer, many of the tactics and strategies are the same for tutors: http://www.easyaccountancy.co.uk/smallbusinesscentre/finding_work.html

Here are few other ways of finding work as a tutor you may not have thought about:

1. Visit local large companies and ask if you can place an advert on their notice boards.
2. Run free seminars in local companies on the benefits of extra schooling / tutoring at home either for adults or children.
3. Build a website. It's doubtful that you'll get many new clients from having a website but if prospective clients search you on Google, you're going to look very professional if you have your own site, plus you can build your own quite quickly and relatively inexpensively. 
4. Contact local schools, not all schools have a network of tutors they recommend.
5. Church halls - lots of families so could be good to pick up new clients.
6. Nurseries and play groups - parents may have more than one child and this is a good way to market yourself to parents.

Good luck on becoming a tutor, we hope you found this page helpful. You may also find the following pages helpful:

• Freelancing Part Time - can you freelance whilst still in your permanent role?
• Sole Trader or Limited? - which route is right for you?
• Setting up as a Sole Trader Freelancer - what you need to consider when setting up as a freelancer
• VAT and NI - how do VAT and NI affect you as a freelancer?
• Freelancer Insurances - what insurances do you need as a freelancer?
• Freelancer Take Home Pay Calculator - how much more could you earn by going freelancing?
• Finding Freelance Work - how to find your freelance roles
• Freelancer FAQ’s - all your questions answered