September: The time to get new students

The new school year has started and presents all private tutors with a new challenge: how to attract new students? The goal is to reach a number of classes that will allow us to have a quiet year and make this profession more stable.

One of our FindTutors Ambassadors, Jane Britton, is someone who knows a lot about what it takes to be a successful private tutor. Watch our interview with her to discover her top tips.

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Private tuition is something that comes and goes, unless you have students who clearly choose it. It is normal to move from one student to the next and you may not be needed when you least expect it. So a tutor must have their toolkit so that they never lack work. You need to be able to use these tools at any time, but when the course starts, you need to use the whole arsenal.

The work you do now will shape the rest of the year. The students you work with in the first few months of the course may tell you when they no longer need you, or they may simply drop you and put you in a difficult situation. This is why this moment is so important.

But don't worry, because this is nothing unusual. If you are an experienced tutor, it is nothing you cannot handle, and if you are a newcomer to this world, what you are going to do is something that all tutors do every year.

Nevertheless, we give you a number of tips and guidelines to follow if you want to get the most out of your private lessons this year.

Prepare yourself

September is the month when classes start, but not so many parents and students look for tutors right away. Many are waiting to meet the tutors and see the content of the subjects.

At the beginning of the school year there are always tutorials where the objectives are discussed and many wait to talk to the tutor before making any decision. You have time at the beginning of this month to prepare and be clear about what is coming up.

• Create a good presentation: If you want to advertise on the internet, it is best to have a profile that presents you well. Not only with the subjects you teach and your CV, but also with your classroom skills. It is important that you teach well.
• Get all the material: This is the right time to get all the material, even if you adapt it to each student, you can get the basics. Most likely, you will be invited to teach right away, and it is better if you have everything prepared.
• Reconnect with your former students: If you can, casually ask them how their holidays were and offer yourself as a tutor. Make it clear to them that it was a pleasure working with them and that you would like to offer this course again.
• Use marketing: Find out about some marketing techniques for tutors, especially those focused on new technologies, and put them into practice.
• Check the curricula: Look at the curricula of the levels you teach. If parents come to you with specific problems, they will not be strangers to you.

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How do you write a good ad?

Private tutors have changed a lot with the advent of new technologies, and so has the way they advertise and attract students. From the typical posters (which are still in use) we have moved to online advertisements.

If you use a platform to search for students, all doors are open. You are almost guaranteed to have students, and everything will depend on you making a good advertisement. Remember that there are many students who need lessons and it is very difficult for them not to come across your profile.

The only thing you need to do is to give the students what they need. But how do you create a good ad on an online platform?

• Make the ad eye-catching: This does not mean you have to do something fancy. Just be honest, sincere and not boring. There are already too many cold ads that only describe the subjects they teach and the experience they have. Stay serious, but be creative.
• Trust is the maxim: Always remember that you need to instil trust, both in students and parents. This leads to the mistake of being aloof in the ad, on the contrary, the more sincere and honest you are in the ad, the more trust you will convey.
• Fill out your profile: Although this is a basic requirement, many teachers make the mistake of not doing it. Fill in all the fields and do not leave out any information.
• The photo: This is very important. Parents and students want to hire someone they can put a face to. Just like you don't book a hotel room without seeing a photo, or buy a dress without seeing it first. Photos build trust in an almost instinctive way, and they work. The friendlier you are in them, the better.
• SEO: SEO is the positioning a website has in search engines. You need to have some terms, even if they are simple, to write your ad. So if someone searches for "English teacher", they will find your ad in the results.
• Check your profile: tutors who belong to the FindTutors community have certain advantages over those who do not belong. The key is that your data is checked and verified, among many others.
• Your students value you: Ask your former students to give their opinion on your profile, which is essential when hiring or buying online.

Actions to publicise 

Whether you want to be a tutor from the beginning or have been around for a long time and want to attract new students, you should not forget that you need to advertise yourself in order to get more lessons.

If you want to give lessons and don't know anyone who needs them, or if you have difficulty covering all the lessons you would like to work, the solution is to become more visible as a teacher. You can do this in a traditional way, with digital marketing or both at the same time.

Do not close yourself off, but use all the possibilities to promote yourself as a tutor, because a good promotion strategy will bring you many advantages:

• You will have more students: The more people you know, the more people will want to work with you.
• You will increase the quality of your teaching: You will be able to teach the students you think you can help. Everyone has their own needs, and we have all been in a class where things seemed to be going nowhere. The more options we have, the better the choice will be.
• Your timetable will be more flexible: If you create conditions in which you determine the timetable yourself, the chances are greater that it will meet your needs.
• You can make a living from it: If you create a good strategy and manage to reach the people you want to reach, you will definitely be able to make a living from giving private lessons if that is what you really want.

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But what measures can we take to achieve more visibility as tutors? If we decide not to discard any of the options available, these are the most commonly used ones:

• Traditional posters: It is still very popular to put up posters advertising private lessons in a particular subject. They can be found in schools, academies or recreational facilities for children and young people. These posters are becoming more and more creative, both in terms of design and content, so try to stand out. There are many posters offering lessons without more than that, try to mean something.
• Advertise on platforms: Advertising on websites like FindTutors is the most used option for all tutors these days. This type of platform expands the possibilities of finding a tutor, and parents and students usually search on Google first before using other options.
• Use online marketing: If you want to advertise on the internet, you should know about digital marketing, even if it is just a small thing. Learn what SEO is and how it can help you find more students.
• Get yourself noticed as a tutor: If you really want tutoring to become a stable activity, you need to learn how to create your own brand. Take a cue from others who dedicate themselves entirely to tutoring. Many start their own blog or record themselves explaining some of the topics they teach. If you show yourself on the internet, it is much easier for clients to trust you.

The key

But what is really important to have many students and to be successful as a tutor is how you teach and how you inspire others. Today, and always, the most important thing is to bring something interesting to the classroom.

If you are passionate about teaching, if you really love what you are explaining and want others to understand it, then you will never be short of work as a tutor. It doesn't matter if you give private lessons or work in another area of teaching.