Monday

Have Some Expertise to Share? Make Money Tutoring


The following is a guest post by Raine Parker, who writes on the topic of accounting degree. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: raine.parker6@gmail.com.

After I first lost my job during the height of the recession, I was convinced that the world was over, that finding another job would be an uphill struggle. Once the grief over the loss subsided, I got to work. I knew I had so many skills to share, but no one was hiring at the time, and I struggled for almost a year to find another steady job. During that time, I explored several money-making options on my own, and I eventually began earning just as much as I was when I was officially employed. Sure, it was hard work, requiring discipline and initiative, but it paid off in the end. The one venture that brought in the most money for me was tutoring.

Tutoring is one thing that will always have some sort of demand. Whether it's tutoring school subjects, standardized tests, or even extra-curricular activities like golf, tennis, drawing, computer programming pretty much anything you'll always be able to find someone, somewhere who can use your services.

Of course, you can't tutor subjects that you don't have at least some sort of demonstrated expertise in. Since I majored in English in college, I used this credential to advertise my services in helping local college students edit research papers. Having also scored well on the SAT, I purchased a few SAT books and helped high school students prepare for their college entrance exams.

These gigs were just the tip of the iceberg. I eventually branched out into other tutoring endeavors, including giving beginner piano lessons. You don't have to be a leading expert in any activity to help out those who are just starting. Craigslist is a good place to begin advertising your services, but there are a host of other venues to get the word out as well. One good resource is WyzAnt, a website that connects tutors with students in any city. Placing ads in local college newspapers is also a good option.

Since I initially had very little previous experience tutoring, I charged a very small, competitive rate. Once I started getting many students who experienced success with my tutoring methods, I got more and more gigs as my former students advertised for me. If you have some trepidation about the actual tutoring process, check out Tutoring Matters: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about How to Tutor and Tutoring as a Successful Business: An Expert Tutor Shows You How. These are both excellent starting guides that give you practical information about every aspect of tutoring, from business considerations to practical advice on teaching.

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2 comments:

  1. Thanks Buck for including this guest post. Thanks Raine for writing it. It gave me an idea for a friend of ours in construction. He's a whiz at everything, but with the economy the way it is now, most people are tackling home improvement projects on their own. If he could give lessons and help them do things better that would be good for everybody.

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  2. Tutoring can be a great way for those with specialized skills to make some money. It's also possible to expand your services by tutoring online. That way, you are able to reach many more potential students.

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