How To Make An Extra £1,000 A Month As An Online Tutor
A few weeks ago, we started exploring each of the 85+ ways to make extra money.
We explored #30 on the list and identified that there are 2 broad ways of making money tutoring.
You can either start a tutoring business.
Or you can work for a tutoring business as an online tutor or offline tutor.
For today’s post, we’re pleased to welcome a guest post from Helen Nuttall, an experienced online tutor.
She used to be a primary school teacher and runs a personal blog called Budgeting Is A Challenge.
Let’s hand over to Helen to give us the practicalities around making money as an online tutor :
Thinking about making extra money tutoring online?
Here are my experiences so far as to how to make this happen.
Just a bit of background first of all. My background is mainly in education, so I was looking to increase my household income.
One of the most obvious ways for me was to use the skills I already had.
Question is how would I even approach this, even as a professional? Scary right?
There were questions in my head as I decided to give this a go.
Here's my list of tips for success if you are starting out as a new online tutor.
But first, let’s discuss the earning potential of tutoring.
How much could you make from tutoring?
That really depends on you and your limits of free time.
Potentially you could be connecting to children around the globe also, as well as in your home country.
At a rate of £15 – 20 as a start, figures for earnings before tax per week and month could look like this:
Part time 2 hours per night – 5 nights a week
- £15 per hour – £600 per month
- £20 per hour – £800 per month
- £25 per hour – £1,000 per month
Full time as your main job – potential 6 hours a day
- £15 per hour – £1,800 per month
- £20 per hour – £3,200 per month
- £25 per hour – £4,000 per month
How has tutoring as a side hustle made a difference to me financially?
Earning extra cash from online tutoring has made a great difference to me financially.
It has allowed me to plan in small overpayments to my overall debt total.
It’s so exciting thinking that every time I receive payment for a tutor session, I am a small step closer to paying my debt off forever.
It gives me such a feeling of inner satisfaction.
What could you achieve if you had 2 hours to spare in an evening for 5 evenings a week?
£200 could be an overpayment towards your mortgage, or even be a payment to your emergency fund.
Over time, I intend to build my side hustle, to increase my debt payment.
But I will cover this more in depth later on in the article.
Getting Started
Below are some recommended steps you can take to get started.
Check what clearance you need
At the present time, it is not essential to have an enhanced DBS check.
However, I strongly recommend getting one, as many of the reputable online tutoring websites ask for them as a prerequisite.
This is from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
As an individual, if you haven't already got a DBS certificate, it is possible apply for one through the Tutor's Association, as part of their membership.
It costs £99, but it will only cost £13 thereafter, if you opt in for the auto-renew service.
If you are a teacher currently, you may already have a DBS.
If you have opted for the update service, this is then visible for the tutoring company to check, so you can offer this certificate as your security check.
When it comes to child protection, I never hesitate to make sure what I am doing is correct, so I rang the DBS and checked which of my certificates were suitable.
They were so helpful, so if you feel like you have doubts, ring them and check before you carry out any tutoring.
The customer service number is: 0300 0200 190.
Decide how much time you could devote to this side hustle
Next I planned out my working and blogging week, to ensure this was actually achievable in the amount of free time I have in a week.
After all, I needed to make sure I was delivering quality.
I decided to see how one hour felt, on top of my day job and building my blog.
So far this has been a workable solution, as my tutee and parents are very pleased with the quality extra impact I am having.
Apply to online tutoring websites
I applied to three websites – Tutorhub, Owl Tutors and Tutorful.
Next step was creating my profile, to attract potential students.
A good photograph, within the correct context, gives an instant impression of being friendly, but efficient and professional.
Set up all your information so that you are ready to go when the student contacts you. The next part was crucial for me – it was all about context and matching your skills to the needs of the learner.
Write a winning context paragraph about your experience and what you could offer
I realised that although I am a very experienced teacher, I needed to write a catchy headline about my skills.
A context paragraph is perfect for this, because it gives the reader, a friendly introduction to you.
It also lets them know that you are highly qualified and able to help the student progress to their next level of learning.
It has to be to the point and not full of jargon.
Parents are usually looking for a specific thing, so I mention key things that I can do.
I wasn't afraid of specialising.
In my case, I could offer upper KS2 intervention for SATs.
Instead of wording it like this, I stated that I could offer revision lessons in Maths, Grammar, Reading and Spelling for primary school children about to take their SATs (year 6).
Set Your Rate For Tutoring Online
I set my rate for online tutoring based on my skills, and then lowered it slightly.
My initial rate, I decided should be reflective of my skills, but acknowledge that I have never tutored online before.
Online sites usually charge a commission for using them, so I factored in this.
For example, Tutorhub charges 25% commission, so I factored in the extra preparation I would need to do in the price I was charging.
What I intend to do, as my experience in online tutoring increases, is to ask for recommendations to add to my profile.
I would recommend starting off at around £15-20 an hour.
Then quickly moving up to the more expensive rate of £25 per hour, when you have two or more students, or when you have been tutoring successfully for three months or more.
The hard work for now was over. I just had to wait for a response.
It turns out I received a response after only a few days! So now the next part of the process began.
Read on for how I developed a relationship of trust with my potential student and family.
Discuss student needs
I spent time discussing the student’s needs.
This approach is just what will attract other potential clients to using you.
This involves really getting to know what the parents and student want and need from the sessions.
I spent time talking to parents about needs and level of the student before agreeing a taster session, in which I would assess the student in the areas agreed.
Work with the class teacher
I make sure I work with the class teacher.
There is no doubt that tutoring is a powerful way of accelerating children's progress, but respect for the class teacher and their ways of doing things must be taken into consideration.
I would suggest always finding out from the parents, what the teacher expects to be done each week.
A tutor could help, for example consolidated the student's knowledge of how to apply these spellings in sentences.
Additionally, a tutor can tap into the Maths topic that week and provide extra coaching.
I always check the method that the teacher uses to teach each skill, so I am not confusing the student
Prepare in advance
Here is a list of things I would prepare in advance of lessons with a tutee:
- Resources for you and the student
- Structure of lessons – how much time are you going to devote to each subject area
- Medium term plan of activities – when parents are happy carry on with your services (after 4 weeks)
- Homework activities that take around 20 minutes to complete
Keep your plans flexible
Don't ever be afraid of changing the initial plan, if it is not working for the student.
I have a plan ‘B' in my head for how to explain a concept, if it is not successful the first time.
Sometimes online tutoring can be a challenge in this respect.
I note down anything that worked particularly well via the online platform.
It gives me a relaxed feeling as I go into to my tutor lessons, that I can handle anything, but ultimately deliver a great quality learning experience for the student.
To conclude –
Online tutoring is something that I am really enjoying as a side hustle and as a learning experience.
If you take anything from this article, the main thing to take with you as inspiration is that you will always be successful if you personalise the student's learning.
Spending a bit of extra time discovering what they need and tailoring your lessons to match will bring you recommendations and other tutees keen to take advantage of your approach.
So, what are you waiting for – get started today.
Good luck and let me know how you get on with your new adventure!
Related posts:
- 5 Ways To Find A Niche Business Idea
- 10 Big Lessons I Learned Starting My Own Business
- How To Eliminate Expenses Through Side Hustle Income
- 5 Ways To Start A Business For Free At Zero Risk
- 9 Practical & Profitable Business Ideas For Mums
What's your experience with making money as an online tutor? Is this something you've considered as a side hustle?
Do please share this post if you found it useful, and remember, in all things be thankful and Seek Joy.
Gwen says
Hey, I read the info regarding Online Teaching, what do I actually need to start doing this?
I have the internet and use an iPad or mobile to connect.
I do have a TEFL qualification however, I got this a few years ago and apart from helping a few children with homework and reading I haven’t really used it?
Do you think it’s wise for me to get in touch with one or two companies offering this work? I have availability between my childcare jobs to do a few hours per week.
Helen says
Hi Gwen,
Thanks for getting in touch. I personally use a laptop because it has a webcam on it, so I can use Tutorhub’s session software. It involves having a weblink with the child, so you can see and explain concepts directly.
I would definitely get in touch with the individual websites you are looking at using because they all have different requirements regarding qualifications. In my experience, they have always replied back to me really quickly.
Good luck with your venture and let us know how you get on.
Best,
Helen