In a world where the gig economy is becoming more prevalent, it's hardly surprising to see that people are also turning to private tutoring.
Not only are more people choosing to become tutors, but more families and individuals are choosing to spend their money on hiring private tutors. Tutoring can be a lucrative option for teachers and anyone with expertise in a given subject and a knack for teaching.
Tutoring jobs aren't only for teachers, though, and while tutoring provides a source of extra income for teachers, there are also artists and performers turning to tutoring.
University students can also use tutoring as a way to earn some money outside of their classes and one of the best things about tutoring is that you can choose how much you earn.
This doesn't mean your students will pay you whatever you ask. Instead, tutors have the somewhat complicated task of choosing rates that earn them enough money whilst also setting them competitively enough to ensure they constantly have students who can afford them.
Setting Your Rates as a Tutor
When choosing how much to charge as a tutor there are several factors that every aspiring educator will need to consider. Beyond the financial aspects like supply and demand, you should remember that your published rates on your tutoring profile will give potential students a first impression of you.
If you set your rates too low, students may assume that you're inexperienced or of low quality. Conversely, setting your rates too high might put off students, especially those who can't afford your rates.
The problem is choosing where you sit on this scale. You need to work out where you sit against your fellow tutors and charge rates that are fair for your expertise and the work you do.
Setting Your Rates According to Preparation Time
Most tutors, especially on the Superprof website, charge an hourly rate. This hourly rate is per classroom hour so for every hour you spend teaching your students, you're paid your hourly rate.
However, a lot of work can go into preparing sessions. Each tutor will spend a different amount of time preparing classes, but the general rule of thumb is one hour of preparation for each hour of tutoring.
Keep this in mind because if you're charging $24 an hour, but spending 3 hours preparing each session, you're only really earning $6 an hour.
Setting Your Private Tutoring Rates According to the Student's Level
When you calculate your rates, you need to consider the level of the student that you're teaching.
For simplicity, we'll divide students into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Naturally, different subjects have more or fewer than these levels, but they should serve as a guide.
Beginner's classes are typically considered the simplest classes to plan as the subject knowledge required is lower. Foundational tutoring in any subject tends to be charged at the average rates for the subject or slightly below.
Intermediate classes require a tutor with a good understanding of the subject they teach. Intermediate classes should be charged around the average rates for the subject.
Advanced classes are for the very best students and they need the very best tutors to teach them. These kinds of classes or sessions require expertise, a lot of planning, and experience. There'll be more work and more expertise required so tutors will charge above average rates for them.
Academic Support
Some tutors provide academic support, homework help, and other kinds of tutoring to help students in schools. While they don't teach a specific subject, there are still levels to consider.
Much like subject levels, they can adapt their rates to the student's year or age, with older students being charged more as they'll likely be studying more advanced aspects of their subjects and require more support.
Setting Your Tutoring Rates According to the Session Format
There are a few ways to tutor students and your rates need to adjust according to the format of your lessons.
You may want to factor in travel costs or offer discounts for online lessons to ensure your rates are competitive and fair.
Online Tutoring Rates
Online tutoring is an increasingly popular way for students and tutors to work. It offers a lot of convenience as tutors can work with students all over the world at whatever times work for both parties. It also allows tutors to find more potential students as they're not limited to their local area.
With increased earning potential, less travel time, and more students, tutors can afford to charge less for their tutoring and make their rates even more appealing.
As always, you need to set your rates according to the service that you're offering, but it's quite common for tutors to charge around 25% less than their typical rates for online tutoring.
Face-to-Face Tutoring Rates
This is the kind of private tutoring that most people think of. For certain subjects, face-to-face tutoring is the only way to learn, but for many academic subjects, both online and face-to-face tutoring are options.
For some subjects, online tutoring is just as effective as face-to-face tutoring, but for the subjects where having a tutor present is a bonus, said tutors can charge a premium. While online tutors tend to charge an average of 25% less, the gap is much bigger between certain subjects.
Group Tutoring Rates
Group tutoring usually works out at less per student but results in increased earnings for tutors. Rather than simply dividing your hourly rate by how many students there are, you can usually charge more than this while keeping students happy.
The discount between one-to-one and group tutoring needs to be significant enough to offset the disadvantages of not being the only student in the session, but not so much that the tutor has to teach several students at once for the same rates.
Set Your Tutoring Rates According to Subject
Different subjects command different rates for tutors. All of this depends on the tutor's experience as well as the supply and demand across different subjects.
Popular subjects with very few tutors will likely be expensive whereas subjects with a lot of competition for tutors will charge very little.
You need to look at your competition to see what they're charging while also remembering how much you're worth and how much you need to earn. Regularly consult the average tutoring hourly rates for each subject to give yourself a better idea of how much you should be charging.
Setting Your Tutoring Rates According to Location
Supply and demand affect tutoring rates resulting in regional differences in tutoring rates. It's not just supply and demand, though, as different places have different costs of living so expensive urban areas tend to have more expensive tutors than cheaper more rural areas.
That said, local socioeconomics also plays a role, and tutors in poorer areas won't be able to charge as much as tutors in places full of private schools.
Make sure that when you're setting your rates, you're looking at tutors in both the same subjects and the same areas as you. You can charge more than tutors in poorer areas but less than tutors in wealthier areas.
Your job is to work out exactly where you fit into the tutoring landscape and how your rates compare to other tutors.
Tutoring Rates According to Experience and Qualifications
While they might say that you can't put a price on experience, you certainly can. Your tutoring rates need to be reflective of where you work, the subject you teach, and your experience as a tutor.
Better and more experienced tutors can charge more because there will be students willing to pay the premium for a better service. However, you need to make sure that you charge a fair rate for your tutoring.
Qualifications for Setting Your Rates
Depending on the subject you teach, certain qualifications can be incredibly valuable. For tutors in academic subjects, degrees, master's degrees, or even a Ph.D. are all credentials that will allow you to charge more for each session.
Other subject areas also include accepted and valued credentials. Musicians, for example, have several different kinds of qualifications they can complete and the more a tutor has, the more they'll likely charge.
Earning a Stable Income as a Tutor
Once you have your rates set and are happy with them, there are also some useful strategies you can employ to ensure consistent earnings that you're happy with.
Block Bookings
With potential cancellations, it can be nice for you and your budget to have several sessions confirmed at once. You can do this with individual students through block bookings. However, not every student will be happy with paying for several sessions at once so it can help to give them an incentive such as a discount.
Discounted rates for multiple lessons are an excellent way to secure payment for multiple sessions, though you could also employ a loyalty system and reward students with a free session once they've attended ten sessions.
Keep Your Pricing Structure Simple
There are lots of different ways to incentivise your students with deals and loyalty systems, but don't overdo it! You can offer a deal or two, but they shouldn't need a PhD in mathematics to understand how much they're going to be paying you.
Charing for Cancellations
Cancellations sometimes happen, but it shouldn't be on you to lose out on earnings when you've allocated your time to teach a student. It's a good idea to set up a cancellation policy on your tutoring profiles or take payment before a session.
Be reasonable, though, as there's no point in losing a long-term student because you strictly enforced your cancellation policy on an otherwise loyal student with valid reasons for cancelling.
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