May 12, 2025 • 23 mins
Let’s be real—teaching is incredibly rewarding, but it doesn’t always cover the bills. If you’ve ever thought about launching a tutoring side hustle but didn’t know where to start, this episode is for you! I’m walking you through how to set up a tutoring business that fits your life, fuels your passion, and brings in extra income—without burning you out.
Whether you're looking to make $500 a month or turn tutoring into a full-time gig, you already have what it takes. Let me show you how to turn your teaching expertise into a thriving side business.
In this episode, I'll discuss...
- How to set financial goals, plan your schedule, and price your services with confidence.
- Done-for-you templates to simplify contracts, progress tracking, and lesson planning.
- Where to find students—including how to tap into our free tutor matchmaking network.
- Easy ways to streamline sessions and set boundaries so tutoring stays fun and sustainable.
Show Links
Join the Side Hustle Challenge.
Lemon Tree Literacy on Instagram
Your Reading Tutor on Instagram
LeLab Tutoring on Instagram
Brightest Little Readers on Instagram
Join Malia on Instagram
Become a Science of Reading Formula member!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Today's episode is all about something I know so
many of our listeners arethinking about right now,
starting a tutoring side hustle.
Because let's be real, teachingis amazing, but it doesn't
always pay the bills.
And if you've ever thought, Icould totally tutor on this
side, but where do I even start?
then this episode is for youbecause we're going to be diving
into how to set up your tutoringbusiness, find students, set
(00:21):
your rates, and make tutoringwork for your schedule without
feeling overwhelmed.
And the best part is you alreadyhave everything you need to do
this.
You have got the skills, you'vegot the expertise, and you have
the passion or you wouldn't belistening to this episode.
So now all we have to do is turnthat into extra income doing
what you love.
(00:41):
Welcome to the Science ofReading Formula, where you'll
learn simple, brain-friendlyways to make it faster, easier,
and a lot more fun for kids tolearn how to read.
I'm Malia Halliwell, a NationalBoard Certified teacher and
author who spent the last 20years geeking out on
brain-friendly teaching.
This is the spot where I shareall of my best lessons learned
with you.
(01:07):
We have a lot of ground tocover, but we're going to be
talking about this in fivespecific steps.
First, we're going to dive intohow to set your goals and your
availability.
And when I talk aboutavailability here, I'm really
talking about when you actuallywant to be tutoring because we
don't have a million hours inevery day.
And depending on what yourworkload looks like during the
week, you may or may not want toactually tutor after school.
(01:30):
So I'm going to give you lots ofdifferent options.
And then we're going to move onto step two, which is setting
your rates and getting paid whatyou are worth.
And when I say getting paid whatyou are worth, I mean it.
I do not want you to undervaluethe expertise that you bring to
this equation.
So we're gonna talk about whattypical tutoring rates look
like.
And obviously this can vary alittle bit across the different
(01:51):
countries, different states, butI wanna give you a good ballpark
number to start with.
Step three is using the done foryou tutoring templates that make
all of this so much easierbecause when it comes right down
to it, we wanna make sure thatyou are set up with a really
solid foundation.
And that means that you need tobe able to give your families
tutoring agreements that outlinethe services you're going to
provide.
(02:11):
You need to be able to give themprogress reports for their
students so that they can seeall of the work that you are
putting into your tutoringsessions and they can celebrate
and follow along with all of thesuccesses that your students
have.
So I'm going to show you somesimple ways to get all of that
into place really fast.
So all you have to do is hitprint.
Step four is finding studentsand then filling your spots.
(02:31):
Now, this one is an obvious one,but we want to make sure that we
have some other pieces in placebeforehand, because as that age
old saying goes, when you buildit, they will come.
And we want to make sure thatwhen you have students knocking
down your door, you haveeverything in place that that
process can go smoothly for youand your families.
And then the last step is makingtutoring as easy and effective
(02:52):
as possible, because just likeanything, When you start
something new, it may feel alittle clunky.
It may feel a little out of thenorm and maybe even a little
scary.
So we want to make sure that youget all of those nerves out of
the way.
And then you spend time tosimplify your systems.
You really optimize how you arebringing people into your
tutoring business, how you aresupporting them, how you are
(03:15):
reporting back to theirfamilies.
And we're going to talk aboutsome of those little tweaks that
you can make during that lastpart.
Okay, so to kick things off,let's talk about how you can set
your goals and youravailability.
And when I say goals here, I'mreally talking about money.
Let's get down to it.
We want to make sure that youhave a very clear financial goal
in mind because it's going toaffect every single one of the
(03:37):
pieces that we put in placeafter that.
If you have a goal of making$200every month, That is going to
look very different than if youhave a goal of leaving your
full-time job and replacing allof your full-time income with
tutoring business.
So we need to make sure that wehave a very clear picture of
where you are going, what yourgoal really is, so you can make
solid, informed decisions as yougo along.
(03:58):
Once you figure out how much youactually want to earn, the next
question you need to think aboutis how many students do you want
to take on?
If you are the type of personwho likes to have a lot of
friends...
and you like to spread your timeout among many different people,
then you may wanna take on morestudents.
Maybe 10 feels like a good fitnumber for you.
You're like, I wanna go for thisfull force.
(04:20):
I would be very comfortablehaving 10 different students and
providing that customized,personalized support to each of
their families.
Maybe you're all about qualityover quantity and you just wanna
start with one.
You wanna get that one studentin the door, get them set up,
get things going.
And then once you feelcomfortable, you'll add more.
The reason it's so important tothink about this question, how
(04:40):
many students do you want totake on, is because again, it's
going to affect every decisionyou make from that point going
forward.
And we wanna make sure that thisprocess feels as comfortable to
you as possible.
So if you are not ready to bringon 10 students, if that feels
like too daunting a task, thendon't push yourself.
Let's just start with one.
There is no right or wronganswer here and everybody's
(05:03):
answer is going to be different.
But it is going to be importantthat you have an answer because,
as I'm going to show you in justa little bit, that's going to
affect our income calculation.
And so we want to make sure weknow how much we want to earn
and how many students we want tosupport so we know exactly how
much we need to charge each ofthem.
And then, of course, when we aretalking about figuring out your
availability, it is reallyimportant that you sit down with
(05:26):
your weekly calendar and youlook and see what days and times
would work best for you.
Some people are night owls.
I am definitely not.
But if you are a night owl,maybe you are comfortable
hopping on Zoom and working witha tutoring client at 7 p.m.
your time because they happen tobe in a time zone three hours
behind you.
And so that's gonna work for youbecause you have energy at that
(05:48):
time of night and you'll be ableto show up as your best self for
them when it's late in theevening.
Now, if you're like me and youare definitely not at your best
anytime after seven o'clock inthe evening, then you might want
to wait and do your tutoring onthe weekends.
Or maybe this is something thatyou do in the summer.
We did an hour and a half longside hustle training in the
(06:11):
Science of Reading formula acouple weeks back, and we talked
about how different this canlook depending on your
availability.
You could set up some summercamp small groups that you do
just during the summer.
This is another situation wherethere is no right or wrong
answer.
It's just important that youhave clarity at the front end so
that you can make really wisechoices going forward.
(06:31):
So that is step number one.
We're gonna set your goals andyour availability.
Step two is setting your ratesand making sure to get paid what
you are worth.
And while it would be nice forus to say, I'm gonna charge
$5,000 an hour for my servicesbecause I am the bee's knees and
I don't doubt that you are,there are some things to
consider when you're settingyour price.
So I wanna make sure that youare aware of some different
(06:53):
circumstances that can changethe rate that families are
willing to pay you.
One of those things to consideris whether you are going to be
tutoring online or in-person.
Tutoring online obviously givesyou a lot more flexibility and
it saves on any commute timethat you would spend in your car
driving to your in-persontutoring location, but it also
comes with a lower rate.
(07:13):
So there's about a$5 an hourdifference between what tutors
are charging online versus whatthey are charging in-person.
If you're sitting down acrossthe table from a student you're
going to be able to charge justa little bit more because there
is that face-to-face connectionthat you're making.
And just to give you a sense ofwhat these rates might look
like, in-person tutoring rangesbetween 40 and 90 US dollars per
(07:38):
hour versus online tutoring,which is usually going for
between 25 and$50 per hour.
You can set your price anywherein that range.
And obviously you could go aboveit if you feel comfortable with
it, but that's a good startingpoint to consider.
Now, when I give you thoseprices, If you're like a lot of
the Science of Reading Formulamembers I worked with when we
(07:58):
did this side hustle challenge alittle while back, your stomach
might get tight and you mightget clammy hands because it
feels a little nerve wrackingputting a price on your
expertise.
And so often what I've seen ourmembers do is undervalue the
expertise that they are actuallybringing to their tutoring
service.
They look at that range of$25 to$50 for online instruction and
(08:21):
they say, well, you know, I'venever been a tutor before.
I'm just gonna start with thelower end and I'm gonna charge
$25 an hour.
Please, please, please do not dothat.
I want you to pause and I wantyou to consider all of the years
that you have been teaching, allof the certifications that you
have collected, all of thegraduate degrees or the college
(08:42):
education that you havecompleted.
That comes with value.
You would never go into yourdoctor's office and expect them
to charge as little as possibleand get you out the door for$10
an hour because you recognizethat they have really valuable
expertise that they are bringingto your work together.
And that is the same fortutoring.
(09:02):
You are valuable.
Your experience is valuable.
Your education is valuable.
There is a reason why you arepre-qualified to become a tutor.
It's because you are good atthis.
You are spending time makingyourself better by listening to
this podcast and being a Scienceof Reading Formula member if you
are part of our community.
You are taking the steps to makesure that you are your very
(09:25):
best, and that adds to yourvalue.
So please do not undervalueyourself.
Know that you are an expert andyou deserve to be compensated
for your time and for yourexperience.
The other thing to consider isyou have options about what your
tutoring sessions look like.
You can meet one-on-one withstudents.
That's usually the type oftutoring session that comes to
(09:46):
mind when we think about readingtutoring.
But we also have Science ofReading Formula members who are
meeting with small groups,especially in the summer.
They are setting up small minicamps.
So they have three or fourstudents who are at similar
reading levels and they areworking with those students to
bring them up to grade level orhelp them zoom past grade level
(10:06):
by the end of the summer.
So you definitely can do that aswell.
The pricing is going to go downa little bit per family if you
are meeting with a smallergroup.
Again, that's just because it'snot quite as customized an
experience as if you're meetingone-on-one, but you're still
able to charge quite a lot.
So the range for small groupinstruction, and when I say
(10:26):
small group, I'm thinking two tofive students for each of your
groups, is$25 to$55 per hour perstudent.
And again, that's gonna be alittle bit lower if we're going
online, but that gives you agood solid starting point.
So this is where it gets reallyexciting because if you have a
goal of making$500 per month Itcan look a lot of different
(10:48):
ways.
And remember, you already tooktime to think about how many
students you wanted to workwith.
So when I give you all of theseexamples of different ways to
earn that$500, there might beone or two of these that fit
what you were picturing when Iasked that question just a
couple minutes ago.
So if you want to earn an extra$500 every month, you could have
just one student and you couldcharge that student$50 per
(11:10):
session and meet with that childevery twice a week.
That would give you$500 a month.
Not too bad, right?
That's two hours out of yourweek, every week, and you have
$500 that you can save andcollect and take an epic,
awesome Disneyland vacation ortake a trip to Hawaii or put on
an epic birthday party for yourfamily or for a friend.
(11:31):
You have tons of options.
That's just with two hours everyweek.
If you wanted to make that$500,another option would be having
two different students thatyou're working with one-on-one
You're going to charge each ofthose families$50 per session,
but you're going to meet witheach child once a week.
So maybe every Wednesday youmeet with child A at five
o'clock and you meet with childB at six o'clock and you are
(11:54):
done.
You can pocket$500 at the end ofthat month.
And then the last example is youcould have a small group of
students you're working with.
So again, this could look likethree kids and you're going to
charge their families$30 persession and you're going to be
meeting with that group once aweek.
So every single hour that youmeet with them, every Wednesday
at seven o'clock, you're leadingthis small group for one hour
(12:14):
and you're charging each family$30.
So you're making$90 an hour andthat's going to add up to$500
for the entire month.
Isn't it amazing how easy thiscan be?
I know when I give you thoseexamples, it kind of blows your
mind because so often when wethink about having a side
hustle, we think that it's goingto take a ton of extra time.
It's going to be exhausting.
(12:35):
It's going to be overwhelming.
And it just really doesn't haveto be.
It can be as simple as havingjust a couple of extra hours
every week that we are devotingto this side hustle.
and we're gonna be able to bank$500.
It's gonna give us so much morefreedom, so much more peace of
mind, and it might create a lotof fun in our life too, because
we suddenly have options andsome flexibility about how we
(12:56):
wanna use that extra cash.
Just to review what we've talkedabout so far, we've set your
goals and availability, and thenwe set your rates and talked
about how important it is foryou to charge what you are
worth.
So step three is usingdone-for-you tutoring templates.
What I'm talking about here isall of that foundational
paperwork that we wanna have inplace so that you can spend your
time really focusing on helpingyour students grow rather than
(13:19):
having to battle with a familyabout getting paid at the end of
every month.
So this is where we wanna makesure that you have clear
contracts and agreements.
So everybody is on the samepage.
We wanna make sure that you haveprogress trackers so that you
can monitor your students'development effectively.
And we wanna make sure that youcan also communicate that
progress to the families on anongoing basis so they are clear
(13:42):
what value you are providing totheir students.
And then we also wanna make surethat you have lesson plans
because there is nothing worsethan showing up to your tutoring
session and having no idea whatyou are going to actually teach.
So just like it's easier to haveyour lesson plans mapped out for
you in your classroom, we wannabe able to streamline that
process for you when you'reactually getting ready for your
(14:02):
sessions as well.
Step four is we want to findstudents and fill your spots.
And this is where the fun andexcitement really comes.
You get to actually...
connect with children and workone-on-one or in small groups
with them to help them becomethriving readers.
Whenever you start any business,whether it is starting a bakery
or starting your tutoringbusiness, it's helpful to look
(14:23):
at other businesses around youthat have had success and copy
the steps that they took inorder to get there.
So if you are looking atstarting an online tutoring
business, it's really helpful tolook at social media, find
accounts that are gettingsuccess and are building
momentum and and then look andsee what they are doing.
What kind of posts are theyposting?
How are they connecting withpotential clients?
(14:45):
Some example accounts to get youstarted are Your Reading
Teacher.
Another one is Brightest LittleReaders.
That's all one word.
Le Lab Tutoring.
So that's L-E Lab Tutoring, allone word.
And then the last one is LemonTree Literacy.
And we'll make sure to includethose links down below so that
you can just click through andfollow along.
The other thing to think aboutis reaching out to your existing
(15:07):
network.
And I know when I say this, youmight get a Thank you so much.
(15:32):
let them know that you arestarting this new tutoring
business, this side hustle.
So that when they're out atcoffee with a friend and their
friend mentions that their childis struggling with reading, your
name is the name that pops upinto their mind.
I cannot tell you how many timesI've been having a conversation
with one friend and theymentioned that one of their
friends, who I don't even know,is looking for a tutor and I'm
(15:53):
able to say, oh, you know what?
I know exactly what to do.
So using your existing networkis going to be a huge piece of
this puzzle.
And here's the really excitingpart.
Your existing network has thepotential to get a thousand
times bigger because when theteam and I were sitting down and
talking about how we could bestsupport our Science of Reading
Formula members, one of thethings that we realized is we
(16:14):
have families reaching out to usall the time, asking if we are
able to connect them with tutorswho can help their child learn
to read.
These are families withstruggling readers or families
who want their child to be ableto push beyond grade level in
reading.
These are families who havestudents who might be struggling
with comprehension or they aremultilingual learners and they
(16:35):
are trying to just grasp theEnglish language.
There are a huge range ofdifferent needs and in the past,
we haven't been able to matchthem with tutors who can
actually help.
Until now.
We launched a tutoring networkand this is just a simple 100%
free matchmaking service.
So when we have families reachout to us and ask for support,
(16:55):
we then take their informationand we pass it along to all of
the Science of Reading Formulamembers who have raised their
hand and said, yes, we want tobe part of this tutoring
network.
We want to be on the email list.
And what's so cool about this isnot only are our families
finding the support that theyneed for their child, but But
our tutors are getting spoon-fedleads.
And so it's a win-win on bothsides.
(17:17):
Our tutors are getting money intheir pocket and our families
are finding their perfect fittutor.
The final step in this wholeprocess is making tutoring easy
and effective.
And the key to success with thisstep is making sure that you
have a system.
The very first time that youmeet with your student, spend
time getting to know them.
Find out about their interests.
Find out about theextracurricular activities they
might be doing.
(17:38):
Whether or not they havebrothers and sisters.
Get to know them.
And then give them an assessmentthat's going to give you
invaluable data and informationabout where they are in their
learning process and what skillsyou need to focus on in session
number two.
Another piece of this is makingsure that you are implementing a
consistent framework everysession.
So whatever that looks like foryou, maybe you do a weekly win
(17:59):
and have the student share oneof the highlights of their week
with you before you dive intotutoring each week.
Maybe you always start withreview.
So you decide, I love startingwith review.
I'm going to review a skill thatwe worked on the week before.
I'm going to then move on to thenew lesson that I'm going to be
teaching and so on and so forth.
If you're a Science of ReadingFormula member, the great news
(18:21):
is that your lesson plans arelaid out exactly like that.
So all you have to do is justhit print and you'll be ready to
go.
But whatever your system is,just make sure that you have one
because you Do not want to haveto keep inventing the wheel over
and over again every singleweek.
And it's going to be reallyhelpful for your student to know
what to expect when they comeand meet with you.
(18:42):
Just like you might be nervousto have a student for the very
first time, your student mightbe nervous to be tutoring with
you.
You're a brand new face to them.
They don't have any backgroundrelationship with you.
So we want to make sure thatboth you and your student are as
comfortable and calm aspossible.
And having a clear system thatyou follow every single week is
(19:03):
going to be a big piece of that.
And then my last recommendationfor you to make tutoring as easy
and effective as possible is toset boundaries.
And when I'm talking aboutboundaries, I'm making sure that
you are very clear with yourfamilies from day one.
when you are going tocommunicate with them.
So if you do not want familiessending you text messages at 10
(19:24):
o'clock on Friday night, tellthem that.
If you want to answer any familyemails on Sunday at five, tell
them that.
Make sure that you are clearwhen you are available, how
often you are going to bechecking your tutoring messages
and when you are going toactually reply.
Because if you do not set yourboundaries at the beginning,
inevitably there will be aproblem crop up and then it
(19:45):
becomes more of an issue than itneeded to be because the family
feels like they were unclear.
They were just trying to send atext message and you feel like
they have completely oversteppedtheir boundaries by expecting
you to reply at 10 o'clock onFriday evening.
So just set clear boundaries.
And this whole process will be awhole lot smoother for you and a
(20:08):
whole lot smoother for yourfamilies.
I promise.
So let's do a quick reviewbefore we wrap this up.
Step number one in our processis setting your goals and
availability.
We want to make sure that we arevery clear about what we are
trying to get out of this andwhat part of our life we are
going to devote to this, whetherit is a Wednesday evening or it
is a Saturday and Sunday or itis our summer break.
(20:28):
We wanna be really clear at thebeginning so that we can make
decisions that are going to workwith us and not against us going
forward.
Step two is setting your ratesand getting paid what you are
worth.
I could not say that enough.
Trust that you are valuable andthe experience and the expertise
that you bring to this is reallyvaluable for these families.
(20:48):
So get paid what you are worth.
Charge$5 more an hour than youmight feel comfortable with and
see what happens.
Step three is using done for yoututoring templates.
to ensure that you have all ofyour foundational pieces in
place, all of that foundationalpaperwork in place.
So you are not scrambling at thelast minute to create a contract
or create a progress monitoringsheet.
(21:11):
We want everything ready to goright now so that you are ready
to hit the ground running whenit is go time.
Step four is finding studentsand filling your spots.
And again, if you are a Scienceof Reading Formula member, do
not hesitate.
Go over and join the tutoringnetwork.
It's completely free.
It's included in yourmembership.
We want to make sure that we areable to connect you with as many
(21:31):
families who need your help aspossible.
And then step five is maketutoring easy and effective by
having go-to systems that youcan just rinse and repeat every
single week.
Using, establishing clearboundaries at the beginning so
nobody is surprised.
There are so many differentpieces that we can put into
place here in this category, butI just want to make sure that
you're constantly thinking abouthow you can make this even
(21:53):
simpler, even easier, andoptimize it for you and your
families.
We have covered a lot insidethis episode, and there is so
much more waiting for you insidethe Science of Reading formula.
So if you are a member, makesure to watch the Side Hustle
Challenge video, the trainingthat is available for you over
in that vault, because we talkedfor an hour and a half about all
of these things and a whole lotmore.
(22:15):
So I do not want you to miss outon any of the other golden
nuggets that are going to helpyou take your tutoring to the
next level.
You'll also be able to find lotsof tutoring templates.
Of course, you have thosestep-by-step lesson plans.
You have assessments, just allthe things.
So your life is going to be easybreezy.
And you are going to be able tospend your time planning that
vacation that is coming yourway.
Until next time, stay inspired.
(22:40):
one student success story at atime
Today's episode is all about something I know so
many of our listeners arethinking about right now,
starting a tutoring side hustle.
Because let's be real, teachingis amazing, but it doesn't
always pay the bills.
And if you've ever thought, Icould totally tutor on this
side, but where do I even start?
then this episode is for youbecause we're going to be diving
into how to set up your tutoringbusiness, find students, set
(00:21):
your rates, and make tutoringwork for your schedule without
feeling overwhelmed.
And the best part is you alreadyhave everything you need to do
this.
You have got the skills, you'vegot the expertise, and you have
the passion or you wouldn't belistening to this episode.
So now all we have to do is turnthat into extra income doing
what you love.
(00:41):
Welcome to the Science ofReading Formula, where you'll
learn simple, brain-friendlyways to make it faster, easier,
and a lot more fun for kids tolearn how to read.
I'm Malia Halliwell, a NationalBoard Certified teacher and
author who spent the last 20years geeking out on
brain-friendly teaching.
This is the spot where I shareall of my best lessons learned
with you.
(01:07):
We have a lot of ground tocover, but we're going to be
talking about this in fivespecific steps.
First, we're going to dive intohow to set your goals and your
availability.
And when I talk aboutavailability here, I'm really
talking about when you actuallywant to be tutoring because we
don't have a million hours inevery day.
And depending on what yourworkload looks like during the
week, you may or may not want toactually tutor after school.
(01:30):
So I'm going to give you lots ofdifferent options.
And then we're going to move onto step two, which is setting
your rates and getting paid whatyou are worth.
And when I say getting paid whatyou are worth, I mean it.
I do not want you to undervaluethe expertise that you bring to
this equation.
So we're gonna talk about whattypical tutoring rates look
like.
And obviously this can vary alittle bit across the different
(01:51):
countries, different states, butI wanna give you a good ballpark
number to start with.
Step three is using the done foryou tutoring templates that make
all of this so much easierbecause when it comes right down
to it, we wanna make sure thatyou are set up with a really
solid foundation.
And that means that you need tobe able to give your families
tutoring agreements that outlinethe services you're going to
provide.
(02:11):
You need to be able to give themprogress reports for their
students so that they can seeall of the work that you are
putting into your tutoringsessions and they can celebrate
and follow along with all of thesuccesses that your students
have.
So I'm going to show you somesimple ways to get all of that
into place really fast.
So all you have to do is hitprint.
Step four is finding studentsand then filling your spots.
(02:31):
Now, this one is an obvious one,but we want to make sure that we
have some other pieces in placebeforehand, because as that age
old saying goes, when you buildit, they will come.
And we want to make sure thatwhen you have students knocking
down your door, you haveeverything in place that that
process can go smoothly for youand your families.
And then the last step is makingtutoring as easy and effective
(02:52):
as possible, because just likeanything, When you start
something new, it may feel alittle clunky.
It may feel a little out of thenorm and maybe even a little
scary.
So we want to make sure that youget all of those nerves out of
the way.
And then you spend time tosimplify your systems.
You really optimize how you arebringing people into your
tutoring business, how you aresupporting them, how you are
(03:15):
reporting back to theirfamilies.
And we're going to talk aboutsome of those little tweaks that
you can make during that lastpart.
Okay, so to kick things off,let's talk about how you can set
your goals and youravailability.
And when I say goals here, I'mreally talking about money.
Let's get down to it.
We want to make sure that youhave a very clear financial goal
in mind because it's going toaffect every single one of the
(03:37):
pieces that we put in placeafter that.
If you have a goal of making$200every month, That is going to
look very different than if youhave a goal of leaving your
full-time job and replacing allof your full-time income with
tutoring business.
So we need to make sure that wehave a very clear picture of
where you are going, what yourgoal really is, so you can make
solid, informed decisions as yougo along.
(03:58):
Once you figure out how much youactually want to earn, the next
question you need to think aboutis how many students do you want
to take on?
If you are the type of personwho likes to have a lot of
friends...
and you like to spread your timeout among many different people,
then you may wanna take on morestudents.
Maybe 10 feels like a good fitnumber for you.
You're like, I wanna go for thisfull force.
(04:20):
I would be very comfortablehaving 10 different students and
providing that customized,personalized support to each of
their families.
Maybe you're all about qualityover quantity and you just wanna
start with one.
You wanna get that one studentin the door, get them set up,
get things going.
And then once you feelcomfortable, you'll add more.
The reason it's so important tothink about this question, how
(04:40):
many students do you want totake on, is because again, it's
going to affect every decisionyou make from that point going
forward.
And we wanna make sure that thisprocess feels as comfortable to
you as possible.
So if you are not ready to bringon 10 students, if that feels
like too daunting a task, thendon't push yourself.
Let's just start with one.
There is no right or wronganswer here and everybody's
(05:03):
answer is going to be different.
But it is going to be importantthat you have an answer because,
as I'm going to show you in justa little bit, that's going to
affect our income calculation.
And so we want to make sure weknow how much we want to earn
and how many students we want tosupport so we know exactly how
much we need to charge each ofthem.
And then, of course, when we aretalking about figuring out your
availability, it is reallyimportant that you sit down with
(05:26):
your weekly calendar and youlook and see what days and times
would work best for you.
Some people are night owls.
I am definitely not.
But if you are a night owl,maybe you are comfortable
hopping on Zoom and working witha tutoring client at 7 p.m.
your time because they happen tobe in a time zone three hours
behind you.
And so that's gonna work for youbecause you have energy at that
(05:48):
time of night and you'll be ableto show up as your best self for
them when it's late in theevening.
Now, if you're like me and youare definitely not at your best
anytime after seven o'clock inthe evening, then you might want
to wait and do your tutoring onthe weekends.
Or maybe this is something thatyou do in the summer.
We did an hour and a half longside hustle training in the
(06:11):
Science of Reading formula acouple weeks back, and we talked
about how different this canlook depending on your
availability.
You could set up some summercamp small groups that you do
just during the summer.
This is another situation wherethere is no right or wrong
answer.
It's just important that youhave clarity at the front end so
that you can make really wisechoices going forward.
(06:31):
So that is step number one.
We're gonna set your goals andyour availability.
Step two is setting your ratesand making sure to get paid what
you are worth.
And while it would be nice forus to say, I'm gonna charge
$5,000 an hour for my servicesbecause I am the bee's knees and
I don't doubt that you are,there are some things to
consider when you're settingyour price.
So I wanna make sure that youare aware of some different
(06:53):
circumstances that can changethe rate that families are
willing to pay you.
One of those things to consideris whether you are going to be
tutoring online or in-person.
Tutoring online obviously givesyou a lot more flexibility and
it saves on any commute timethat you would spend in your car
driving to your in-persontutoring location, but it also
comes with a lower rate.
(07:13):
So there's about a$5 an hourdifference between what tutors
are charging online versus whatthey are charging in-person.
If you're sitting down acrossthe table from a student you're
going to be able to charge justa little bit more because there
is that face-to-face connectionthat you're making.
And just to give you a sense ofwhat these rates might look
like, in-person tutoring rangesbetween 40 and 90 US dollars per
(07:38):
hour versus online tutoring,which is usually going for
between 25 and$50 per hour.
You can set your price anywherein that range.
And obviously you could go aboveit if you feel comfortable with
it, but that's a good startingpoint to consider.
Now, when I give you thoseprices, If you're like a lot of
the Science of Reading Formulamembers I worked with when we
(07:58):
did this side hustle challenge alittle while back, your stomach
might get tight and you mightget clammy hands because it
feels a little nerve wrackingputting a price on your
expertise.
And so often what I've seen ourmembers do is undervalue the
expertise that they are actuallybringing to their tutoring
service.
They look at that range of$25 to$50 for online instruction and
(08:21):
they say, well, you know, I'venever been a tutor before.
I'm just gonna start with thelower end and I'm gonna charge
$25 an hour.
Please, please, please do not dothat.
I want you to pause and I wantyou to consider all of the years
that you have been teaching, allof the certifications that you
have collected, all of thegraduate degrees or the college
(08:42):
education that you havecompleted.
That comes with value.
You would never go into yourdoctor's office and expect them
to charge as little as possibleand get you out the door for$10
an hour because you recognizethat they have really valuable
expertise that they are bringingto your work together.
And that is the same fortutoring.
(09:02):
You are valuable.
Your experience is valuable.
Your education is valuable.
There is a reason why you arepre-qualified to become a tutor.
It's because you are good atthis.
You are spending time makingyourself better by listening to
this podcast and being a Scienceof Reading Formula member if you
are part of our community.
You are taking the steps to makesure that you are your very
(09:25):
best, and that adds to yourvalue.
So please do not undervalueyourself.
Know that you are an expert andyou deserve to be compensated
for your time and for yourexperience.
The other thing to consider isyou have options about what your
tutoring sessions look like.
You can meet one-on-one withstudents.
That's usually the type oftutoring session that comes to
(09:46):
mind when we think about readingtutoring.
But we also have Science ofReading Formula members who are
meeting with small groups,especially in the summer.
They are setting up small minicamps.
So they have three or fourstudents who are at similar
reading levels and they areworking with those students to
bring them up to grade level orhelp them zoom past grade level
(10:06):
by the end of the summer.
So you definitely can do that aswell.
The pricing is going to go downa little bit per family if you
are meeting with a smallergroup.
Again, that's just because it'snot quite as customized an
experience as if you're meetingone-on-one, but you're still
able to charge quite a lot.
So the range for small groupinstruction, and when I say
(10:26):
small group, I'm thinking two tofive students for each of your
groups, is$25 to$55 per hour perstudent.
And again, that's gonna be alittle bit lower if we're going
online, but that gives you agood solid starting point.
So this is where it gets reallyexciting because if you have a
goal of making$500 per month Itcan look a lot of different
(10:48):
ways.
And remember, you already tooktime to think about how many
students you wanted to workwith.
So when I give you all of theseexamples of different ways to
earn that$500, there might beone or two of these that fit
what you were picturing when Iasked that question just a
couple minutes ago.
So if you want to earn an extra$500 every month, you could have
just one student and you couldcharge that student$50 per
(11:10):
session and meet with that childevery twice a week.
That would give you$500 a month.
Not too bad, right?
That's two hours out of yourweek, every week, and you have
$500 that you can save andcollect and take an epic,
awesome Disneyland vacation ortake a trip to Hawaii or put on
an epic birthday party for yourfamily or for a friend.
(11:31):
You have tons of options.
That's just with two hours everyweek.
If you wanted to make that$500,another option would be having
two different students thatyou're working with one-on-one
You're going to charge each ofthose families$50 per session,
but you're going to meet witheach child once a week.
So maybe every Wednesday youmeet with child A at five
o'clock and you meet with childB at six o'clock and you are
(11:54):
done.
You can pocket$500 at the end ofthat month.
And then the last example is youcould have a small group of
students you're working with.
So again, this could look likethree kids and you're going to
charge their families$30 persession and you're going to be
meeting with that group once aweek.
So every single hour that youmeet with them, every Wednesday
at seven o'clock, you're leadingthis small group for one hour
(12:14):
and you're charging each family$30.
So you're making$90 an hour andthat's going to add up to$500
for the entire month.
Isn't it amazing how easy thiscan be?
I know when I give you thoseexamples, it kind of blows your
mind because so often when wethink about having a side
hustle, we think that it's goingto take a ton of extra time.
It's going to be exhausting.
(12:35):
It's going to be overwhelming.
And it just really doesn't haveto be.
It can be as simple as havingjust a couple of extra hours
every week that we are devotingto this side hustle.
and we're gonna be able to bank$500.
It's gonna give us so much morefreedom, so much more peace of
mind, and it might create a lotof fun in our life too, because
we suddenly have options andsome flexibility about how we
(12:56):
wanna use that extra cash.
Just to review what we've talkedabout so far, we've set your
goals and availability, and thenwe set your rates and talked
about how important it is foryou to charge what you are
worth.
So step three is usingdone-for-you tutoring templates.
What I'm talking about here isall of that foundational
paperwork that we wanna have inplace so that you can spend your
time really focusing on helpingyour students grow rather than
(13:19):
having to battle with a familyabout getting paid at the end of
every month.
So this is where we wanna makesure that you have clear
contracts and agreements.
So everybody is on the samepage.
We wanna make sure that you haveprogress trackers so that you
can monitor your students'development effectively.
And we wanna make sure that youcan also communicate that
progress to the families on anongoing basis so they are clear
(13:42):
what value you are providing totheir students.
And then we also wanna make surethat you have lesson plans
because there is nothing worsethan showing up to your tutoring
session and having no idea whatyou are going to actually teach.
So just like it's easier to haveyour lesson plans mapped out for
you in your classroom, we wannabe able to streamline that
process for you when you'reactually getting ready for your
(14:02):
sessions as well.
Step four is we want to findstudents and fill your spots.
And this is where the fun andexcitement really comes.
You get to actually...
connect with children and workone-on-one or in small groups
with them to help them becomethriving readers.
Whenever you start any business,whether it is starting a bakery
or starting your tutoringbusiness, it's helpful to look
(14:23):
at other businesses around youthat have had success and copy
the steps that they took inorder to get there.
So if you are looking atstarting an online tutoring
business, it's really helpful tolook at social media, find
accounts that are gettingsuccess and are building
momentum and and then look andsee what they are doing.
What kind of posts are theyposting?
How are they connecting withpotential clients?
(14:45):
Some example accounts to get youstarted are Your Reading
Teacher.
Another one is Brightest LittleReaders.
That's all one word.
Le Lab Tutoring.
So that's L-E Lab Tutoring, allone word.
And then the last one is LemonTree Literacy.
And we'll make sure to includethose links down below so that
you can just click through andfollow along.
The other thing to think aboutis reaching out to your existing
(15:07):
network.
And I know when I say this, youmight get a Thank you so much.
(15:32):
let them know that you arestarting this new tutoring
business, this side hustle.
So that when they're out atcoffee with a friend and their
friend mentions that their childis struggling with reading, your
name is the name that pops upinto their mind.
I cannot tell you how many timesI've been having a conversation
with one friend and theymentioned that one of their
friends, who I don't even know,is looking for a tutor and I'm
(15:53):
able to say, oh, you know what?
I know exactly what to do.
So using your existing networkis going to be a huge piece of
this puzzle.
And here's the really excitingpart.
Your existing network has thepotential to get a thousand
times bigger because when theteam and I were sitting down and
talking about how we could bestsupport our Science of Reading
Formula members, one of thethings that we realized is we
(16:14):
have families reaching out to usall the time, asking if we are
able to connect them with tutorswho can help their child learn
to read.
These are families withstruggling readers or families
who want their child to be ableto push beyond grade level in
reading.
These are families who havestudents who might be struggling
with comprehension or they aremultilingual learners and they
(16:35):
are trying to just grasp theEnglish language.
There are a huge range ofdifferent needs and in the past,
we haven't been able to matchthem with tutors who can
actually help.
Until now.
We launched a tutoring networkand this is just a simple 100%
free matchmaking service.
So when we have families reachout to us and ask for support,
(16:55):
we then take their informationand we pass it along to all of
the Science of Reading Formulamembers who have raised their
hand and said, yes, we want tobe part of this tutoring
network.
We want to be on the email list.
And what's so cool about this isnot only are our families
finding the support that theyneed for their child, but But
our tutors are getting spoon-fedleads.
And so it's a win-win on bothsides.
(17:17):
Our tutors are getting money intheir pocket and our families
are finding their perfect fittutor.
The final step in this wholeprocess is making tutoring easy
and effective.
And the key to success with thisstep is making sure that you
have a system.
The very first time that youmeet with your student, spend
time getting to know them.
Find out about their interests.
Find out about theextracurricular activities they
might be doing.
(17:38):
Whether or not they havebrothers and sisters.
Get to know them.
And then give them an assessmentthat's going to give you
invaluable data and informationabout where they are in their
learning process and what skillsyou need to focus on in session
number two.
Another piece of this is makingsure that you are implementing a
consistent framework everysession.
So whatever that looks like foryou, maybe you do a weekly win
(17:59):
and have the student share oneof the highlights of their week
with you before you dive intotutoring each week.
Maybe you always start withreview.
So you decide, I love startingwith review.
I'm going to review a skill thatwe worked on the week before.
I'm going to then move on to thenew lesson that I'm going to be
teaching and so on and so forth.
If you're a Science of ReadingFormula member, the great news
(18:21):
is that your lesson plans arelaid out exactly like that.
So all you have to do is justhit print and you'll be ready to
go.
But whatever your system is,just make sure that you have one
because you Do not want to haveto keep inventing the wheel over
and over again every singleweek.
And it's going to be reallyhelpful for your student to know
what to expect when they comeand meet with you.
(18:42):
Just like you might be nervousto have a student for the very
first time, your student mightbe nervous to be tutoring with
you.
You're a brand new face to them.
They don't have any backgroundrelationship with you.
So we want to make sure thatboth you and your student are as
comfortable and calm aspossible.
And having a clear system thatyou follow every single week is
(19:03):
going to be a big piece of that.
And then my last recommendationfor you to make tutoring as easy
and effective as possible is toset boundaries.
And when I'm talking aboutboundaries, I'm making sure that
you are very clear with yourfamilies from day one.
when you are going tocommunicate with them.
So if you do not want familiessending you text messages at 10
(19:24):
o'clock on Friday night, tellthem that.
If you want to answer any familyemails on Sunday at five, tell
them that.
Make sure that you are clearwhen you are available, how
often you are going to bechecking your tutoring messages
and when you are going toactually reply.
Because if you do not set yourboundaries at the beginning,
inevitably there will be aproblem crop up and then it
(19:45):
becomes more of an issue than itneeded to be because the family
feels like they were unclear.
They were just trying to send atext message and you feel like
they have completely oversteppedtheir boundaries by expecting
you to reply at 10 o'clock onFriday evening.
So just set clear boundaries.
And this whole process will be awhole lot smoother for you and a
(20:08):
whole lot smoother for yourfamilies.
I promise.
So let's do a quick reviewbefore we wrap this up.
Step number one in our processis setting your goals and
availability.
We want to make sure that we arevery clear about what we are
trying to get out of this andwhat part of our life we are
going to devote to this, whetherit is a Wednesday evening or it
is a Saturday and Sunday or itis our summer break.
(20:28):
We wanna be really clear at thebeginning so that we can make
decisions that are going to workwith us and not against us going
forward.
Step two is setting your ratesand getting paid what you are
worth.
I could not say that enough.
Trust that you are valuable andthe experience and the expertise
that you bring to this is reallyvaluable for these families.
(20:48):
So get paid what you are worth.
Charge$5 more an hour than youmight feel comfortable with and
see what happens.
Step three is using done for yoututoring templates.
to ensure that you have all ofyour foundational pieces in
place, all of that foundationalpaperwork in place.
So you are not scrambling at thelast minute to create a contract
or create a progress monitoringsheet.
(21:11):
We want everything ready to goright now so that you are ready
to hit the ground running whenit is go time.
Step four is finding studentsand filling your spots.
And again, if you are a Scienceof Reading Formula member, do
not hesitate.
Go over and join the tutoringnetwork.
It's completely free.
It's included in yourmembership.
We want to make sure that we areable to connect you with as many
(21:31):
families who need your help aspossible.
And then step five is maketutoring easy and effective by
having go-to systems that youcan just rinse and repeat every
single week.
Using, establishing clearboundaries at the beginning so
nobody is surprised.
There are so many differentpieces that we can put into
place here in this category, butI just want to make sure that
you're constantly thinking abouthow you can make this even
(21:53):
simpler, even easier, andoptimize it for you and your
families.
We have covered a lot insidethis episode, and there is so
much more waiting for you insidethe Science of Reading formula.
So if you are a member, makesure to watch the Side Hustle
Challenge video, the trainingthat is available for you over
in that vault, because we talkedfor an hour and a half about all
of these things and a whole lotmore.
(22:15):
So I do not want you to miss outon any of the other golden
nuggets that are going to helpyou take your tutoring to the
next level.
You'll also be able to find lotsof tutoring templates.
Of course, you have thosestep-by-step lesson plans.
You have assessments, just allthe things.
So your life is going to be easybreezy.
And you are going to be able tospend your time planning that
vacation that is coming yourway.
Until next time, stay inspired.
(22:40):
one student success story at atime
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