Important Elements to Remember with a New Start-up
I am by no means an expert on the subject, but this is based on very recent personal experience as I ventured into solo-preneurship on a very tight timeline (one week). As mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, I began offering private tutoring once again rather unexpectedly. A particular company I was working for was no longer in business, so in order to continue tutoring those students, there were many aspects I had to take care of myself. I have a business background as well as an MBA, but those prepared me for working for a large corporation, not for being self-employed and certainly not for a self-employed start-up.
I tried to be as thorough as possible when I began to build my solo-preneurship, but it would not surprise me in the least if there were steps that I missed. I have no doubt that missteps and amendments will end up being fodder for future blog posts. For the moment, though, this is just a quick guide for anyone finding themselves in my shoes and not knowing where to start. Hopefully, I'll be able to help anyone with a mind to start their own small business.
The Contract
The first thing I did was develop a tutoring contract or agreement for the students or their parents. This is vitally important to set guardrails for expectations. I included sections for pricing, cancellation policy, late arrivals, payment terms, responsibilities of the student and the tutor, and terms for termination or renewal of the contract. I also developed package deals for my students so that they could have better value if they paid for more than single sessions.
Website
Next, I developed a website. This is a quick and easy way to provide all the information a prospective student may want to have. On mine, I included such information as my credentials, my teaching methods, my rates, and information on how to book a session or contact me. This was an extremely efficient way to provide details to anyone who may be seeking your services. I did not connect my website to a particular domain and I am not sure if it will be something I intend to do. However, the actual building of a website is not very challenging with a good website builder.
Next, I considered social media. It took a while for me to decide whether I wanted to add social media to my practice. It's not that I don't appreciate the value of social media, but that I did not know what my intention for it would be. Social media is fantastic for reaching a wider audience, but what did I intend to reach them with? This is an online tutoring service; what am I hoping to put in front of my prospective clients? It later came to me that I could share this blog with the public, so with that intention in mind, I opened accounts and pages on Twitter, Mastodon, and LinkedIn.
Appointment Application
A tutor cannot take on students if they do not know how to book sessions. I actually already use an appointment application, so it was easy to set one up with hours specifically for tutoring and place the link on my website. Any prospective student can request a booking and I would be able to get back to them immediately to confirm and discuss further details. Appointment applications are fantastic because you can tailor them to the specific availability you wish to offer. And, you can set a calendar only for your business. For example, I want to be available to my students for sessions at 6am (given potential time differences), but I have had non-students book me for that early hour for coffee or a quick call and then not show up. Now, I have two separate calendars, and the one not for tutoring starts at 9am.
Virtual Classroom
An online tutoring session needs a virtual platform to take place. In the post-COVID era, almost everyone is particularly comfortable with Zoom. To make life easier, many would default to using Zoom, but Zoom is only free for 40 minutes and tutoring sessions are at least an hour. There are many similar or better platforms out there that do not have those time constraints, not to mention some very creative platforms that are much more conducive to an online learning environment. If a tutor is willing to try some out, they might find a space that would be much more ideally suited to their teaching style and price range.
Payment Platform(s)
Finding an appropriate payment platform became my biggest challenge, mainly because the prospective students all had their preferred payment methods and the solo-preneur has to remain adaptable. A good website builder usually has its own payment platform, but the fees can be high. Financial software such as PayPal or Stripe will take a reasonable percentage but offer services such as invoicing and credit card payment, not to mention currency conversion (which could be an important feature of virtual tutoring if the tutor is open to international students). However, I have found that many prospective students are uncomfortable with paying via a financial service and would prefer a straight Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT). This would give the tutor the added responsibility of creating and tracking their own invoices.
So, these were just a few elements I developed in the span of a week to make myself available to parents after that particular company closed down. As I had previously mentioned, I have no intention of taking students from the other companies I work for; I am perfectly content having them handle the business side of tutoring while I focus on developing my pedagogy. However, in its rudimentary form, these are the steps I took to develop a practice that could support a few students and allow me to continue working. As time progresses, I am sure that there will be aspects I need to add or adjust. However, for the time being, this should suffice for a basic start-up.
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