Alright, this post is for all of you who provide private lessons. How the HECK do you find private students?
I have tried social networks, this has been a huge fail for me in Brazil.
After a year of banging my head against the wall, phone calls have been becoming much more common and it looks like I am going to have a full load of teaching this semester. These are the things that I have found that have been working best for me.
1) I printed a ton of COLORFUL business cards. These business cards I ALWAYS have with me and I try to leave a few at every place I go after talking with the owner or manager of the establishment.
2) Keeping a really good profile at the school I teach with. I had one student through the school who insisted I take her on as a private student (even though I charge the same thing as the school basically....) and I refused based on etiquette. I told her that unfortunately, I would not be able to do that for her, as she found my services through the school and that I thought it was rather underhanded, especially since she was looking for conversation practice alone, and I would charge exactly what the school charges and the same hours as the school. A few weeks later she gave my information to two individuals who now are doing private lessons with me. She respected my honesty and respect for my employer and rewarded me with new clients. She's the owner of the largest car-parts distributor in the state and has a million connections. This will definitely help my business to grow.
3) Keeping a really good public profile. I don't go out to the clubs on a regular basis nor do I frequent bars. This is a result of how the first time I went out and got fly like a G-6 in Ji-Paraná, I ran into one of my students and was so incredibly ashamed, I didn't know what to say when I saw her in class the following week.
Has anyone taught online? I have heard of some websites that provide this as an opportunity (and let me tell you, it would be nice to be able to just teach from my computer). I would love any advice on these options if you guys know anything!
Becky, with my tiny little tutoring biz I feel you on this. I'm not looking to replace my full-time teaching job, but the extra money sure is helpful, and the more students I can get in my group classes, the more profitable my classes will be without having to devote more hours to planning and teaching. I am stealing your idea (from previous post) about the punch cards. Walking, talking (and informed) sales advocates are definitely helpful! I also bundle my lessons to make them more cost effective and encourage students to buy more lessons/invest more in their Spanish. A student's first group lesson with me is only $5, while all others are $10, unless you buy 5 lessons, in which it's $40 for all 5. That's like paying $8/lesson (or buying 4 full-priced lessons and getting the 5th free).
ReplyDeleteSomething that has been helping me lately is old fashioned networking. I share my events to my personal FB wall, invite friends I know won't come, post to my page, and even got a Pittsburgh events FB page to start sharing my events for all people subscribed to it to see. And of course I invited all my friends in the city to "like" my fan page, even the latinos and fluent Spanish speakers. Now that they are informed, they have recommended me to some of their friends who want to learn because they do not feel qualified to teach Spanish themselves.
Today while at a small, privately-owned coffee shop I noticed a bulletin board with local businesses' business cards tacked all over it. When my punch cards come in I will tack a few up there for people to take and call me. My colleague told me she got her first tutees by putting up fliers in local elementary schools which also taught Spanish -- it's just one more idea in this long list of ideas. I'm sure you're already doing many of these, but hopefully my rant has sparked something in you to begin marketing yourself in a new direction.