February 2012, I clicked send and submitted my first ever profile as a tutor.

My goal: to earn enough money to provide the kids and I with a summer holiday each year. Just because I now found myself as single, it didn’t mean that they should miss out.

A friend and I sat down and brainstormed what we would expect from a tutor for our own children:

Someone who would travel to us

A person who would explain things in a way that they understood it

The lessons needed to be relevant.

This became the founding blocks of the business.

In addition, I believed from what I had learned, that if we just gave a child one resource, they would create one memory. If we gave them another similar resource, they would make that memory stronger, but their brain would still only have one place to go to where it could find that particular piece of information. So, we needed to use multiple resources to help to create multiple resources. In addition, the lessons needed to fun so that we could help the child to relax and retain the information that we were giving them, instead of them sitting them in fear of admitting they didn’t understand what we were saying.

I presumed this was what everyone did, but evidently, I was wrong.

What we were doing was very different to how most tutors worked. I hand on heart believe that what we are doing is better.

The vision now, is to provide this creative, personalised, fun-based support to many more children around the country, but I am just one person. I can’t do this by myself. I need help.

My mission is to find others who want to grow a tutoring business with the best interests of the children at the heart of it. With the belief that we all learn differently and that if we are relaxed, we are more susceptible to learning.

Others who recognise that we are all individuals and cannot be taught in the same way so that we can support more children using these key principles.

I know our way of doing things isn’t for everyone. It’s not the easiest method to support learning, but I hand on heart believe it is up there with the best.

I think the thing that sets us apart the most is not just the attitude that we are all individuals and as such have to be supported as such but the wide range of resources we have created over the past 12 years so that we can provide that individualised support. For a child that wants to discuss and record the key quotes in Jekyll and Hyde, that’s what we can do. For the child who wants to play games to get to grips with simultaneous equations that’s what we can do with the support of snakes and ladders, pairs, or 4-in a row. We can draw mind maps and colourful posters for those find learning more visual or play Jenga or noughts and crosses when learning the times tables.

Obviously, these are just some of the suggestions, but by having such a wide range of resources we can support more and more children, and the range is growing constantly.

The piece of feedback I am most proud of came a couple of years ago after her son finished his GCSEs:

Hi Dawn

I'm so sorry for not replying sooner. I've not been very well and i'm afraid i've not been able to keep up with my emails. I think all the stress of trying to get F through his exams caught up with me as soon as he finished!

I wanted to say a huge ginormous thank you to you for everything you've done for F. You have helped him so much in his maths and english. But for him it's more than that. Before starting with you he was in a really bad place. He felt education wasn't for him and had no hope of passing anything or achieving anything. But by teaching him maths in a way he understood he started to believe that he wasn't totally stupid and maybe he could pass. And then that spiralled as he got better at maths he starting thinking he could maybe do other things and it's really changed his whole outlook. I never thought i'd be sitting here with him discussing A levels let alone him considering going to college after 6th form to studing computing. He is like a different person!

The exam period was not easy but now the stress has gone he's much easier to live with and is enjoying his life of leisure. He wanted me to ask you if there was somewhere he could leave a review for you as he wanted to say thank you and tell other people how good you were for him.

So a huge thank you from all of us and we will let you know how he gets on.

I hope you have a wonderful summer!

He got a level 8 in his GCSE maths, then the other day I had a message from his mum saying he had got an A in his A’ level maths. Though we often get kind words passed on, that one has always felt to be the most heartfelt, the most genuinely appreciated.

It would be hard to walk you through a day of a franchisee as you can plan your day at your discretion, to suit your family life. For me, apart from Tuesday when I am with my grandson, I get up and spend the first 90 minutes working on the business. This might be marketing, group emails, writing blogs such as this one. Then I prepare for my day’s lessons. By now, it doesn’t matter what life throws at me, I have the main things done and ready to go.

Each day I try to go for a swim or to the gym, to get me out of this chair and my head out of work. Beyond that, Monday is for Marketing. (Tuesday is with a toddler) Wednesday is for working on the Website, Thursday the franchise and or/ training, Friday I do my accounts and my numbers.

For me it works, but your day might look completely different. It’s your business, your call.

Last year I worked with a lad. He was at the grammar school, and I really feel he didn’t want a tutor especially one whose degree was in childcare and education through the open university, rather than something more academic through a higher status, Russel Group University. I would get to his house, and he would declare that the room where we worked was too messy so we would have to cancel. What!

It was hard work. One evening we were working on some creative writing, and he had to promote an event that he had recently been to, to his friends. I have never read anything so dull. I was at the point of losing my sanity, so I just said: “look, for two minutes forget you’re a grammar schoolboy and write as if you were talking to your friends. Show some enthusiasm because I genuinely don’t believe that is how you would talk to your friends!”

After that something changed, and he seemed to warm to me. We would chat and he would talk to me about school, his hopes and dreams (his secret girlfriend). That summer I had a text from him:

“You are genuinely the best tutor ever; you took me from a 3 to a 9 within a year. Thank you so much!”

We don’t always have such amazing results but no matter the outcome we can make such a difference to the confidence of so many people, then as is stated in the email above, that starts to impact on other areas of their lives. It becomes a self-fulfilling and we can be there to nurture it.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a Clara James Franchisee, send me an email: info@clarajamestutoring.co.uk and I will email you the details. If you would like a copy putting in the post, just let me know and I can do that for you too.

When I initially established Clara James Tutoring, I asked what support I would want from a tutor for my own children. This became the foundations of the business.

Now, setting up the franchise I am asking the same question:

If I was starting a tutoring business today what support would I need and want to make it a success?

To be as flexible as possible the first part of the training will take place online so that you can study it at a time and pace that works for you.

Then once that is complete, we will meet you here in Aylesbury for a one-to-one fully packed day where we can ensure that you feel ready to start out on your new journey as a tutor!

Prior to this you will receive an introductory manual which will walk you through setting up your bank account, registering with relevant bodies, etc.

During the training program we will go through everything from marketing (Facebook ads, Google ads, Google My Business, neighbourhood cards) and who you might want to market to.

We will look at the process to go through when a family gets in touch. Meeting them and ensuring that you can give genuine help and support rather than coming across as a pushy salesperson.

We will explore planning the lesson, creating resources, the hundreds of resources we already have available, carrying out the lesson, receiving feedback and referrals and using this to grow your business.

After this you will receive a fortnightly phone call. We can use this time to get the answers to any questions that you may have and talk about the goals you have and discuss any support you may need in implementing them.

In addition, you will receive all of this:

• Comprehensive training manuals will contain a lot of the answers you may seek.

• The bimonthly newsletter

• Between our fortnightly phone calls, you may come across other questions that you have. Feel free to drop us an email or a text at any time and we will email you back as soon as possible.

• Quarterly webinars.

• Bi-weekly resource creation mornings where we will work together to extend and create new resources to provide to the student that we work with.

• Fortnightly sessions where we will meet online and work together on our own individual businesses. I will be there to help you with any questions that you may have concerned with what you are working on.

In the summer months there will be a one - day event.

This will be a fantastic opportunity to network and learn. In the winter months we will have another networking and training day this will also combine with our annual awards.

This will be a brilliant day and you are guaranteed to leave motivated and inspired for the coming year. Our weekly franchisee’s club email will offer a range of useful information and ideas to grow your business.

The annual one to one meeting is key. This will be your opportunity to meet with us and set your personal targets for both your business and your personal life.

Something we pride ourselves in is the fact that one style doesn’t suit all. We will provide you with support in working with neurodiverse children.

We will also offer ideas and suggestions though it is always important to remember that these children are also individuals and cannot be categorised by a label.

Every child you work with will have their individual skills and preferences, the training we give you will help you to recognize these and respond to them.

We want you to succeed, and whilst we can’t do the work for you, we want to give you every possible opportunity to build the best possible business, create a great profit and support as many children as possible.

If you have any questions, or you are interested in learning more, please do get in touch. My email address is info@clarajamestutoring.co.uk we can then arrange a mutually convenient time to have a chat.

Whatever your decision, I wish you all the best. Be proud of what you achieve as a tutor because you can make a genuine difference to the lives of so many people.