Use your story to grow your tutoring business

Every day someone else makes the decision to start tutoring. Some will be excellent, others will still be learning. But with so many people promoting themselves as a tutor, how can you be the one that stands out as different?

Is the answer better resources, more qualifications, a new expensive marketing strategy?

Often the answer is no, what they actually need to do is to focus on their story.

“I always thought my oldest daughter might be mildly dyslexic. After a training course I did the tutor suggested I had a word with her school. I plucked up the courage and approached them, and their response was that dyslexia is just an excuse for laziness! I didn’t have the confidence to fight my corner, so over the coming years I started to learn as much as I could about dyslexia and different learning styles so that I could help her myself, I also thought it would complement the degree I was doing at the time.”

This is how my story often starts. I didn’t begin to tell it because it seemed like a good marketing strategy, I told it because it gave me something I could say when parents got in touch looking for help. It was something I could speak about with the hope that it would justify my approach to tutoring.

I’ve realised though over the past 14 years since I started the business it gives parents the opportunity to get to know me. It shows that I can empathise with what they are often going through. The frustration of not being heard. But also, the realisation that we won’t just be mimicking what they are doing at school, instead we will do our best to make it fun, interactive and work with the needs of their child.

“I have an incredibly intelligent brother (we are nothing alike, sadly) and 3 children who are all so different to each other. Jamie and Angel are keen readers, whereas Clara hasn’t read a book in years. When they were at school, Clara’s homework would be colourful and creatively presented. Angel’s would be full of facts and information. But I always think if a sample of 5 people are all so different, imagine the differences in the class of 30 or more. We need to embrace each other’s differences and work with them. We are not clones of each other and will not learn as efficiently if that’s how we try to support people. We need to cater for the needs of the individual, not the needs of the average child”.

When you are talking to people you don’t want to parrot it off like a well-rehearsed script and you don’t want to change your story or reinvent yourself, instead just tell the part which is relevant to the person you are talking to in that moment.

If I’m talking to other tutors, I might mention that

“when I first started, I didn’t have the confidence to tell people what I was doing so I kept it quiet in the hope that nobody would ever find out. Then no-one could judge me when I failed. But it didn’t work, people found out and word of mouth started to spread, and the business became something bigger than I ever could have dreamed of.”

But this isn’t necessarily something a parent needs or wants to hear, so instead I will tell them about:

“One of the things I learned on a training course that I did was: that if we just keep using one form of resource to help us to learn, all we are doing is giving the child one place in their mind to find that piece of information. However, if we use a range of resources, we are helping to create multiple places in our brain so that it has more places to go to where it can find the information when it needs it. This isn’t just beneficial for dyslexic learners but anyone who finds themselves in a situation when they are under stress and can’t think straight!”

I think most parents liked my logic, my reasoning. I was speaking to them as someone who didn’t claim to be a whizz at English or a mathematical genius, but instead someone who understood them and how we learn. Someone who would take the time to get to know their child and to work with them as an individual.

Telling my story started as a gap filler when I didn’t know what to say, but actually it has become more than that. It is an opportunity to explain my values and to explain my beliefs about education.

Some people will hear your story, and it won’t resonate; others will identify with what you are saying. Please never dilute or change your story to please people, be honest and open. There may be many other tutors out there but not one of them can tell your story and present tutoring in a way that your beliefs have created your style.

If you’re building a tutoring business, ask yourself what do you stand for? What kind of learners do you care most about? What part of your journey has shaped your approach?

Over the years, telling my story has shaped not just my tutoring, but the way I support other tutors to. This year I made the decision to find the confidence to redevelop our tutoring franchise. As I go, I am writing a blog and telling our story each step of the way. If you want to follow along you will find the link here:

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