Market Positioning

If you’re serious about earning an income from tutoring, then you need to think about how your business is positioned in the market. Your tutoring business’ ‘brand’ should be a reflection of your personality and your approach to tutoring. Some things to consider when deciding on a brand for your business include:

• What’s your tutoring style? Are you laid back, assertive, quirky?

• How do you approach lessons? Are you organised, student-focused, or tutor-focused?

• What type of students are you targeting? Those that are struggling, highachievers, those that want to improve?

Once you’ve considered these questions, you can decide how your tutoring approach might be translated into a brand that positions you in the industry:

• Who is your target audience, where do they live and how much do they earn?

• What is your business’ tone of voice? i.e. how do you sound when you communicate with parents and students?

• What colours reflect your business?

• What themes or metaphors would show your business’ personality?

• How about imagery? What visuals will help you attract your ideal students?

Based on the Sutton Trust and Ipsos Mori’s report on the tutoring industry, here’s some key information that could help you position yourself in the tutoring marketplace:

• One in four 11-16-year olds in England and Wales have received private or home tuition, a figure which has risen by half since the Trust began collecting the data in 2005.

• Pupils in London are substantially more likely to have received private tuition than the rest of the country, with two in five pupils from London (41%) having had tuition at some point.

• Almost half (47%) of students that have a tutor say that the principal reason is to help with their work in general. One third (33%) say it’s to help them perform well in a specific GCSE exam and just over one in four (27%) say it’s to help them do well in a school entrance exam.

And according to a similar study conducted by the Sutton Trust in on tutoring and social mobility…

• Privately-educated students are about twice as likely to receive private tuition as state-educated pupils, according to multiple estimates.

• Poorer students are less likely to receive private tuition. Of those aged between 11-16, 17% of students who receive free school meals (FSM) have ever received private tuition, 26% of students who do not receive FSM.

• Nearly half (43%) of state school teachers have tutored outside of their main teaching role at some point during their lives.

• Students in Year 7 and Year 11 are most likely to receive private tuition.

• There is very little variation in tutoring uptake between girls and boys.

• Asian children are most likely to use tutors at 42%, followed by black children at 38%, those from ‘other’ racial backgrounds at 29%, those of ‘mixed’ race at 22% and white children the least at 20%.