From Tonbridge to Tutor: Setting up a business

MATT BARRY (WW 06-11)

FOLLOW YOUR PASSION FROM TONBRIDGE TO TUTOR

“Follow your passion” is easy to preach but harder to practice. Like many, I suppose, I left Tonbridge without a clear career objective beyond succeeding at the best University I could get into - Keele in my case. (Yes, I was one of the more rounded 70%…). Time may rewrite every line, but when I look back on my years at Tonbridge, one thing I am confident about is that I knew then that, one day, I wanted to be my own boss. And today I can not only say that I’ve succeeded in this, but also in doing something that is enormously fulfilling. But I haven’t arrived here by any route I could have predicted at my final school speech day.

I was fortunate to go straight from University into the world of executive search, where over four years I worked with the top graduate recruiters including banks, management consultancies, technology companies and the Civil Service. Thousands of CV’s crossed my desk and I helped dozens of candidates prepare for job interviews. Two things struck me about students and undergraduates: the extent to which they under-estimate what top companies are looking for, and how poorly equipped they are in self-marketing skills. (Believe me, I’ve read more personal statements than you can shake a headmaster’s cane at!)

The first thing I learnt is that technology is changing both who, and how, employers recruit. Top companies receive tens of thousands of applications each year - Google receives over 2 million! To get past the automated filters and stand out amongst the best, you need more than a good degree from a top University. Employers are seeking candidates with the personal qualities they value, and evidence of workplace relevant skills. Writing, numeracy and technical skills are expected, but soft skills are increasingly prized - the ability to communicate, persuade and network. Even when the job is highly specialised, such as a software engineer or laboratory technician, employers look for management potential and want to hire those who will ‘fit in’ to the organisation.

When career coaching students, my best advice to is to get involved as early as possible in activities that demonstrate

You can contact Matt via his website at

www.kingsroadtutors.com

Setting up your own business for most is a leap of faith. We need to have something that will make people beat a path to our door. If we want to succeed, we need to be either better or different from the rest.

your personal qualities and build the right skills. Join the debating, drama or even the drone flying society. Whatever it is, take advantage of the facilities the school provides. Seize every opportunity for work experience. Before I went to university, I spent six months teaching abroad, gave up a summer to work at Ladbrokes HQ, sold tickets at Legoland, and worked till 5am every Sunday morning at a Kingston nightclub, amongst other jobs. Each of those experiences helped to leverage my CV, enabling me to move seamlessly from campus to career coaching.

So how did I come to make the switch from the security of a Civil Service HR department to starting my own tutoring business, and how was that following my passion? Well, first, career coaching and academic tutoring share some common requirements. You need an interest in people and helping them; you need a patient, encouraging and empathetic style; you need to be able to develop rapport with your clients, and you need to have the skills to help them secure their objective, be it passing an exam, gaining entry to a select school, or landing their dream job.

Setting up your own business for most is a leap of faith. We need to have something that will make people beat a path to our door. If we want to succeed, we need to be either better or different from the rest. With Kings Road Tutors® I believe I spotted a gap in the market. Tuition is an unregulated industry where part time pocket-money earners work through revolving door agencies that, in most cases, have never met the tutors they send into your home. We wouldn’t send our kids to a school that didn’t interview their teachers and swapped them out between lessons, so why risk it with tuition?

Parent’s want tutor-child rapport and they want continuity. Kings Road Tutors is unique in being the only tuition provider where the tutor retains 100% of the tuition fee, which is great for loyalty and retention. And, while most of my students are fortunate enough to attend the elite select schools that feed cathedrals of learning like Tonbridge, I’m proud to say we offer free tuition to disadvantaged children, both at home and in school. Time will tell whether my model is sustainable but, so far, parents seem to like it.

My story is by no means unique. We’ve all heard about people who abandon a successful career to do something radically different. If you’re ever pondering that, I commend to you the passage I best remember from Steven Covey’s acclaimed book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. A man arrives at a funeral, only to realise it is his own. He reflects on his life and what it amounts to, thinks about his eulogy and what he’d like to hear said. It focuses his mind on the changes he needs to make in his life in order for that imagined eulogy to become reality. When I’m asked to help with fundamental career choices, whether it be a student or someone in mid-career, I often suggest they take time out to write a “personal mission statement”. This can be a very enlightening exercise that connects us with our core values and purpose, and provides a yardstick against which to measure our career options. And it’s much less expensive than taking the hippie trail or buying a Harley Davison. In my case I made my life and career change aged 27, so still time for the motorbike ●