As a new tutor in a competitive market, you may be wondering, “How much should I charge for tutoring services?” On the one hand, young or inexperienced tutors usually charge lower prices until they gain experience in their field. On the other, it’s important to be sure you’re charging enough to cover your expenses. If you live in one of Canada’s metropolitan centres, where rents and the general cost of living are extremely high, your rates will be higher as a result.
So how can you set a fair, competitive rate as a new tutor? Read on to find out.
Understanding Tutoring
Tutors are usually providing supplementary education to their students. Most often, tutors are supporting young students who are in elementary or high school. These students need additional instruction in a subject, beyond what they receive in school during the day. This extra study boosts their grades (and often their confidence!) and also helps them to grasp the subject in a way they could not before.
Because tutoring is often “extra” education, it’s often associated with lower rates for hourly services. If you’re a young tutor with limited experience, you’ll want to keep in mind that parents of young students will expect your rates to be lower accordingly. However, many tutors who are starting out now have completed their degrees, or have an education background. If you have this type of training, you can command a higher hourly rate. Tutors with an education background have advanced training in working with students of all abilities. You can assess their skills and limitations, and craft lessons to suit their understanding. Parents will understand that your advanced education and skills are worth the extra money. You’re more likely to lead their child to successful outcomes, and they will pay accordingly!
Types of Tutoring
While many tutors are this first type, the after-school-extra-helpers, tutoring covers a much wider field than that. Instruction in music, art, and athletics all count as tutoring, too. Experts in these fields usually charge more than tutors for subjects like math or chemistry, for example. Acquiring the skills to tutor these subjects takes additional time and money outside of core schoolwork.
Besides your tutoring subject, the age of your students plays a role in how much you should charge for tutoring. If you’re tutoring young children in elementary subjects, your rates will often be less (especially if you’re a new tutor). If you’re tutoring university students, however, your rate will be higher as you will likely be a graduate or more senior student yourself. Your experience and investment in post-secondary education will justify a higher rate. Likewise, if your students are adults, you can typically charge higher rates because you are likely to be an expert in a specialist subject.
Determining Your Tutoring Rate
If you're planning to tutor students in elementary or high school subjects, look for school-based tutoring programs. In these programs, hourly rates are usually determined by the organizers. Tutoring with a drop-in program will help you gain exposure to a wide variety of students and abilities, and can be a great way to build your skill when you’re starting out. But if you choose to work solo instead, comparing your rates to the fees charged by these programs will help you determine how much to charge per hour or per tutoring session.
If you’re a tutor in a non-academic subject, consider how widely available tutoring services are in your area. For example, finding a piano teacher is usually easy for parents of young children, and there are bound to be several people who teach piano in your neighbourhood. Compare your experience level and qualifications with theirs, and set a rate that feels appropriate to you based on their rates.
If you teach something more unique, you may not have much competition at all to compare yourself with. In that case, look at the rates of other instructors in your area. Pay attention to who their target audience is and their age range, and set your rate based on this research. Remember, you can always ask the advice of family and friends based on their experience hiring tutors. In the end, the best rate to charge is the rate you feel comfortable with!
Factors Influencing Tutoring Rates
When you start out as a tutor, you may make the mistake of thinking your work begins and ends with seeing your students. But there’s much more happening behind the scenes than that! Remember that you will likely have to grade some homework, just like a teacher, and you’ll be preparing lesson plans, too. Factor the additional time you expect to spend in preparation into your hourly lesson rate. Also, you’ll be spending a couple of hours every week on scheduling, and communicating with potential new students or parents. Finally, if you’re tutoring children, you’ll likely want to prepare reports for parents on their child’s progress in your sessions.
All these things take time. The worst thing you can do as a young tutor is feel resentful at the extra time you spent outside of paid lesson hours because you feel shortchanged. Set your price knowing you’ll be working a few extra hours each week on your own.
Also consider the cost of your setup. You’ll likely need some office supplies, and the cost of these can add up. Keep your receipts, especially in your first year, and use them to help determine your rates going forward.
If you’re a more experienced tutor, you may decide you want to rent a studio or office space for seeing your students. Obviously, this cost will increase your hourly rate. Or, you may be commuting to your students’ homes. The price of gas in your car or your transit pass also counts towards the rate you should charge. Don’t forget that time spent sitting in traffic on the way to and from lessons is your time, too! If students are getting the convenience of their tutor coming to them, they will have to pay a little extra for it.
Finally, most modern tutors are open to online as well as in-person services. You may want to use a secure, paid online meeting service for your tutoring, and the cost of the subscription should be factored into your hourly rate, too.
Setting Your Price
With all these factors in mind, it’s time to answer the question, “How much should I charge for tutoring?” Gather your research of competitor rates, consider your extra expenses, and keep in mind the amount of time you’ll spend on behind-the-scenes work. All this will ensure you set a fair rate (for yourself and your students!)
Once you’ve set your price, it’s best to stick with it for a year. Keep detailed records of your earnings, expenses, and extra time spent prep work during this year. With these notes, you can calculate the rate you actually earned over the previous 12 months. Remember that charging people different rates is seen as unprofessional. Your clients may know each other, and are likely to discuss your rates. You wouldn’t want to be caught in a situation where you’re trying to justify your differing rates to an upset parent or student.
That said, you may have students who are eager to work with you, but can’t afford your rates. Tutors sometimes offer sliding scale rates to students who couldn’t afford their instruction at the usual rate. You may decide to offer this as a benefit, or consider it once you become a more established tutor. Some tutors also create programs for other clients to donate extra funds to these students, to help cover the costs of their lessons.
After a year, feel free to increase your rate, especially if you’ve found that your costs were higher than you expected. If you’ve provided satisfactory service to your students, you likely won’t have to worry about losing them. Plus, you’ll have a year’s worth of experience to advertise to new potential students. Even better, you'll have likely gained a great deal of confidence in your abilities.
Working with Tutoring Companies
If you’re still not sure how much to charge, or are worried about being able to find enough clients to keep your tutoring business afloat, consider partnering with a tutoring company. This is a common first step for new tutors to help them gain experience and improve their reputation as a tutor. However, not all tutoring companies are alike, or offer the same experience to their tutors.
Pros and Cons
Working with a tutoring company can be a real benefit for a new tutor, as you gain access to a range of students, and are usually guaranteed to be matched with a number of students who fit your experience level. A tutoring company will do their own marketing, so you won’t have to worry about the cost of advertising your services yourself.
Still, many tutoring services also have some downsides to partnering with them. For one, tutors may earn less with a service than they could on their own. Most companies charge a set rate per hour, and pay the tutor a portion of this rate. The overhead of running a business costs extra, and the size of the tutoring business usually increases the rate for the end client — but not the rate for the tutor.
Also, most tutoring companies will want you to work on their schedule, usually covering a shift of several lessons back to back. This may be a great fit for your schedule, but it may also be tough for tutors with other commitments. When you work for yourself, you can determine your own schedule, and how much or how little you work each day.
Finally, many tutoring services require that you teach an approved curriculum — especially if they specialize in a certain subject area. This might suit a beginner tutor who doesn’t want to create and prepare lesson plans on their own. But it might also prove frustrating if your students don’t grasp the subject the way you’re required to teach it. Or, you may have your own strong opinions about the right way to tutor a subject. Again, it’s up to you to decide how you like to work, and which methods suit you. It’s also okay to experiment and change your mind as you gain experience!
Choosing the Right Company
If the idea of teaching a set curriculum or working on someone else’s schedule doesn’t fit your idea of being a tutor, consider working with an online tutoring platform like TutorLyft. We never dictate how you teach — you’re the expert! And as a TutorLyft instructor, you determine your own schedule, taking as many or as few clients as your schedule permits. Finally, you set your own rates. That means you can feel comfortable with the money you earn, and not feel pressured to settle for a lower rate. At TutorLyft, we charge a 20% commission on your rate per session to cover our expenses, and to keep our prices fair — We get paid when you get paid. You get all the benefits of being part of a tutoring company, including our cross-channel marketing to showcase your unique personality and expertise.
Feeling Confident in Your Hourly Tutoring Rate
Setting a competitive rate as a new tutor can be tough. After all, you’re just getting started in a new business! It can be tempting to charge much lower than the average rate to try to find new clients, but beware — charging a very low fee will make most serious learners suspicious of your skills and qualifications. Make sure you do your homework and find out what the typical rates are in your city or town. Don’t forget to check sites like Indeed and Payscale to find out more about typical hourly rates for tutoring services in your area. Most of all, don’t forget to factor in your extra business expenses when setting your rate.
