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7Jan
Advantages of Tutoring Companies Over Independent Tutors

Tutoring companies face strong competition from other companies and independent tutors. Independent tutors can often afford to charge much lower rates, which makes them more attractive to many potential customers – so how can companies position themselves to attract clients despite their higher rates? There are several benefits companies offer potential clients that independents don’t – and by emphasizing these benefits, tutoring companies can attract more clients.
The following five characteristics can set tutoring companies apart from independent tutors. The extra value clients receive from these characteristics justify the higher rates that companies charge – companies just need to make clients aware of these benefits in order to attract more clients.
1. Time Savings
It’s quite easy to become an independent tutor, so there are lots of people with a wide range of education, experience and skills in this field. People looking for tutoring services typically look for a balance between the quality of the teaching they will receive and the price they will pay. However, evaluating independent tutors to determine the quality of their teaching can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Companies can help by completing this process for people.
Most tutoring companies have hiring processes in place for screening resumes, conducting interviews, evaluating experience and skills, completing background checks and more. They spend time finding high quality tutors, which saves parents and students from this process. Parents and students can simply ask a company how they screen their teachers and based on the response they will quickly be able to determine if the company will have high-quality teachers.
2. Quality
Not only do thorough screening processes save parents and students time when searching for tutors, they also help tutoring companies find top-quality tutors. As companies gain more experience they will be able to refine their hiring processes to find better teachers – this will lead to a better reputation and the ability to command higher rates.
In addition to finding high quality teachers, tutoring companies also usually have more established systems for handling scheduling, billing, communication and performance tracking than independents. Established systems that have been honed over the years make the entire tutoring process go smoother for clients which is valuable to many clients. Some independent tutors may be organized but the probability of finding one with well-established processes that ensure a smooth teaching process is lower than with companies.
3. Accountability
Another advantage tutoring companies have over independent tutors is that they have more invested in their reputations. Whereas independent tutors might have a couple students and rely on free advertising, companies have tens or dozens of students and invest considerable money in marketing and building their brands. In order to build and protect their brands, tutoring companies have more motivation than independent tutors to ensure their students receive top-quality teaching. Mention your business’s reputation in your marketing materials and when meeting with potential clients, talk about the number of years you have been in business, the number of students you have tutored, the size of your company and more. All of these things demonstrate that you are an established company that is obviously doing something right and that has a reputation to uphold.
4. The Right Fit
The x-factor in the tutor-student relationship is how well a student and tutor get along. A lot of this has to do with the personality of the two individuals. This relationship has a large impact on the effectiveness of a tutor and often can’t be evaluated until the tutor and student have been working together for a while. The problem with independent tutors is that the parent has likely invested significant time into finding the ideal tutor – one with the right education, experience and skills. But if the tutor and student’s personalities conflict the parent will have to settle for poor results or will have to begin the tutor search all over again.
Tutoring companies make it easier to match the right teacher to the right student. Companies have already screened their teachers so most should be high-quality. If a tutor and student don’t get along well, the company can assign a new one to the student with little disruption.
5. Focused on Teaching
Independent tutors often face the challenge of managing both the administrative and the teaching side of their business. This can be a distraction since the independent tutor is not focused solely on teaching his or her students, but rather also needs to focus on finding new students, billing, collecting payments, etc.
Tutor’s in working for a company or agency are able to focus solely on teaching their students while the company’s admins handle the administrative work. This results in more focused and productive tutors that can teach better.
6. Reliability
Tutoring companies can usually offer more reliable service than independent tutors. When …
1Aug
Tutoring Companies: The Stories Behind the Success

Many of the world’s most successful tutoring companies come from humble beginnings. This article looks at several of these companies and tells the stories behind their success in the tutoring business.
Kumon
Kumon may be the world’s most successful and well-known tutoring company, but it began with a high school math teacher trying to help his son.
Kumon’s story began in 1954 when founder Toru Kumon’s son came home with a poor score on his math test. Toru’s wife suggested that Toru begin helping their son. Toru who was a high school math teacher with 20 years of experience compiled worksheets that would take his son step by step from the easiest arithmetic to complex mathematics. Toru’s son made clear progress in the following year and Toru began allowing other children to use his worksheets – who also achieved impressive results.
The first Kumon Center opened in 1956 and 2 years later the Kumon Institute of Education was officially founded in Osaka, Japan. Through word of mouth the demand for the Kumon Method grew, new centers were opened up across the country and Kumon soon became Japan’s leading private education program. Kumon continued to expand by opening centers in other countries using a franchise model. As of 2009, over 4 million students were studying at more than 26,000 Kumon Centers in 46 countries.
Huntington
Huntington Learning Centers were one of the first tutoring centers for children in the United States and is now one of the largest tutoring companies in the country. Huntington Learning Centers were started by Dr Raymond and Eileen Huntington in 1977 after they saw a desperate need for tutoring centers to help children. Eileen was a high school teacher and noticed a large numbers of students who lacked basic study and reading skills. These students lagged further and further behind their classmates, unable to receive the attention they needed from teachers who were stretched thin because of large class sizes. The Huntingtons were looking for a business opportunity and, concluding that there was a market for supplemental educational services, decided to launch Huntington Learning Centers.
The Huntingtons left good-paying jobs and financed their business by selling everything they owned and relied on personal lines of credit. They scraped together enough money to rent 1,700 square feet of space in an office building and opened their first learning center. In 1978 they opened a second and by 1985 they had a 11 centers in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania.
Huntington grew aggressively through the 1990s using a franchise model to expand and had 178 franchises in 2002 and is now one of the most successful tutoring companies in the United States.
Kaplan
Kaplan is a well-known test prep company based in the United States. The company is currently owned by the Washington Post Company, but its history goes back to 1938 when it was founded by Stanley H. Kaplan. Kaplan got his start by tutoring students for the New York State Regents Exam in the basement of his parent’s Brooklyn home.
Many of his students were from immigrant families eager to pursue higher education. Kaplan began adding more locations and his business continued to grow as American universities began relying more heavily on standardized tests to measure students’ potential. Test-makers claimed the exams were not coach-able, but Kaplan knew people could improve their scores with the right preparation. The company grew significantly in the 1990s by expanding its business and purchasing other test preparation and educational companies. It is now one of the leading test prep countries in America.
Kip McGrath
Kip McGrath is a household name in Australia, but the company was unknown for the most part when it started in the 1970s. The founders of the Company, Kip and Dugnija McGrath, opened their first Kip McGrath Education Centre in 1974 with the founding principle; “any child can learn if they are taught properly”. Over a very short period of time the McGraths opened six centers in the Hunter Valley and ran those centers successfully for ten years before selecting franchising as the method to expand their business.
Today Kip and Dugnija McGrath are still actively involved in the day-to-day running of the company and are members of the Board. They continue to support the franchise network with their extensive experience in both education and business operations. Kip McGrath now has 160 Australian centers that provide assistance in reading, spelling, comprehension, English and math.
Megastudy
Megastudy is a very young company, but is already the leading tutoring company in education-crazed South Korea. In the 1990s, Megastudy founder Son Joo-eun was a success in South Korea’s hyper-competitive business of preparing students for the national college entrance exam. He had an annual income of 720 million won – the equivalent of $573,000 today as a private tutor …