Why Private Tutors Are Better Than Tutoring Companies

When I search up Houston private tutors on the internet, I see nothing but marketplace websites and tutoring companies as I scroll through the results. I'm glad I don't need a tutor because it would be hard to find one the way I want, without any kind of middle party taking any cut of the cost.

If I did need a tutor, first I'd ask friends and students if they know of a tutor. If that failed, I'd look at a tutoring marketplace website that connects tutors to students. I'm most familiar with Wyzant.com because I've used it for years for my own tutoring business, but I see Care.com in my search results too. With a marketplace website, you can connect with potential tutors directly, and then when you receive lessons, the site takes a middleman cut of the payment. (If a marketplace charges you just to look or connect with tutors, find another site! Ditto if you are a tutor and the site charges you to join, advertise or apply for jobs.)

Currently on Wyzant the middleman cut is 25% of the tutor's listed price plus a 9% fee added to the student's bill. It seems like a lot and I'd wince at paying it, but it's at least conscionable compared to the financial arrangement tutoring companies use...and that's what this post is all about.

When I say tutoring company, I mean places where you pay the company a set price for tutoring, and then the tutor you get is whoever they assign to you. I'm here to tell you that all those companies, no matter how expert or elite they claim their tutors or their program are, are smoke and mirrors. You're not getting what you paid for.

If you pay 80 dollars an hour for tutoring (much of the world is shaking their heads at this but it's only middling in this big-money industry), you expect 80-dollar tutoring, right? But what if the tutor is actually making only 10 dollars an hour?

And there's your problem. The discrepancy between the price the student pays and the wage the tutor makes is so wide, it's virtually impossible for the arrangement to be satisfactory for long. Well-intentioned tutors get frustrated. The turnover rate at these places is high. They're chronically understaffed, constantly scouting for new recruits. (How select could these tutors really be?) And if the tutor you love leaves...unfortunately, the company still holds your remaining balance, and the well-intentioned, likely young and naive recent college graduate tutor likely signed a non compete.

This is why I say you don't need a company, you need a tutor.

Think about this: to make money, a tutoring company doesn't have to actually do any tutoring. All they have to do is sell packages of tutoring hours, which they do by setting up tables at parent night or cold calling or sponsoring events at the schools most likely to have parents that can afford to throw thousands at a whack down on tutoring they weren't even in the market for. What a genius business model! Tutoring is a very low-overhead business. The biggest expense is the tutors.

So when you're looking for a tutor, if you find yourself considering a company, just do this one thing: find out how much the tutors get paid. Compare that to what you're paying for the service. The smaller the difference, the more likely you are to be happy with your tutor, because you will be more likely to get what you paid for. In this way, though, you'll find that the most expensive, the most elite tutoring companies, are the ones most likely to disappoint.

This also goes for test prep companies, by the way, which charge a high price for what is essentially a series of workbooks administered by hourly part-timers.

You don't need a company, or a brand, or a system...you need a tutor. Someone who has the freedom and expertise to tailor instruction to your specific needs.

I'm one of those!

Then, you gotta be ready and willing to do the work.

Ready and willing? Contact me!