Business Research Questions: College Students And Recent Grads Encoura

[Anastasia13]

I was thinking that it might be interesting to start a business online connecting tutors with students who are looking for tutors, kind of like a craig's list of tutors or like http://www.j-sitter.com/. I could target local colleges, starting with my alma mater, and offer free listing for two months or something, get someone to post a few fliers around campus, talk to a couple professors, leave a couple fliers by the tutoring center or something (that is closed weekends and evenings, unlike private tutors). Perhaps emphasizing that this is a way to get tutors who went to this specific school and maybe have some online tutor training would be beneficial.  Maybe pay for being listed would be connected to paypal.  What do you guys think?

[Anastasia13]

Also, if it is a good idea, what might be a good rate to charge each month?

 

Are the two votes in over 40 views primarily from "I don't know" answers? If so, can a moderator add that as a poll option?

Edited May 16, 2013 by Light and Truth

[Chestertonian]

Sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure about charging a listing fee. Maybe a free site with advertisements?

 

[CatholicsAreKewl]

Maybe you should allow ratings for each tutor too! That'd be pretty cool.

[ChristinaTherese]

Well, I know that my school will connect students with tutors (I've been a tutor myself), so it wouldn't sell here. But I didn't actually vote, because I don't know about the setup elsewhere.

 

Also, a random bit of unsolicited advice: Don't make the first session free unless you're sure that you will continue to tutor that student or you really want to not get paid anything. (I did... I seem to have a talent for ducking out of getting paid. I've been paid a whole of once, for dog sitting, and then I didn't want the money so I gave it to charity.)

 

ETA: Oh, and (I still didn't vote, FYI) it seems like the second question you asked (I don't remember what your wording was right now) would be a good idea. That is, if I were to vote I would vote yes.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Christina Thérèse

[TheLordsSouljah]

I'd try to grab family/student/parenting friendly ads as opposed to charging listing rates because (while I'm not sure who you are trying to attract) a lot of tutors when you are starting out generally are a bit new so they start on a new face, like this kind of thing. They're trying to get a foot in the door. Then you could slowly erase the ads and replace it with listing fees.

Sounds like a great idea, though I can see it having to work a tad through personal recommendation.

Do it gal!! :)

[Roamin Catholic]

Also, if it is a good idea, what might be a good rate to charge each month?

 

Are the two votes in over 40 views primarily from "I don't know" answers? If so, can a moderator add that as a poll option?

 

Fixed. 

 

Where I went to school (large SEC school with over 50k students) this wouldn't have been successful IMO. There most of the campus tutoring centers were open till at least 11pm Mon-Sat.

 

I think your best bet is going to be targeting small state and private schools. I'm just not sure if there would be enough demand to drive the business. One thing that you can do that might help your site is to allow the students to review the tutors. I think that could help drive traffic from students that want to know that they are getting a high quality tutor.  

[CrossCuT]

Maybe you should allow ratings for each tutor too! That'd be pretty cool.

 

The idea is great as a whole but there should be some way to make sure the tutors are actually going to do a good job. You cant have Joe Shmoe signing up to tutor advanced particle physics when he didnt graduate high school or whatever.

I like the rating system though!

[Alma Misionera]

I think it could work, and would probably be appreciated by the students. I was looking for tutoring jobs a few months ago, and there seemed to be a few places where you had to pay to register. Honestly, I didn't want to do it, at least when I was starting off, because I had no idea how often I would get called and if it would be worth it to pay. (Plus I was just a bit paranoid about registering for something that was a scam.) But it did seem to be pretty popular (sorry I don't remember the exact websites, but there were definitely several of them), and I imagine it worked well.

I ended up working with a different company where you are hired as a kind of independent contractor. You don't pay them anything. They are focused mostly on high schoolers, but I think they do some college students. They go in and do an evaluation and then match the tutor with the student. The parents (or the student themselves) pay the company, and then the company pays the tutor. I don't remember if they required the tutor to have some kind of certification--I already had a teaching certification, so I didn't pay too close attention.

I do think some kind of training would be helpful, especially if the tutors were coming from a non-education background. Nothing too extensive, but just something to complement their content knowledge.

[Alma Misionera]

The idea is great as a whole but there should be some way to make sure the tutors are actually going to do a good job. You cant have Joe Shmoe signing up to tutor advanced particle physics when he didnt graduate high school or whatever.
I like the rating system though!

If the company just helps the tutor and the student get in contact with each other (such as a Craigslist type website), then this might be difficult, unless the tutor had to show sme kind of proof they were competent before listing they were available. But if there was a bit of a closer relationship, and the company actually worked to find the best tutor for what the student needs, then maybe there could be something of a follow up system to make sure everyone (student, tutor, or parents if they are younger) to make sure everythng is going as it should.

[GregorMendel]

I think this is a great idea! I thought of something similar back in high school for humanities majors, offering access to forums with credentialed members and their analysis on a given topic that would apply to 100 level courses, but I never took it beyond a thought experiment.

Whats unique to your model would be the alumni factor. There are plently of free sites which offer online tutoring on general topics, but if you could supplement a general biology course with study guides and class tips directly from biology major alums or even upper classmen which could take advantage of a professor's nuance's, that would be a service I would be very excited about.

You would have to start very small, one liberal arts college at a time, unless you developed a network of students representing major fields in a group of colleges. Also, I dont see how you could monetize this immediately until you are set with many schools in a region, and even then, I would only dare venture into adspace; Making tutors pay an "office fee" or students pay an access fee is only going to hinder growth of the network. Once youre large enough and can support large data operations like video conferencing, you might be able to set up a deluxe membership package for students and a payment schedule for tutors (once they attain a certain "tutor status" on your site, perhaps).

One last thing to consider is what constitutes acceptable student behavior and study material by most universities, given you might be infringing on intellectual property of a professor or class.



Id love to see something like this up and running. It would take time, but I think it could be a very valuable venture to students and the webmasters :)

[Anastasia13]

The idea is great as a whole but there should be some way to make sure the tutors are actually going to do a good job. You cant have Joe Shmoe signing up to tutor advanced particle physics when he didnt graduate high school or whatever.

I like the rating system though!

Should I require transcripts with applications, letters of recommendation, or recommendation forms?

 

Should the rating system be more poll based for multiple traits or more commentary or a mixture? What is the most important way to communicate here?

 

I was thinking of starting with my old university and then my old junior college. I have more personal connections with people there, at least among the staff and professors but for the university with a few students. I figure a former prof might be more willing to let me pass out fliers at the start of class or something, and I know I can leave fliers at the tutoring center. Our university tutoring center had limited hours per student, no weekends or evenings, and was closed of furlough days when I was there.

 

My friend who has tutored at more places than I have suggested 30 days free trial, and after that, they pay to stay listed. He also can help create the tutor training from his experience to cover the requirements for the College Learning and Reading Association certificate requirements (rather than me having to contact old supervisors yet) and this would help if we ever get chartered with that organization. (Both colleges I tutored at used that certification.)

 

I'm willing to lose a little money in the first few months as long as I can get it back by the end of the year.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Light and Truth

[Era Might]

Never start a business unless you know everything about the business you're in. Your idea already exists, probably many websites that already do this:

 

http://www.wyzant.com/TutorHome.aspx

 

Edited May 18, 2013 by Era Might

[Anastasia13]

Never start a business unless you know everything about the business you're in. Your idea already exists, probably many websites that already do this:

 

http://www.wyzant.com/TutorHome.aspx

 

Still a slightly different set up. Wyzant takes commission which I figure is hard to track unless the website is more involved. Also, the way to search for a tutor is different.

[MarysLittleFlower]

I've worked as a tutor. I would recommend maybe not having a listing fee at least not for the first months, just because many tutors are starting out (I was an out of work teacher) and this might discourage them from signing up. I know for me, I don't think I would have signed up for a company if there was a listing fee. Maybe you can start with some ads (that are family friendly of course).

 

I was part of a tutoring company for a while but then started tutoring on my own and found my own students through an ad. I do know of some recruiting companies though. It's a good way to ensure that the tutors are trustworthy, so I'd include qualifications, etc. I know with the companies I was a part of, they'd probably want a police record check cause a lot of it was working with kids and it's just random people not connected to a university...