Running a successful tutoring business doesn’t need to be complicated, and can certainly be done with a very limited tech set up. But a little bit of tech can go a long way toward streamlining your business. And if you want to tutor online, you clearly need to embrace some tech.

Here are the exact resources I use, or have used, in my tutoring business, along with my reasons for using them.

Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase. This adds no additional cost to you. Rest assured that I only recommend programs that I personally use (or have used) and love.

Website

Not all tutors have websites, but I have found that having one is a great way to convey your professionalism to potential students and their families.

Scheduling and payments

I started my tutoring business doing only in-person tutoring. I accepted cash and check, and carried around a little receipt book that I dutifully filled out with each payment. I scheduled sessions manually, often through tedious back-and-forth email or texting. And unfortunately I sometimes drove all the way out to a student’s house only to find that they had forgotten about the session I had in my calendar. It was kind of a mess.

Thankfully, when I started tutoring online in 2017, I was pushed into professionalizing this part of my business. I started using Acuity Scheduling to book appointments and to accept credit or debit card payments. The automatic reminders sent out before each scheduled session dramatically reduced my no-show rate.

And once I felt confident enough in my processes, I transitioned to just giving out a direct link to my calendar. No more endless email back-and-forth to settle on a time that would work. My students can now just schedule themselves into my openings at whatever time works for them. Potential students can schedule a free consultation call.

ONLINE COURSES

One of my current goals in my private tutoring business is to offer courses and workshops on the tests that I teach. I’m in the middle of creating a course on the Logic Game section of the LSAT and have been planning out a series of super short mini-courses on a variety of LSAT topics. I believe that offering these courses will add another layer of professionalism to my business.

I’ve actually wanted to create courses for a while, and even had a Memberpress subdomain added to my WordPress website for a while. But ultimately, due to cost and ease of use, I have decided to switch over to a course platform called Teachery.

I find Teachery super easy to edit and customize. It has professionally designed course templates that I can easily adapt to my brand, easy payment set up, and no limit to the number of courses I can create. I can even create an affiliate program for my courses if I decide to do so.

Plus, I love the fact that by supporting Teachery, I am supporting a small business, run by Jason and Caroline Zook, two actual humans. With real human values and an ethical approach to business that I can get behind.

Online tutoring set up

Bitpaper

Zoom has a built-in whiteboard that allows you to “write” on the screen, but it is unfortunately far too limited to be sufficient for tutoring.

So instead, I use an inexpensive whiteboard program called Bitpaper. This program allows my student and me to collaboratively mark up our study materials. We can use a blank screen and fill it with whatever text or diagrams are useful. Or we can upload pdf copies of materials and then mark them up the same way we would on paper.

Our notes are saved permanently, which means students can always revisit the lesson pages to review.