Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Dear All,

I've just set up my tutoring company in Beijing ( China), and I'm targeting expat children enrolled in Private International Schools. I have about 5 teachers, who are also employed in international schools, but I don't match students with teachers of the same school to avoid any conflict of interest.

I provide one-on-one home tutoring and charge  a premium for it ( about $90 per hour). the response has been mixed so far, I've had families signing up for 20 hours plus without even a mention of the high fees, but I've also had a whole group that's been ranting about the high fees.

I'm intending to keep my fees the way they are, and come up with a set of discount policies that may look appealing to parents concerned about the high fees.

This is where I hope you guys can provide me with some tips.

One other area of concern is teacher retention, the ones I currently have have signed a contract which prohibits them of going after my students even after the lessons have ended. 

Are there proven strategies on how to best handle the teachers?

Are there other value-added services that I can add to the tutoring ?

Any tips on how to manage a tutoring company will be highly appreciated.

 

Thanks all.

 

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I am no expert in the home tutoring space but here's what I can offer you as an advice.

To keep teachers from moving elsewhere, all you need to make sure is to have a constant stream of customers. This way, moving elsewhere would mean a significant income loss for them.

As for the prices, you could opt for discounted prices to boost business, which I would see as an easy short term solution.

The other way that you can approach this is to figure out how you are different from your competition and what values are you bringing to the table (proven results, testimonials, happy kids, conducive learning environment, etc) and try to communicate this in your marketing materials.

You can read more about this here: http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/10/01/how-to-handle-pricing-objections/

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