The Best Online Tutoring Software for Your Business

From Teacher to Small Business Owner

When I first started tutoring online, there was a question that weighed heavily on my mind, “How can I run a successful tutoring business when I have NO business experience whatsoever?”

I went to graduate school to become a teacher, not a business owner. In fact, the idea of running a business felt selfish or sleazy. In my mind, I needed to be greedy in order to be a successful business owner.

Two years later, I understand that is untrue. I feel gratitude that my business is my ministry. I use my business as a tool to serve other people, and I receive money in return!

I have to admit I spent WAY TOO MUCH time in my first year of business trying to figure out the perfect tools. As someone that values efficiency, I had not found information online that answered my question of how to run my business smoothly and efficiently.

So for that reason, I am happy to share some of the best online tutoring software for your business! Now, let me add that there is no perfect software, but with experience, I have found these tools & software work very well. 

I have included both free online tutoring software and software that costs money. You can pick and choose what is most important to you.

This blog post covers three topics: video calling software, online whiteboard software, and online tutoring scheduling software. 

I don’t want you to be overwhelmed by all the information in this post, so I created a free guide with all the online tutoring software I recommend.

VIDEO CALLING SOFTWARE

My favorite tool for video calling is called Zoom. Zoom has both free and paid plans.

Zoom Basic (Free):  If you are tutoring students one-on-one, then the free plan of Zoom will meet all your needs!

Zoom Pro ($14.99/mo): If you are conducting group sessions, you may need the Zoom Pro plan. The free plan of Zoom allows you to conduct up to a 40-minute group session. After you reach the time limit, all the participants will be kicked out of the call. This is not ideal if you are trying to run a successful tutoring business. Therefore, the Zoom Pro plan is the best option if you are conducting group sessions.

Summary - If you are tutoring students one-on-one, Zoom’s basic (free) plan is more than enough. If you conduct group sessions, I recommend Zoom’s Pro plan, which is $14.99/mo.

Bookmark my “How Online Tutoring Works” Page with common questions about using Zoom!

ONLINE WHITEBOARD SOFTWARE

Zoom Whiteboard (Free) - Zoom Whiteboard is one of the features of Zoom’s video calling software. It is a free feature, which is nice, but its capabilities are very limited. If you are using a whiteboard very infrequently just to quickly illustrate something, it might meet your needs. 

Bitpaper (starts at $8/mo)  - BitPaper is an amazing online whiteboard software that has enough features to conduct an entire tutoring session. If you are looking for an all-in-one platform for conducting sessions, BitPaper has the following features: real-time collaborating with students, lifetime access to each unique URL, screen sharing, audio, and video calling.  It’s made by online tutors, for online tutors. 

Bookmark my “How Online Tutoring Works” Page with common questions about using BitPaper!

ONLINE SCHEDULING SOFTWARE

Calendly - Calendly has both free and paid plans. I started with a free plan when I first started my tutoring business. 

Using the free plan, you can integrate with one of your calendars. Calendar connections help prevent students from scheduling tutoring sessions at times you are unavailable, so this is an important feature. It allows you one “event type” for example, “45 Minute Tutoring Session” can be one event type. Under this event, you can adjust the session length, your specified dates & hours of availability, and schedule as many events as you’d like. 

The limitation is if you wanted to schedule different tutoring session lengths. For example, I have a 45-minute session length and a 30-minute session length. On the free plan of Calendly, I could only have one of these. 

Calendly is incredibly user friendly and I find that clients can schedule sessions quickly and easily. 

Acuity Scheduling (Starts at $15/mo): While there is technically a free plan of Acuity Scheduling, it does not allow you to integrate with your calendar, which I think is an integral part of having a scheduling software. Therefore, I am not going to discuss their free plan.

The Emerging Entrepreneur Plan ($15/mo) allows clients to schedule appointments, get reminder emails, convert to their time zone, and lots of fun integrations. One nice thing is integrating your Zoom account with Acuity. I have my Acuity account set up so that when someone schedules a session with me, they instantly receive an email that includes directions on how to use Zoom along with a unique meeting URL.

The Growing Business Plan ($25/mo) is the plan I used while tutoring full-time. Some of the added features of this plan are: selling packages & worldwide text message reminders. I had the cell phone numbers of my students stored in Acuity, and they would receive a text reminder an hour before our session. This cut down on no-shows significantly! Also, since my clients pay for tutoring a month in advance, the package option helped me keep track of things. 

Want the full list of my favorite tools & software? You can download it below:

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This blog contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you purchase one of these resources. This helps support my business at no additional cost to you. You are in no way obligated to use these links. 

3 Excuses I Made Before Starting My Email List

In my previous blog post, What Your Tutor Business Marketing Plan Is Missing, I talk about how email marketing is a crucial component to running a successful tutoring business. 

Today I want to share three excuses I made before starting my email list. Although I had heard from many people that it was important, I put it off for months for the reasons below. Maybe you can relate!

EXCUSE 1: “People get so many emails every day. Why would they want to hear from me? I don't want to annoy them.” 

While it is true that people get a ton of emails every day, that shouldn’t stop you from email marketing.

According to research conducted by OptinMonster, 60% of customers said they have made purchases as a result of an email, whereas only 12.5% said they have purchased something directly through social media.¹ 

In other words, conversion rates (from followers to paid customers) are far higher through email marketing compared to social media.

EXCUSE 2: “Email marketing is too complicated, and I am not experienced enough to use it.”

I’m not going to lie to you. It took me probably 9 months before I finally put my foot down and changed my mindset towards email marketing. It is intimidating at first! But like most things in your business, so are most things on your very first try. The difference is, for email marketing you can rest assured knowing that the time you invest in learning how to use it will pay off in the long run. 

EXCUSE 3: Social media is easier and more fun. If I just keep up to date on every algorithm change, it will always work for me.

If you have been following me on Facebook for any length of time, it’s clear to see that I love social media! And when I emphasize the importance of email marketing, I am not suggesting that you throw everything else out the window. 

However, here’s the thing I want you to know about social media. You do not own Facebook or Instagram! You are on THEIR turf, which means you play by THEIR rules. So if they suddenly delete your account for an unexplained reason (cough… this happened to me) there’s nothing you can do about it. So you cannot rely on social media alone!

On the flip side, you own your email list. Even if the email service provider you had stopped working, you can still save your list of email subscribers. (That being said, make sure that you are backing up your email list to another source!) 

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I make 95% of my income through my emails. To be honest, I can only think of one instance in the past several months where someone bought a product without ever being on my email list.

So what are you waiting for? You can actually get access to the same tool I use for email marketing, for free. When I created my account, there was no free plan available so I had to start paying right away! Well times have changed, and now you can start using ConvertKit for free.

If you’re still not convinced.... here's another perk -- connecting with your subscribers!!

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Sources:

¹ https://optinmonster.com/email-marketing-vs-social-media-performance-2016-2019-statistics/

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What Your Marketing Plan for Tutoring Business is Missing

I  know that a lot of teachers are off from school in the next couple of weeks. Many schools throughout the world are closing their doors for the time being to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.

As a result, I’ve seen an influx of posts by tutors offering their group tutoring sessions. Here’s one thing I would like to ask you though -- Were you posting on a consistent basis BEFORE all this craziness began? If not, your followers might be feeling confused to see a post from you on their newsfeed if they haven’t heard from you in months.

This is why showing up consistently is so important. Because in times like these, you will be top of mind for parents who need your help.

So what if you just started online tutoring or you’ve done it for a while but haven’t been utilizing social media consistently? It’s time to come up with a marketing plan for tutoring business.

4 Steps To Market Your Tutoring Business

1. Choose one main social media platform. I recommend either Instagram or Facebook, depending on which you are most familiar with.

2. Make a commitment to YOURSELF that you are going to start being there on a consistent basis. Start with one post a week at least.

3. Map out a plan for the content you’re going to create each week for the next 2 months.

4. Schedule out those posts to go out at the necessary times.

If you’re wondering, “Sonia, what do I even post? I have no idea what to say." First, think about how parents might be feeling right now. They may be feeling stressed, frightened, or afraid. They might be wondering how they are going to keep their kids busy throughout the day, or how the time off will affect their learning.

What is a free helpful resource you can offer them? Maybe creating a daily schedule that they can follow at home with their kids so they have a consistent routine.

Don’t Forget Email Lists in Your Marketing Plan

BUT WAIT!! Don’t just post the resource directly to Facebook. Provide this schedule to them as a downloadable resource in exchange for an email address. 

I personally love & recommend ConvertKit. I have been using it for over a year, and having an email list ensures that even if social media isn’t working as you’d like, you still have a method to keep in touch with potential clients & build relationships.

I make the majority of money in my business through my email list. I would say 95%. Also, the best part is, ConvertKit now has a free plan! (woot woot).

Let me know if you create an account. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.

P.S. I talked about why having an email list is crucial to the success of your business. You cannot rely on social media alone, because algorithms are always changing. Try out ConvertKit’s free plan to get started!

This email contains affiliate links. By using this link, you will get to manage up to 100 email subscribers on Convertkit! Think of this as getting additional storage space on your phone or computer without having to pay extra for it.