LEFebruary 27, 2025
How to Start a Tutoring Business
At Lessonspace, we’ve had the privilege of being a part of the growth journey of hundreds of tutoring companies, ranging from large agencies to small side-hustles. In fact, we even started out as a tutoring company. It was only when other tutors asked about the platform we built for ourselves that we became a tech company.
Over the years we’ve learnt a lot about what makes a successful tutoring company, and we wrote this guide to help you on the journey, taking your business from a kernel of an idea to a proper business plan and finally a growing, thriving business. We’ll share the practical tips and advice we’ve learnt from successful tutoring companies to help set you up for success as you start your own tutoring business.
A Note on Getting Started
Before we dive in, let’s address the biggest pitfall we see: failure to launch.
Starting something new can feel overwhelming, but overthinking often does more harm than good. We’ve even seen companies spend so long debating a name that they never launch at all.
This guide is here to help, but don’t let it slow you down. Move through it quickly, skip what doesn’t apply, and focus on taking action. The most important step is to start—even if you don’t feel 100% ready. As long as you’re open to feedback and willing to adapt, there’s no reason to wait.
If you’re reading this, you already have an idea. Follow this guide, and you can bring it to life by the end of the day.
How Much Does It Cost To Start A Tutoring Business?
This is one of the questions we get most often. It’s a hard question to answer, since there are so many factors to consider. Technically, you could start a tutoring business with a $10,000 budget, or you could start one with $0. These businesses would look and function very differently though. Teachworks offers a handy tutoring profit calculator that can help you plan around this.
One of the best ways to reduce costs is to teach online. This instantly cuts transport, venue, and other associated costs, and at a push you could even start with a zero-dollar budget. However, as soon as you start earning you should invest in a dedicated teaching platform (like Lessonspace), followed by tutor management software (like Classcard, Workee, Tutorbird, Teachworks, Oases Online, or Tutorcruncher). Using these tools you could still keep your monthly costs down to roughly $30, but you’ll save time on lesson prep, scheduling, admin. You’ll also appear much more professional, which can help you build your reputation.
Read more about how to become an online tutor
How to Launch a Tutoring Company
It may seem counter-intuitive to have a launch checklist right at the start of the article, but this is by design. The most important step in starting a tutoring business is to take action. Focus on securing your first paying student as quickly as possible, and refine your business model over time.
To that end, here’s a checklist of the basic pieces you need to put in place before launching, split into two sections: one for small, one-on-one tutoring businesses, and another for large businesses like agencies or marketplaces.
For One-on-One Tutors (Start Today)
A solo tutoring business can be launched immediately with minimal setup. Focus on securing your first student and then later, refine your services as you go.
Define your offering: Determine the subjects and age groups you will tutor, and decide whether you will offer online, in-person, or hybrid sessions.
Set your pricing and choose a payment method: Research local tutoring rates to establish competitive pricing, decide on an hourly rate or session-based fees, and pick a simple payment solution such as PayPal, Stripe, Venmo, or direct bank transfers.
Confirm any legal requirements: Check your local laws and procedures. There are usually some things to consider around privacy and working with minors.
Find your first students: Advertise in local Facebook groups, Reddit communities, and tutoring marketplaces such as Sherpa Online, Spires Tutoring, or MyTutor.
That’s it! Once you have your first lesson, reinvest earnings to refine and expand your tutoring business.
For a Tutoring Agency, Marketplace, or Larger Business
A more structured tutoring business requires some additional planning and setup. The following steps will help ensure a smooth launch.
Before you get started, you’ll need to:
Do some market research: If you’re starting a larger business, you need to validate your assumptions and understand your target market
Define your business model: Decide how you will connect students with tutors. Will you operate as an agency that assigns tutors, a marketplace where students choose tutors, or a subscription-based service? Your model impacts pricing, tutor management, and scalability.
Create a business plan: This doesn’t need to be more than a few pages, but it helps you to think through every aspect of the business and have a plan for rolling it out. It’ll also help you get funding if that’s a goal.
Invest in the right tools: You need
Recruit your team: You don’t need a full staff yet, but ensure you have the right people to help get started.
Get financial and legal measures in place: If you need liability insurance, take that out before you start. Make sure your business is legally compliant with local laws.
Focus on Marketing: You don't need a full marketing strategy to launch, but you should have an initial plan for how to attract both tutors and students (word of mouth, partnerships, local outreach, paid ads, etc.).
Types of Tutoring Companies
Some people start as tutors and expand, others build an online marketplace, some start as job boards. There are many types of tutoring businesses, and the first question you need to ask yourself is: what is your end goal?
Do you envision a boutique tutoring studio offering personalized attention, or a scalable platform connecting students worldwide with subject matter experts? Do you want to teach, or do you want to run a business? It’s always possible to change direction later, but the decisions you make here will shape the early trajectory of your business.
Below, we’ll explore some of the most common types of tutoring companies we’ve worked with.
One-On-One Tutoring Company
In this classic model, students are paired with individual tutors for personalized, one-to-one instruction. This can be anything from a one-person side-hustle to a full-time business. It’s a great option if you are passionate about teaching and want to start (or stay) small. You can scale later, if you want to, but many of our customers remain very lean, with only one to 10 people on their teams.
If you’re running something like this, there are very few barriers to launching. Make sure you’re legally compliant, do some market research, and make sure you’re marketing your services. But beyond that, the best thing you can do is start teaching.
Tutoring Agency
A tutoring agency is a business that connects students with tutors. Instead of students choosing a tutor directly, the agency assigns one based on their needs, subject, and availability. The agency handles tutor recruitment, student matching, and often payments and scheduling.
This model works well if you want to scale beyond yourself, manage multiple tutors, and offer a structured service rather than personal one-on-one tutoring. However, it requires more setup, including hiring, marketing, and quality control.
Tutoring Marketplace
A tutoring marketplace is a platform where students and parents can browse tutor profiles and choose who they want to work with. Instead of assigning tutors, the marketplace lets students filter by subject, price, experience, and availability.
This model works well if you want to build a scalable platform without directly managing tutors. It’s a good fit for those who are passionate about business, However, it requires strong marketing to attract both tutors and students, plus a system for payments, reviews, and support.
Tutoring Franchise
A tutoring franchise is a business with multiple branches or locations. Most people don’t start a business as a franchise, though this is technically possible with massive amounts of startup budget. Usually, a franchise is something that a tutoring agency or marketplace grows into after some initial success.
It is possible to start under a franchise, and this can be a great way to leverage existing an established brand, using their network and following their proven systems, curriculum, and business model. Instead of building from scratch, you pay a franchise fee and get support with marketing, training, and operations. This model works well if you want a structured approach with brand recognition and support. However, it comes with higher startup costs, ongoing fees, and less flexibility in how you run your business.
Online, In-Person, or Hybrid?
Deciding how to deliver your tutoring services is crucial. In our 2025 Online Education Trends Survey, 59.7% of respondents agree that hybrid learning would dominate over the next decade. Fully online learning follows at 16.4%, while traditional in-person learning lags behind at just 5%.
So which one should you pick? It’s worth taking a quick look at the pros and cons of each.
Online Tutoring
Pros: Lower costs, wider reach, flexible scheduling, scalable.
Cons: Requires strong tech setup.
Best for: Tutors wanting to serve more students, reduce overhead, and work from anywhere.
In-Person Tutoring
Pros: More traditional personal connection, fewer tech barriers.
Cons: Limited to local clients, travel time, higher costs.
Best for: Those targeting a local market or specialized hands-on subjects that can’t be taught without a practical component.
Hybrid Tutoring
Pros: Best of both worlds—flexibility with in-person benefits.
Cons: More complex logistics, requires both online and offline infrastructure, higher costs than online-only.
Best for: Tutors who want flexibility but still need face-to-face interaction.
Online tutoring offers the best opportunity for scalability and lower costs. If you're starting out, it’s the easiest way to reach students quickly. If demand grows, you can expand to hybrid or in-person later.
Decide on a company structure
How to Start a Tutoring Company in 7 Steps
Step 1: Do Your Market Research
People need tutors - enough said, right?
Not entirely.
So many companies start with this basic assumption: if we teach, people will come to learn. That’s not inherently wrong, but it ignores the myriad factors that can result in a business failing to thrive. It is so important to understand your particular market in your particular location. The idea of market research can feel very overwhelming: there are agencies that can help but they’re generally a bigger expense than a brand new business can take on; and doing it yourself can seem daunting too, especially if you don’t have marketing or research experience.
But you can simplify the process, if you don’t have the budget to hire an agency. We have a few steps you can take to do your own research in a simple, efficient way. This might not yield a full-scale market research report, but it should give you the information you need to start your business and validate your assumptions.
Browse competitor websites: Find 5-10 similar businesses in your area, and have a thorough read of their websites. How are they describing their business, and what is the look and feel of their brands? Take a look at their rates to get a sense of what they’re charging. Put all of this into a spreadsheet, and use it to identify trends and spot any gaps or oversaturated parts of the market.
Read reviews: While you have this list of competitors, take a look at their reviews on Facebook, Trustpilot, Google, Hello Peter, and anywhere else you can find them. Make notes about the kinds of things reviewers care about - are they frequently commenting on punctuality or professionalism? If so, those are obviously very important to the target market. Don’t neglect the negative reviews - these are a great place to spot opportunities to fill in the gaps or make your offering stand out.
Look up existing research: Chances are, someone has done the hard work for you. Check if there’s any recently published research in your country or city. You may be able to find out what students are paying for tuition, which subjects and topics are in demand, and the general state of the industry.
Use keyword research tools: Keyword research is great when you’re planning to create SEO content, but it’s also an excellent barometer for what people want and need. Use Google’s free keyword planner tool to check how many people in your country are searching for various kinds of tutoring - you may find there are thousands of searches for “math tutor” but only a handful for "piano tutor”. It’s a useful litmus test for interest levels. You can also search more generally for searches containing “tutor” to find the subjects people are looking for. Filter by “near me” searches if you want to find stats for in-person tutoring.
Check out some forums: People spend a lot of time online, and forums are currently bigger than ever. Look at parenting forums and search for “tutoring” to find out what’s being said about the topic - perhaps people are struggling to find tutors, or perhaps there are quality concerns. Check tutoring forums to find out what challenges other young tutoring businesses are running into. These forums are a gold mine for market research.
Speak to people in your network: You almost certainly know a few parents, teachers, and students personally. Ask them for a few minutes of their time to answer some of your questions. These might include:
What tutoring services are they looking for?
What struggles do students face?
How much do they expect to pay for tutoring?
Step 2: Create a Business Plan
A business plan doesn’t need to be overwhelming or complicated. Below, we’ll guide you through each step. If you have a clear idea of your skills, and you’ve done some research as outlined above, it shouldn't take you more than an hour to put the first draft together.
Section 1: Define Your Business
Business Name & Structure: Sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.
Services Offered: One-on-one, group sessions, online, in-person?
Target Audience: Grade levels, subjects, test prep, specialized needs.
Section 2: Market and Competition
Who Are Your Competitors? List all local and online tutoring services offering similar services to you.
Your Differentiator: What makes you better? Personalized learning? Pricing? Specialized subjects?
Section 3: Pricing & Revenue
Your Pricing Model: Hourly rates, packages, subscriptions.
Expected Revenue: Sessions per month × rate = estimated income.
Additional Revenue Streams: Digital courses, group classes, materials.
Section 4: Operations and Logistics
Platform & Tools: Lessonspace for your virtual classroom, Google Docs, payment processors, scheduling tools.
Scheduling & Availability: How many hours can you work? When?
Legal & Insurance: Business license, liability protection (if necessary).
Section 5: Marketing and Customer Acquisition
How Will People Find You? Website, SEO, social media, referrals.
Partnerships: Schools, parent groups, educational influencers.
Promotional Offers: Free trial sessions, discounts for referrals, loyalty programs.
Section 6: Financial Plan
Startup Costs: Website, software, marketing budget.
Monthly Expenses: Subscriptions, advertising, taxes.
Profit Goals: Revenue - expenses = your monthly target.
Step 3: Ensure Legal Compliance For Your Tutoring Business
The legal considerations for your business are going to depend on many factors, including the structure of your business, the country you operate in, the tax requirements and privacy laws in your area, employment regulation, and more.
It’s a good idea to consult with an attorney who specializes in this.However, here are key legal questions to consider, to get you started:
1. Business Registration and Licensing
Do I need to register my business? If so, as a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation?
Are there any local, state, or national business licenses required for tutoring?
If I tutor students under 18, are there any special permits or regulations?
2. Taxes and Financial Compliance
Do I need an EIN (Employer Identification Number) or a tax ID?
What are my tax obligations (income tax, sales tax, VAT, self-employment tax)?
Do I need to set up a separate business bank account for tax reporting?
3. Contracts and Policies
Do I need a tutoring contract outlining payment terms, cancellations, and refund policies?
Should I have a liability waiver to protect against disputes?
Do I need a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for sensitive student information?
4. Data Protection and Privacy Laws
If I collect student or parent information, what privacy laws apply (e.g., GDPR, COPPA, FERPA)?
How should I store and secure personal data to comply with privacy regulations?
Do I need consent forms for recording sessions or collecting personal data?
5. Employment and Independent Contractors
If I hire tutors, am I classifying them correctly (employee vs. independent contractor)?
What labor laws apply regarding wages, contracts, and working conditions?
Do I need workers’ compensation insurance for employees?
6. Liability and Insurance
Should I get professional liability insurance in case of legal claims?
Do I need general business insurance for accidents or property damage?
If I tutor students in my home or in-person, does my homeowners/renters insurance cover business activities?
7. Online Tutoring Compliance
If I offer online tutoring, do I need to comply with specific digital education regulations?
Are there rules for using copyrighted materials in lessons?
If I tutor internationally, are there legal restrictions on payments or contracts across borders?
Step 4: Organize Your Finances
Your costs will vary by location, the type of business you’re running, and whether you’re running online or in-person classes.
Before you launch, get clear on these key financial factors:
Startup Costs
Do you need a website? Budget for domain, hosting, and design.
What software or tools will you use (Lessonspace, Zoom, scheduling, payment processing)?
What are your expected marketing costs—ads, business cards, flyers, or social media promotions?
Business registration fees, legal setup, and potential insurance costs.
Pricing Strategy
Research competitor pricing—do they charge hourly, per session, or offer packages?
Factor in taxes, transaction fees, and overhead costs.
Set a sustainable rate—how many sessions do you need to break even?
Revenue and Income Goals
How many hours per week can you tutor?
Multiply your rate by expected weekly sessions to estimate income.
Set a target for when your business should become profitable. Remember that this can take time.
Taxes and Accounting
Open a separate business bank account—don’t mix personal and business funds.
Track every expense and payment (use software like [WHO] or a simple spreadsheet).
Understand your tax obligations—self-employment tax, income tax, and possible deductions.
Payment and Invoicing
Choose a reliable payment system (Stripe, PayPal, direct bank transfer).
Decide on your payment terms—prepaid, pay-per-session, or monthly billing?
Create a clear refund and cancellation policy to avoid disputes.
Managing Expenses
Minimize unnecessary spending in the early stages.
Look for free or low-cost tools before committing to expensive software.
Budget for slow months—set aside savings for unpredictable income dips. Tutoring is highly seasonal.
By planning ahead, you’ll avoid financial stress and set your tutoring business up for success.
Step 5: Invest In The Right Tools
Having the right tools in place will make your business more efficient and professional from day one. At a minimum, you’ll need a platform to conduct lessons, a way to schedule sessions, and a system to handle payments.
Lessonspace provides an all-in-one solution for online tutoring, offering an interactive whiteboard, video chat, and real-time collaboration tools. For scheduling, you could use something as basic as using Calendly or Google Calendar to avoid back-and-forth emails. There are many great options for dedicated tutoring management software, which can save you hours in admin time.
Payment processing should be simple and secure—options like Stripe, PayPal, or Wise make it easy to collect payments from students or parents. Many tutoring management software options will also include payment processing.
Start lean with only the essentials, and upgrade your tools as your business grows.
How to Find Students
In our Online Education Trends Report for 2025, we surveyed many tutors and tutoring company owners about how they’re finding new students. Although only 2.9% of respondents identified finding new students as a major challenge, the top strategies for attracting students were clear. Online tutoring platforms and marketplaces were the most popular, used by 48.3% of respondents, followed closely by tutoring agencies or companies at 45.8% and partnerships with schools at 42.9%. Additionally, 32% highlighted free trial sessions and personal websites or blogs as effective methods for finding students, with 30% expecting these strategies to remain successful in the future.
Marketing Your Tutoring Business
Marketing is another one of those things that exists on a spectrum. It can be hard to decide how to prioritise and how much to spend on this, especially in the early stages.
Our advice is to start small and grow with the business. Also, every audience is different and while some organizations may have major success with one kind of marketing, another might have very different results. The most important thing you can do is track your marketing activities, measure them with meaningful metrics, and then double down on the things that work.
For the purposes of this guide, we’ll suggest some practical tips we’ve seen work for us and our clients, along with examples you can implement right away.
Stage One: Cover Your Bases
You have to start somewhere, and that can feel overwhelming. We recommend starting with five key marketing efforts. You don’t need to have all of them in place right away, but these five are a good foundation to build upon later.
Before you start any of them, it’s also important to identify the goal as well as some key metrics to make sure you’re reaching that goal. This way, it’s easy to spot your strengths and weaknesses and make clear decisions.
Have a Clear Brand Identity: Choose a name that’s clear and professional and reflects what your business does. Use a free tool like Canva to create a basic brand identity including a logo and a colour scheme. Define your central brand message: who, what, and why do you teach? Don’t get hung up on this: it can become a massive barrier to getting started. Pick something you like, ideally with an available domain name and social handle, and then go for it. If in doubt, you can’t go wrong with “[Your Name] Tutoring”, or if you’re tutoring a specific subject, include that in the name.
Clear pricing and offers: Nothing repels prospective students like hiding your pricing. Why? For one thing, they’ll likely assume that you’re expensive. Another factor is that you’re creating friction: instead of giving them everything they need to make a booking, they would need to contact you, wait for a response, find out what you offer, then take time deciding if it fits their needs and budget before contacting you again to book. Chances are, your competitors are giving them all of that info at the outset and all they have to do is book. If you’re worried showing pricing will hurt your bookings, don’t be. Experts agree that this simply isn’t the case, and any leads that are turning away because of pricing are not your target market: forcing them to spend more time engaging with you won’t change that. If you’re unsure what people are willing to pay for your services, you need to return to your market research and make sure you’ve set the right prices to begin with.
Set Up a Google Business Profile: Google Business profiles are incredibly powerful. They are free, and if you use them well they can even negate the need for a website. You can offer bookings available through the profile, set your hours, display contact info, and even sell online courses, as well as monitor your profile analytics, all for free. While these profiles are a great idea for any new business, they are critical for in-person tutoring. There are thousands of “near me” style searches every month, and Google profiles are displayed right up top for these results. Make sure you ask students for reviews, because social proof can become a major driver of success and Google reviews are quick and easy to publish. Some key metrics to watch here could be bookings, clicks, searches, direction requests, and calls.
Build a Website: A website is not strictly necessary, especially if you’re leveraging another digital space well, such as Google Business or a social platform. However, it’s a good way to make sure you’re easy to find online, and you have full control of your website (unlike platforms controlled by third parties). Make sure you have a way of capturing leads, like a sign-up form, Calendly link, booking system or Contact page. Use something that’s easy for you to maintain yourself, with plenty of resources online. Wordpress is a popular, robust content management system (CMS) that will allow you to build a fairly complex site. It has loads of plugins so you can build pretty much any functionality you want, and much of it is free. Drag-and-drop builders like Squarespace and Wix are good options that you can navigate entirely by yourself. All of these have extensive documentation and video tutorials, so if you get stuck there will always be resources to help you. Another good option is to use tutor management software that includes hosting and a website builder, like TutorBird. That way you’ll have a website and also access to great tools for scheduling, billing, invoicing, and more. Some key metrics to watch here are page visits; key events such as clicks, views of your pricing page, and form submissions; organic performance; bookings; and sales (if you are accepting payments through your site).
Pick One Social Platform: Social media is a tricky one. If you put in the required time and effort and have the necessary skills, it can be a truly monumental source of success. Do it half-heartedly, however, and you run the risk of damaging your reputation before you even get started. While many marketing pillars have a set-it-and-forget it option, social media is not like this. Successful social media is personalised, well thought out, and has clear goals. It takes time to create, and it is responsive both to your audience’s specific preferences and broader trends.The worst thing you can do for your brand is to schedule AI-generated content a few times a week and check the box on your list. Visitors will see the low-effort work here and it will reflect on your brand. If you’re going to use social media:
Pick one platform, where you know your target market is spending time
Create beautiful, high-quality content that will resonate with that kind of audience
Do your research and be responsive to your analytics
Experiment with content types and paid ads and find what works
Some key metrics here could include things like direct messages, bookings, reposts, and engagement. Remember that engagement alone is not necessarily a success: does it correlate with increased organic brand search, indicating a growth in brand awareness? Or perhaps you notice an increase in clicks through to your site. These kinds of correlations can steer you in the direction of content that not only resonates, but generates interest in your tutoring services too.
Stage Two: Double Down on What Works
Once you have your foundation running, your next step is to spend time reviewing the data and making clear decisions about what’s working and what’s not. One common mistake that people make in marketing is to get attached to practices that they enjoy - maybe you love making Reels on Instagram, but you notice they’re not bringing in any leads or engagement. If that’s the case, let it go, or try something different. Be real about what you want to get out of your marketing efforts, and if they’re not paying off, listen to the data and make changes. This doesn’t mean only doing things you dislike - it just means ignoring your emotions for a minute, and prioritising things that are going to make you money–because that’s why you’re starting a business. You should already be tracking one or two key success metrics attached to your marketing goals, so reviewing this should be fairly quick and easy. Ask yourself, what’s driving inquiries? Is it website visits? Social media posts? Word-of-mouth? Spend more time/money on what’s bringing in students.If one platform is working well, consider adding another (e.g., YouTube for tutorials, Pinterest for worksheets).
If you’re noticing that your organic traffic is doing well, consider creating some blog content or new landing pages. You could also experiment with some small, targeted ads ($5–$10/day) on platforms that have worked organically.
If you’re getting referrals, you might consider expanding into new networks. Partner with local schools, parent groups, or education blogs.
Stage Three: Experiment and Get Creative
Once you have a well-oiled marketing machine that’s reliably bringing in new leads, you can start to play around with more experimental ideas. If you’ve covered stages one and two, you have nothing to lose. Allow things to fail, let go, and try the next thing. The only limit here is your imagination. Take a look at what other brands are doing, from small campaigns that local competitors are running, to the trendy “unhinged marketing” tactics of big players like Duolingo. If you need some help getting started, here are some things you could try:
Test New Content Formats: Try short-form videos (such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts); offer free resources (worksheets, guides) in exchange for email addresses; start an email list with past and potential students—send useful tips and offers.
Diversify Your Offerings: Consider group sessions, online courses, or packaged tutoring plans. Host free webinars or Q&As to showcase expertise and attract new clients.
Leverage PR and Networking: Reach out to local news, podcasts, or blogs for a feature on your tutoring services. Collaborate with other educators, influencers, or brands in the education space.
Build Your Marketing Skills
While you can certainly get going without any qualifications, there are also plenty of free ways to upskill. Check Out Grow With Google for a catalogue of free marketing courses, with topics from AI to YouTube, Ecommerce, Analytics, and even short courses on expanding into new markets or Google Ads. Hubspot also offers many valuable free marketing courses, which are especially useful if you’re using their suite of free tools.
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