Have you done a Bachelor of Accounting and are now looking to share your knowledge with other students?
Or perhaps you're still completing your degree and would like to earn some extra cash?
Have you considered looking for work as an accounting tutor offering private tutoring?
As with all tutoring jobs for all subjects — maths, chemistry, physics, English and so on — you will need to know your subject well. You also need to be passionate about your subject and possess the necessary skills to share your experience and knowledge and effectively help and support your students.
In Australia, while there are plenty of tutors who have a Bachelor of Education or other similar teaching qualifications, a teaching degree (or any degree) is not a prerequisite for becoming a private tutor. While tutors with teaching qualifications and experience can charge more, it is possible to make a good living off tutoring without the qualifications.
Are you ready then?
Let's have a look at three of the key elements to being a successful accounting tutor — finding students, pricing competitively and structuring your lessons.
Finding Students
It goes without saying that just being a great accounting tutor means nothing unless you have a decent number of students studying with you.
But, how do you find those students?
Tutoring is a competitive industry. If you want to be successful in this business, you have to be proactive. This means marketing yourself.
You might be thinking, 'Hang on. I studied accounting, not business studies or marketing.' However, with a little bit of thought, some creativity and some effort, it is possible to get your name out there and find students you want to work with and who want to work with you.
The first thing to be clear on is who your ideal student is. Do you want to work with high school students? Would you prefer tutoring university students undertaking a bachelor degree? What about masters' students? Or perhaps you have your sights set on teaching adults who are opting for a career change or to add to their set of skills for promotion purposes.
Once you know which clients you're aiming for, start thinking about where they hang out. For example, there's absolutely no point advertising your private tutoring services in a high school if you only want university bachelor degree students. Think about the places your ideal clients go, the social media they use and the things they read or view. Then, target your advertising there.
Here are a few ways you can reach potential student clients and let them know about your tuition services.
Traditional paper advertising
Create a flyer with your key details (name, contact information, services offered, days and time you're available etc.) and place these in locations your potential students are likely to see them.
A few possible locations (depending on your ideal student) include:
- university library
- university accounting and business studies faculty
- university student services section
- high school administration blocks
- local library, shops or community centre
- office and business hubs (often shared spaces).
Make sure your flyer stands out and clearly states why a student would choose to work with you rather than with your tutoring competition.
Social media
As with paper advertising, you need to know which social media channels your ideal clients are likely to be on. Potential students who are already working and looking for a change may be more likely to frequent LinkedIn or Facebook; whereas you are more likely to catch younger students on platforms like Instagram and even Tik Tok.
Social media is a bit trickier than traditional methods as you can't just post an ad every week and expect students to flock to you. It's all about content creation and building credibility. Post accounting insights, hints and tips and information about you, along with the occasional ad for your tutoring services.
It can take a while to build a following, but the business should flow in once you've got that following.
Blogging
Think about creating an accounting blog, a Google My Business page or even a YouTube channel and use this to post interesting articles or fun facts about accounting. Doing this builds your online presence as well as your credibility.
Superprof
The Superprof tutoring platform is set up for tutors of every subject to advertise their online and in-person private tuition services. Setting up your profile is free, and you have complete freedom on how lessons are given, how much you can charge and how you receive your payment.
On your profile, remember to list your areas of expertise, your education background and your experience, as well as the level of students you will be teaching and whether you offer online tutoring, in-person tutoring or both.
What to Charge for Private Tutoring
Working out your tuition fees can be a huge learning curve because there are so many factors to take into account and no 'set rate'.
Some of these factors include:
- your teaching or tutoring experience
- your level of education
- the level of your students
- your location
- possible travel costs (for in-person lessons)
- other expenses (internet, Zoom subscription etc. for online lessons).
Your competition may also dictate your pricing. If you offer something other accounting tutors don't, or if there are no other accounting tutors in your area, you can safely charge more because your lessons will be in demand.
As a guide, on Superprof there are currently close to 40,000 accounting tutors listed throughout Australia. The average hourly tuition fee is $13, however, the rates range from $11 an hour up to over $120 an hour.
How to Organise Your Lessons
The expectation with private tuition in any subject, whether it's maths, English, physics, chemistry or accounting, is that each lesson is specifically targeted at the needs and level of the individual student.
What this means is that, as a tutor (whether online or in-person), it is essential that you get to know every student. This includes what they want to learn, what they need to learn, their learning style, their prior knowledge and skills and any learning difficulties they may have (including a bad experience with a previous tutor or teacher).
Once you really know your student, you can organise your lessons to suit them and fit with your preferred teaching style.
Preparation is key
Nobody, not even the best teacher with years of experience, can repeatedly throw together last-minute lessons that are effective and meet the student's goals again and again.
Part of your role as a tutor is to spend time collecting resources and planning lessons for each individual student on your list. Of course, this time needs to be factored into your fees.
Once you have started regular lessons, it's also a good idea to establish a pattern or structure that can be followed each lesson. This does not have to be set in concrete, particularly around exam time, but it will help with your planning and will also help the student know what to expect. A lesson could look something like this:
- Recap previous lesson and key learning covered (5 mins)
- Time for student questions on last week's concepts (5 mins)
- Main lesson content or focus (30 mins)
- General discussion on topical issues related to lesson content, if relevant (10 minutes)
- Student questions or reflection (5 mins)
- Preview of next lesson, plus homework (5 mins).
Note that the main lesson focus will include explicit teaching plus discussion or another activity to put the learning into context and include practical application.
While we may encourage students to let us know ahead of time if they want or need to cover a different topic, or would like some extra practice for an upcoming exam, this doesn't always happen. As much as lesson planning is important, tutors must also learn to be flexible.
Advantages of Tutoring Work
One of the best things about being a private tutor is the rapport you can build with your students. A teacher in a traditional classroom can also build rapport but not as much because they are dealing with fifteen to thirty students at any one time, whereas you are more than likely to be one-on-one with your student for an hour at a time.
Building that rapport also means you can better cater for your student's needs and help them achieve their goals — and with that comes a personal sense of pride. Watching your students grow, gain confidence and progress is what leads to job satisfaction.
In addition, as a private tutor, especially if you are running your own business as a freelancer, means that you have all the control. You can set your work hours, set your fees and determine the way you want to teach.
It's hard work but, at the end of the day, most tutors love their jobs.
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