Working as an accounting tutor, particularly in your own private business, is not always easy, but then again, what job is?
While it may seem that setting up your business and navigating the steps towards becoming a successful accounting tutor are daunting, the rewards of all your hard work are definitely worth it.
For many people, the decision to become a tutor may stem from the desire to try their hand at teaching but who don't necessarily want to enrol in university and spend four years earning an education degree. It may be the perfect part-time job for a university student undertaking an accounting degree and wanting some extra cash.
Or it may suit an economics, maths or business studies teacher who is retired and/or looking to boost their financial situation (or simply because they love teaching and miss the students). Finally, tutoring could also suit accountants who are keen to share their knowledge with students, perhaps even with a view to them entering or even taking over their business.
Whatever your reason, well done for at least thinking about entering one of the most rewarding professional jobs. May you thoroughly enjoy the experience.
Let's take a look at what you have to look forward to.
Be Your Own Boss
As a child, or even as an adult, how many times did you say: 'When I'm the boss of the world, I'll ...'?
Now, you can be the boss — at least in your part of the working world.
Don't get us wrong — being your own boss is not all fun and games; there's a significant degree of responsibility required to run a successful business, even if you're only working casually. You are responsible for maintaining the financial integrity of your business, for student satisfaction and for complying with the various business regulations in Australia, including taxes.
As the boss, you also need to maintain professional integrity all the time and shoulder the responsibility if something does go wrong.
However, with the responsibility also come the perks — choosing your clients (students), setting your fees (with no need for commissions) and making independent decisions regarding what you are teaching, how and when.
Work with the Students You Want to Work with
If you are a high school or university teacher, you have little say regarding which students you are to have in your course. The same goes for anyone who is employed by an agency to do accounting tutoring. However, this is not the case when you work as a private accounting tutor in your own business.
This is not to say that you should knock students back because you don't like them. Rather, it means that you have the opportunity to find and work with students who need your specific skills or specialisations — thereby assuring you are able to help them achieve the best possible outcomes.
For example, one of your specialisations might be financial management but you may not be as well versed in the area of statistics. When you get an enquiry from a potential student, you can talk about their goals and needs to determine whether you are the best fit for them.
It is not a negative reflection on your tutoring ability if you refer students on to other tutors; in fact, students will appreciate this and are more likely to mention your name to their friends who may be requiring help with financial management systems.
Of course, there are also those times when you and your student may have a personality clash. In these cases, it is in the best interests of both of you to find another tutor.
The point is, a tutor who knows their personal level and capabilities and uses this knowledge to find students who best fit their teaching style, will be more successful in the long run.
Be in Charge of Your Finances
Another thing tutors have little or no control over when they work for someone else is the amount they can charge. This is the case with most large tutoring agencies and online tutoring platforms that either set the fees and pay their tutors a portion or allow the tutors to set their hourly tuition rate but then take a certain percentage as a commission.
(Just a note here: Superprof tutors do not get charged a commission fee if they organise all payments off the platform or are a Premium member, nor are their fees set by Superprof. And, it's free to get your profile listed on the platform.)
However, if you work as an independent private accounting tutor, the hourly rate is determined by you, with no commissions payable.
The ultimate question, however, is how much to charge? There are many factors to take into consideration when professional tutors set their fees:
- Will the lesson be online or in-person?
- Will it be a private lesson or a group lesson?
- Are there other tutors nearby who offer the same subjects?
- What level of students (high school, university etc.) will I be teaching?
- How much time do I need to prepare?
- Are there financial overheads, like equipment or subscription costs?
Accounting tutors (actually, tutors of all academic subjects such as maths, English, economics, science, physics, chemistry, biology and engineering) should also take into account their level of tutoring experience, whether or not they have a teaching degree and their level of education in the subjects they are tutoring.
While it's important to remember that, in Australia, anyone can get work as a tutor, when it comes to the more academic subjects, like accounting tutoring, more experience, a teaching degree and professional experience and university studies are all factors that warrant higher fees than those charged by accounting tutors who are still university students themselves.
Teach How, What and When You Want to Teach
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, what, how and when you teach is often out of a tutor's control if they work for a tutoring agency.
Many agencies have set time schedules that their tutors must adhere to. They are also likely to have a program of learning for each of the subjects (particularly maths, English and science but also other subjects, such as economics and accounting) and they may even have a specific structure and teaching style tutors are required to follow. In fact, an increasing number of tutoring agencies these days seem to be moving towards scripted tutoring, where the tutor has to do little more than read from a script and guide students to answer questions.
If you like to have some teaching independence and your pedagogy and teaching philosophy centred around the student, then working for a tutoring agency or even most online tutoring platforms is probably not for you.
As a private accounting tutor working for yourself, the responsibility for organising lessons is yours. This gives you greater flexibility in terms of tailoring content to best help meet the needs of your students and also allows you to match your teaching style with the learning style of your students.
Offering Accounting Tutoring with Superprof
As mentioned previously, the Superprof online tutoring platform gives tutors the best of both worlds. Tutors are part of a supportive environment with Superprof team members on hand to assist with finance queries and management of each tutor's profile.
Yet, all the tutors also work independently of Superprof, which is primarily a service to connect tutors and students in all subjects from the academic — maths, English, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, engineering and, of course, accounting — to the more recreational subjects.
With Superprof, tutors are running their own tutoring business, setting their fees, selecting and liaising with students, organising the lesson content and determining the mode of delivery (online, in-person, private, small group and so on).
In summary, working as an accounting tutor takes time, effort and a certain amount of flexibility and creative problem-solving. Building your business can be a slow process; it's important to get everything right and in place before you start advertising your services.
However, once you're up and running and have started building a reputation that has students lining up for tuition with you, the benefits of teaching accounting as a private tutor will be apparent and you'll wonder how you managed to work for someone else before.
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