Ways to Make a Tutoring Business More Attractive to Foreign Clients

If you want to become a remote tutor, one of the ways to set yourself apart from the crowd is to focus on foreign clients. However, this relationship can be fraught with cultural difficulties and expectations. To succeed in a remote tutoring job catering to international clients, whether working for yourself or another company, it’s always good to learn what the parents are looking for. Here are three tips to get you started.

1 Tip #1: Take the Exam You Plan to Tutor 2 Tip #2: Demonstrate Progress as a Remote Tutor 3 Tip #3 Schedule Vacations as a Remote Tutor 4 Tip #4 Be Prepared to Negotiate

Tip #1: Take the Exam You Plan to Tutor

Just like parents in the US or UK, foreign parents want the best for their children. So, even if you have a degree from a top university, consider taking the exam if you want to be an exam prep tutor. Since parents may struggle to read English websites, showcasing that score demonstrates your ability even if English isn’t a native language.

For example, if you want to be an SAT tutor, you can impress potential clients by getting a perfect or near-perfect score to showcase.

Whether you’re interested in tutoring for the ACT, IELTS, or MCAT, impressing parents is a great way to land a remote tutoring job. If you have the means to pay to take the test, I would encourage you to consider taking any exam you wish to tutor to establish credibility.

Tip #2: Demonstrate Progress as a Remote Tutor

While it’s easy to establish milestones as an SAT tutor, if you are teaching a subject that is an elective subject, such as computer science, debate, or a foreign language, it can be harder to demonstrate progress to parents. However, there are easy ways to show parents progress. Here are a few suggestions for your students:

Hackathons
Debate tournaments
Language exams
Writing contests

Setting goals for your students, whether in a remote tutoring job or in person, will give the students something to work toward while also allowing the parents to measure the success of your tutoring efforts.

While setting outside milestones is less necessary for core classes like English, math, or science, as these are often measured by progress at school, it is always good to talk with parents about their expectations for you and the student. Consider asking questions like:

Do they want to see a certain grade in a class?
Does the student want to feel more confident?
Is there a project the student or parent wants to accomplish

Whether you’re an SAT tutor or math tutor, be sure to have a metric that you, the parents, and the student have agreed upon.

Tip #3: Schedule Vacations as a Remote Tutor

Everyone wants to take time off, even if it’s just for a week over Thanksgiving or Christmas. Whenever possible, block off your calendar when you’re going to be traveling and warn your students and parents a week or two in advance. If a student meets with you regularly, ask them if they’d prefer to cancel the session or reschedule it for another time.

This professionalism and communication will earn you points as someone working a remote tutoring job.

When scheduling your vacations, be sensitive to what is happening with the student. If you’re an SAT tutor, taking a vacation a week before a common testing date, such as the August test, will not earn you points with your parents or students.

Similarly, as you get to know your clients, be sensitive to their cultural and religious observances. For example, Lunar New Year is a big deal for Chinese students, and Muslim students may wish to meet at a different time during Ramadan.

Whatever the case may be, parents and students alike will appreciate your professionalism by warning them of your schedule in advance and being sensitive to theirs.

Tip #4: Be Prepared to Negotiate

Last, many international clients will ask for discounts, particularly if they are buying a package.

Because of cultural differences, international clients may be used to negotiating prices rather than deciding whether to buy something based on the posted price.

In many cultures, this type of deliberation is expected. As such, if you’re primarily catering to foreign clients, you may wish to add 10-20% to your base price so you have room to negotiate with parents when they ask for a discount.

As you think about your client base, it’s important to be considerate of their sensibilities and offer what they’re looking for if you want to flourish in your remote tutoring job. If you want to be an SAT tutor or teach any other high-profile exam, this means taking the exam yourself and getting a near-perfect score. In other subjects, you’ll want to teach toward a specific goal as agreed upon by the students and parents alike. It also means scheduling sessions around student holidays and deadlines and being open to negotiating prices.