netWorking with a capital "W"

“It takes hard work and persistence”
Have you heard this before? I bet you have. Especially regarding sports, studying, hobbies, etc. I would like to also add networking to the list. A network is what every self-employed tutor should be working to get and most importantly, keep and expand. Get into the communities that will need your services, get in touch with organizations helping newly arriving immigrants and let them know that you can supplement their English language acquisition. The best places to meet professionals from the ESL field are local events, conferences, and even sports events that are being organized around town. Read newsletters and bulletins from your local library or community center. Remember that no favour comes for free – you need to offer something in return to people referring students to you even if it means taking them out to coffee or even informal lunch.

Once you have established yourself as THE tutor, you need to work to keep and expand your network. It takes a lot of PR work to be successful. Get in the habit of collecting people’s contact information and create a database of potential and present clients of yours. I am sure they will be delighted to receive a nice funny Christmas card or even wishing them a great first day of spring with a creative witty card. Some tutors use email to remind their client of their services. I would recommend this method only if you have something new to report to your clients. Lets face it – people hate bulk emails and unless these emails are informative enough for them, they hit “delete” to get rid of them as soon as possible.

It might be old-fashioned but try to meet people face-to-face. Remember that you build trust by materializing what you offer in contrast to describing it in an email. When people see you they get their first impression of you and how professional you are. I know that you are probably thinking: why would I meet all these people if they are not actual potential students of mine? Remember, you never know where an opportunity will come from. Maybe you get invited to speak in front of somebody’s class. Maybe someone will remember you when they hear that a student needs help. You are always going to be better off having more contacts and letting people hear your name over and over again, than stay at home and wait for a student to call you. It is very important to be out and about. You can even organize specific language workshops for students. How? The best way to do it (and cheapest too) is to contact your local library and see if they have study rooms available. Usually these rooms are free. And even if they are not, putting a low price for your workshop will cover the cost: believe me it’s not that expensive to rent a room in a library. Make simple fliers and post them around the library. Let people know when and where the workshop is going to be. Make sure you have your contact information handy for potential students to pick up.

Once you have established your networking methods and have spread the word about your services, it is essential that you start keeping track of your contacts. When you receive a call from a student, ask them how they heard about you: was it a reference from a friend, or they picked up your number from your workshop, were they referred to you by an agency and which one? Keeping track of the sources of references will give you an idea about the strongest points of your network. This information is absolutely precious. Knowing where business is coming from lets you focus your effort in that direction. Now that you know who is referring students to you, you can afford to ignore sources that are not so efficient and concentrate on the ones that bring you business.

Following the dynamics of your sources of business is essential also because you need to be aware of any changes happening in your network. If you find that an agency that used to be very passive in referring students to you has changed managers and their new policy is to emphasize on academic achievement of students, you need to get in contact with them immediately. Your tutoring services could be a very good supplement to their students’ education. Renewing contacts and shifting focus within your target market is crucial to your business. Knowing that a community center, which used to send a large number of students to you, has ended their support for international students can save you a lot of dead-end attempts to continue promoting your services there. Obviously they cannot refer any more students simply because these students will be seeking academic support somewhere else. In other words, your network changes constantly and it is up to you to keep track and stay up to date. Yes, it sounds like a lot of work and it is. That is the meaning of being professional. This type of work is making you different from everybody else.