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Outline for building a web business

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This week’s issue is a little short. One of our dear friends is in the hospital having a biopsy done so we’re giving him all the support we can. We should be able to resume the normal newsletter schedule next week.  Next week we’ll be continuing our Summer tutoring articles.

—>>  Business Help –

I think we’ve made a decision on what we’ll be teaching on for this section of our newsletter. We’ve gotten several different replies and they’ve been all over the map. So I guess the best place to begin would be at the beginning and that’s what we’ll work on doing.

Here’s an outline of what we’ll be covering.

1. Deciding what you need – we’ll be talking about researching your competition and where you live. This information will help you to decide what type of web presence you’ll be needing.

2. Building a Simple Word Press Site.

3. Building a ‘regular’ website.

4. Social Media – Facebook

5. Twitter

6. Linked In

7. Getting more traffic to your Web presence.

—>>  Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box below.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

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Getting ready for Summer – Learning Study Skills

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backyard swimming pool

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We hope you and your family are doing well. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who’ve been devastated by the deadly storms from last week.

—>> Advice – Getting ready for Summer

You can feel it in the air, Spring is definitely here (although this morning we had frost) and Summer is around the corner. Here are some tips for keeping your clients during the Summer (if you wish).

We all enjoy time off during the Summer and if you don’t want to work then make sure to let the parents know which weeks you’ll be wanting to take off. Even if you plan on taking the Summer off I would recommend resuming a few weeks before school officially starts in the Fall.

Either case you’ll want to do the following:

1. Have the student find out the classes they’ll be having next year.
2. Get the student to find out if the teachers have any reading lists or things they need to do during the Summer (some will and others won’t).
3. Call the teachers and ask them what they would recommend doing in preparation of their class. Ask them some of the subjects and topics they’ll be studying during the first few weeks and months of school.

The goal of course will be to give your students a head start. We’ll continue with part 2 next time.

—>> Tutor Tips – One of the things you can teach during the Summer is study skills (or how to study). Here are a few resources that we’ve found that can help you do just that.

1. http://www.studygs.net/shared/studying.htm

A super resource with many links. One of the best ways to get an assessment is have the student take the self assessment on this page – http://www.studygs.net/attmot4.htm

After you get a score you can review each of the questions and help them to learn how to do it right. Example: Question 1 is about setting a positive attitude. You can give them some options / thoughts on how they can get the right attitude, how to create a study space, and how to get rid of distractions.

2. A good assessment tool for how you learn – http://thinktank.arizona.edu/resources/selfassesment/learning_style

3. This page is for college but has useful links for any age group or grade – http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/index.html

—>>  Business Help – A few of you emailed me with what you would like for us to cover relating to getting started online. We need a few more responses. Just reply to this email and let us know where you are now online – and what you would like us to help you with. The majority will rule, but we will cover all of the topics eventually.

—>> Off the Hook

The 12 best summer vacations – http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Summer_Vacations/

—>>  Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box below.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

Other issues can be found here.

http://www.cleverapple.com/blog/

We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

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Preparing your business for a disaster

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06-24-09 Ominous Outflow!!!

Image by nebraskasc via Flickr

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the folks in the south who suffered one of the biggest tornado outbreaks in history.

We wrote this portion of our newsletter yesterday.

As I’m writing the newsletter this week we’re under threat for more severe weather. I thought it would be good to talk some today about some ways to protect your business during severe weather. A reminder if you have something you would like us to talk about please let us know.

May is my birthday. We’ll be celebrating our birthday all month long by giving you some special things if you purchase our tutoring business program.  Please remember we DO NOT discount our prices, we DO give you extra stuff. If you purchase the tutoring program – every time we offer a bonus you’ll get it. No matter if it’s been a month since you’ve purchased from us or a year since you’ve purchased the digital version. Some things we’re working on –

This summer – an enhanced digital and physical guide.
Tools to help you build your business
Expanding your tutoring business (going from one person to several)
Tutoring Online

—>> Advice – Getting prepared for severe weather

The first thing you’ll want to make sure that you have a weather radio. You can check out the one we have here –

You can also find them at Wal-Mart, Target etc. and most electronic stores.

You want to make sure that whatever weather radio you choose it has AC (you can plug it in) and it has battery backup, in case there is a power failure. The one thing I like about the Midland is it allows you to choose which warnings you want to be aware of.

You’ll want to make sure when you set it up you’re able to hear it and that you have it turned on.  What I do as well is whenever we change batteries in the smoke detector (usually when we Spring forward or Fall back) we also change the batteries in the weather radio.

Protecting your business –

One thing we do is keep all the important documents that we use daily on a small flash drive. We use a Voyager. We also are shifting our email online so that we can access from any computer and not just the one we have Outlook on. We use Gmail mostly. Think of things that you absolutely have to have to run your business. This will be the list of things you’ll want to make sure you have back ups for.

Protecting your clients –

Be aware of the weather where you live. Make sure to watch the weather especially during the months you normally have severe weather.  Reschedule appointments if the weather looks like it will be rough.

Make a Plan – if a tornado warning happens during a tutor session you’ll want to have a plan of exactly what you want to do. Every home is different. I’ve been teaching our daughter the DUCK method since she could say duck.

D – downstairs, preferably the basement. Go to an interior room with the most walls between you and the outside of your home.
U – under something. Like a sturdy table or under a staircase.
C- cover yourself with thick blankets, pillows etc.
K- keep away from windows and doors.

You should have contact info for the student’s parents (if they aren’t parked in your driveway). You’ll want to give them a call as soon as possible when the event is over and let them know everything is ok.

—>>  Business Help –  I know we mentioned last time that we would talk about Google Places. Before we do that we would like to know where you’re at online.

Do you have a website / facebook / twitter / blog / none of the above. Let us know just reply to this email, that way we’ll be able to know where to begin.

—>> Off the Hook

A nice weather radar (you can zoom it into your house) from the NOAA.

http://radar.srh.noaa.gov/

—>>  Resources

If you don’t have a website / facebook

A completely free webinar that talks about fan pages – how to set them up etc.  Click Here

—>>  Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box below.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

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How to fire a client – getting more done in less time

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Post-it notes

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I really don’t like storms very much and this Spring has been really bad for them. It seems that we’re right in the path of almost every one that comes along. I guess I should count my blessings that we don’t live to the north where there is still snow flying around. Or Texas and be in the midst of wildfires.

We also want to take a moment to thank you for spending some time with us today.

—>>  Inspire –

One of the hardest parts of building a business is starting. Here is some good advice for doing just that –

http://www.gasmileageguide.com/gas-savings-blog/the-power-of-i-can-do-it/making-money

—>> Tutor Tips – Firing your clients

We talk about this at length in the 90 day quick start plan of the tutoring business guide.

Life is too short to be miserable. If you find that one of your clients / students make you dread the day you are supposed to tutor them, then you need to make a change. This is after all YOUR business.

A few things to remember:

1. You’ll want to not be mean… even if they’re a pain in the but you want to be nice. Sometimes this can be harder than others.
2. When you explain to them why you’re letting them go, be honest. If you’re having a hard time keeping their child’s attention. Tell them that.
3. It’s easier to find a new one than be miserable.

As you get experience you’ll be able to figure out during the first interview with the prospective client if the relationship will be a good one. One of the best times to fire them is before you start.

—>>  Business Help – Getting more done –

Time management can sometimes be a pain. Your to do list never gets done. Here are some tools to use to help you get more things done.

To Do Ist is a program we’ve used for several years. It is an online to do list which means you’ll be able to access it from any computer with internet access. There is no charge to use it – although you can upgrade if you want. We’ve done fine with the fr ee version.

http://todoist.com

Another program we’ve found you can use is Task Coach (again no charge).  This is a downloadable program.

http://taskcoach.org/

It doesn’t matter if you have a hundred to do lists and post it notes scattered all over your desk… that doesn’t really help you get anything done.

A technique I’ve used is the 25 minute plan. You’ll need a stop watch or egg time and there are software programs that do it for you. Make a list of the things you want to get done and prioritize them. For 20 minutes you’re going to work on one thing. Work just for 25 minutes, no more and no less.  After the 25 minutes take a 5 minute break. Get up, stretch, get away from the task you were doing. After 5 minutes do another 25 minute segment. More details of this program can be found here –

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

Try it and you’ll be surprised at how fast your to do list, becomes a to done list.

Next time – getting listed in Google places

—>> Off the Hook

Want something to do during your five minute break here are some online games – http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/5-minute-in-a-hurry.php

—>>  Resources

If you don’t have a website / facebook

21 Days to build your website – excellent resource also includes some of the best facebook tutorials we’ve seen.

—>>  Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box below.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

We look forward to seeing you next week.

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Tutoring Business Newsletter – Information and Tips you can Use – Volume 3

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We’re still looking for things you would like us to write about. We can go on and on about things you don’t care about. You can change that by letting us know what you would like us to talk about. If you have any questions. ideas for future issues or thoughts about this issue you can:

Leave us a comment on our blog – http://www.cleverapple.com/blog/
Leave us a comment on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

Advice – Now is a good time to start thinking about tutoring plans you’re going to have for your students this summer. We’ll be talking some about this in future issues, but now is a good time to think some about it.

Inspire –

Don’t give up. We all have bad days and sometimes bad weeks or months. It is easy to get discouraged when something goes wrong or doesn’t work exactly the way we were hoping it would work. My Dad had a saying that I’ve tried to keep in mind when things go wrong. “Reach for the stars, you may not get one but you won’t come up with a handful of Mud.”

So when I get discouraged here are some things I do to try and get back on track.

1. Take a step back. Let’s pretend I’m looking for clients in my tutoring business. For a day or two don’t think about it and don’t try to get any additional students.

2. Figure out what is going wrong. After the days away from the problem review to figure out what may have been going wrong. Again let’s pretend that I’ve been putting up tear sheets at the local grocery store and haven’t gotten any phone calls.

3. Figure out a new plan. Try something different. Try new things. Post flyers at different locations. Review the tips in the guide and videos…. just don’t give up!

Tutor Tips –

People learn in different ways – we’ve worked on creating some videos for you but we got a bit behind this week when we had some bad storms earlier this week. We should have them for you by next week’s edition. If you would like them sooner you can check them out as we post them by following our blog.

Business Help –

Don’t forget that you’ll need to make sure to send your tax forms in by next Friday. You won’t be able to change very much about this year’s tax bill but you can help with next years. One note make sure you check with your tax professional to make sure you can take advantage of these ideas.

Your ‘home’ office – set aside a portion of your home for your tutoring business. You’ll then be able to take a portion of your home expenses off your taxes. Say that you have a 1000 square foot house and you use 50 square feet exclusively for your home business. Then you would be able to take 5% of your expenses. Complete details can be found here –

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=204169,00.html

We’ll talk about more deductions next time.

Off the Hook

If you like movies and enjoy watching them online – you can check http://www.hulu.com/.

Resources

If you do have a website – below are some tutorials

Zero Cost SEO Tutorial

Building Links – A guide (again won’t cost you anything)

If you don’t have a website / facebook

21 Days to build your website – excellent resource also includes some of the best facebook tutorials we’ve seen.

Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box below.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

Using Incentives while tutoring – Building a website for your tutoring business

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Park Street Elementary School, Atlanta, Ga. (D...

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Hope you are having a wonderful week. If you missed last week’s issue you can find it here –

http://www.cleverapple.com/blog/you-can-make-a-difference-taxes-and-tutor-tips/

Again this is your newsletter is yours if you have ideas of what you would like for us to we would love it if you would let us know what you would like us to talk about. We do this newsletter to help you. If you have some ideas about what to include in future issues you can check the notes below.

If you have any questions. ideas for future issues or thoughts about this issue you can:

Leave us a comment on our blog – http://www.cleverapple.com/blog/
Leave us a comment on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

Advice –

In our guide we talk about giving incentives for students. Incentives help for a variety of different reasons. The biggest one is the incentive can help the student want to come to tutoring. Instead of saying ‘Aww Mom do I have to go’, they will be saying… ‘ Is it time to go yet’. Your job as a tutor is to make the session fun for the student as well as help them to learn something. We talk some more about that in the tutor tips below. The problem is you don’t want to spend tons of money. Below are some sites that will help you find stuff for less.

http://dealnews.com/

One of my favorite sites – has not only incentive ideas but also stuff you can use for your business (like electronics deals) and around the home.

http://toys.dailysteals.com/

A great place to find cheap toys (cheap in money but we have ordered several things from them and they have good stuff). Today’s deal (and they change every day) is for an amplifier for handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo. You can get that for a buck. Usually on Fridays they have free shipping as well.

Inspire –

Last week we shared a story of inspiration for you. This week we would love if you shared one of your stories of inspiration… just leave it in the comments section below and who knows we may send you something special.

Tutor Tips –

In our guide we talk about how to find out more information about the students and parents, so we won’t go over that here. After you do the section on questions you should know enough information –

1. Why the student needs tutoring.

This could be anything from trouble with taking tests, to reading comprehension and everything in between. You’ll need to remember this is the reason you’re tutoring them. If they improve in their studies then Mom and Dad will be happy and will become a great source of referrals and future business.

2. Interests and Likes of the child. The more fun you can make the tutoring for the child, the better they will do and the more they’ll want to come to their tutoring session. If it’s a chore for Mom and Dad to get them to come to tutoring, pretty soon it will get old.

3. How to combine what they need and what they like. Now comes the fun part, combining useful instruction with fun stuff. (we discuss this at some length in the video portion of our guide but here are some ideas). You’ll need to be creative. Let’s say we have a 4th grade student and they are having trouble with their reading comprehension skills. Let’s say they like all hand held games. You have a few of the amplifiers we mentioned earlier in stock – after shipping etc. you paid about $3 each for them. Your tutoring session runs an hour. The first 15 minutes or so are spent on homework questions, 40 minutes of practicing reading comprehension and 5 minutes of wrap up / fun.

You show the amplifiers to the child and explain that you’ll give them this after they climb the mountain. Use a mountain progress chart, for every story they read and get most of the questions correct, they’ll move a step up the mountain. If they get all of the questions right they move up two steps. Reward them for working hard, being on time etc.  You will want to make sure that they get their reward in a month or two.

This works for any age student (don’t let high schoolers fool you.. they like free stuff as well).

Business Help –

In our building a tutor business guide – in the 90 day business help emails we discuss and tell you exactly how to build a website and how to integrate it with facebook. If you have a business we highly recommend you do this for a few different reasons.

1. When you optimize your site correctly, it can become a never ending stream of leads of people that want your service.
2. It allows you to keep updated with your students and their parents.
3. If you’re building a business that you plan on selling someday, these become a very valuable asset.

Some things you may want to look into –

If you don’t have a website / facebook

21 Days to build your website – excellent resource also includes some of the best facebook tutorials we’ve seen.

If you do have a website – below are some tutorials

Zero Cost SEO Tutorial

Building Links – A guide (again won’t cost you anything)

Off the Hook

A game that will take your mind off things for a bit… a warning though it is addictive http://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/light

Resources

Looking for puzzles to help round out your hour of tutoring – here’s a good resource to get you started.

http://www.lessoncorner.com/puzzles

Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box below.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

We look forward to seeing you next week.

You can make a difference, taxes and tutor tips

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A photo of The Thinker by Rodin located at the...

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Welcome to the first issue of our newsletter (in the new format). We hope to provide you with something every Thursday that will help your business grow. We have some ideas about things we want to cover in future issues, but we would love it if you would let us know what you would like us to talk about. We do this newsletter to help you. If you have some ideas about what to include in future issues you can check the notes below.

If you have any questions. ideas for future issues or thoughts about this issue you can:

Leave us a comment on our blog –
Leave us a comment on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

Advice –

We had some storms yesterday and they got me to thinking some about missed tutor sessions. We talk about this in page 5 of our guide and Video 1 of our video series. If you have our guide then you’ll want to review those pages and make sure you have a missed session policy in place. If you don’t have the guide you can order it here –
http://www.cleverapple.com/howtostartatutoringservice.html

Inspire –

I saw this story over the weekend and it inspired me, so I thought I would share it with you.

There was once a student in a fifth grade class named Ed. Now Ed was a marginal student making a B or two but mostly C’s and sometimes a D. Ms. Gilliam the teacher wasn’t really sure how to take him. He seemed like he was just drifting thru the class and had frequent absences. At the Christmas party that year she got the usual stack of presents with pretty bows and ribbons and one present wrapped in what looked like a brown paper bag from Ed. She opened the present and inside was a bracelet with a broken clasp and a half empty bottle of cheap perfume. All of the kids laugh and of course Ms. Gilliam told them to be quite and thanked Ed for the gift.

This got Ms. Gilliam thinking and when class was over for the day she took some time to review Ed’s file. First grade comments were ‘ Outstanding student – enjoys school – exceeds expectation.’ Second grade was similar. Third grade ‘ Mother is ill, misses frequently, distant’. Fourth grade ‘ Mother passed away, Father is frequently gone, not very much home support, grades have plummeted’. That night Ms. Gilliam decided that she was going to make a difference.

The next day she wore the bracelet and the perfume. After class Ed was hanging around and approached her with tears in his eyes. “Thank you for letting me see and smell my Mom again.” The rest of the school year passed and the more attention she paid to Ed the more he blossomed into a thriving student.

The years passed and Ms. Gilliam got a letter from Ed. In the letter he explained that he had just graduated high school and was second in his class. Four years later another letter came and Ed explained that he had graduated college 1st in his class. Four years later a letter came from Ed explaining that he had just graduated medical school. It went on to thank Ms. Gilliam and let her know that that Christmas many years ago had changed his life forever.

As a tutor you can make a difference and do make one every time you help someone learn something they are struggling with. You can make a difference.

Tutor Tips –

We include a ton of tips on how to get students for your tutoring business in our guide and quick start email series. Here is another tip. Volunteer at a school in the district you want to get students from. It would be better if you could volunteer in a class / for a teacher that teaches a subject that you would like to tutor. You will most likely have to do a background check and jump thru a couple of other hoops, but it will get you involved in the school and you will get to know the teachers, students, and some of the other parents. When an opportunity arises you can let them know that you tutor.

Business Help –

Taxes are due in the next few weeks… I know I hate paying them as well. I remember in our first year of business we had a large bill, especially since you have to pay the taxes that are due and the first estimated tax bill. After that sobering experience we started doing something different. We now set aside a bit each week, I actually just deduct it from my checking account and make a note of it. When taxes are due I already have it set aside. Much less dreading it … although I still hate to write that check.

Off the Hook

Off the hook is the section of our newsletter dedicated to fun stuff. I am a huge fan of old movies. It saddened me to hear about Elizabeth Taylor’s death. Turner Classic Movies will be having an all day marathon on Sunday, April 10th. It will include 24 hours of her movies and her two Oscar winning pictures will also be featured. Complete details can be found at the following lin.

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/movie-news.html?id=383788&name=Elizabeth-Taylor-Memorial-Program-on-4-10

Help us out

If you like what you’ve read we would love to hear from you. If you think you have a friend that would benefit forward this newsletter to them. Like us on facebook – and share your thoughts about us in the comments box.

Here’s our facebook url – – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tutoring-Business-Help/186004714761452?sk=wall

We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

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