This week we’ve been talking about how to tutor different subjects on our blog. One of the cornerstones of building a tutor business is getting clients. This week I had jury duty for a couple of days which allowed me to catch up on some of my reading. If you’ve ever served on a jury you understand they never get in a hurry. The book I’ve been reading is Influence , The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.
An awesome book. I’ve read a few chapters and everything he talks about rings pretty true to me. I thought I would share a couple of the key points I’ve found. These key points if you use them properly will help you get more business… which is our goal and the goal of this newsletter. Helping you to improve your bottom line.
 The Benefit of F r e e – I’m sure this has happened to you before. You’re in the grocery store and get ambushed in aisle 3 by someone giving you a sample of goat cheese. They are using the power of free. Free samples have been around for years.
What happens is when someone gives you something you automatically want to be nice to them. You don’t think about it at all, it is just one of those automatic responses.
High Price and Low  – The author tells a funny story. He is out and about and a boy scout approaches him. The boy scout tells him he is selling Circus tickets for five bucks and asks him to buy one. Shaking his head no to the boy scout, the scout them immediately asks him would he like to buy some candy bars for a buck. Immediately he buys a few of them, even though he doesn’t like chocolate.
How can this help your tutor business – If you have a tutor business or are thinking of starting one, you’ll want to make sure you have more than one product to offer. Let’s say you sell your tutoring services for $20 / hour. You could create some different offers like – a monthly tutoring package for $150 / month. Three months for $400. You now have two different products for different price points.
Offer a first tutor session for free. Now the client will feel they owe you something. You’re a good tutor and the child will be getting lots of benefits from your teaching. After the free tutor session – if you got along and if you feel like you can help them – offer them the 3 months for $400.00. If they accept then excellent. You have gotten a good client. If they seem to hesitate because of price you can then say something like “… or you can have a month’s lessons for $150.00. ”
Try these out in your business. I know they will work because human nature doesn’t change. It won’t work every time, but it will work most of the time. You will also be surprised by how many of the big packages you sell..
This week’s quick tip –
Google plus can now be accessed by anyone. We recommend you use it in your business. For now you won’t be able to add a business page, but you will be able to create a personal profile. It isn’t very hard and I’ve outlined the steps for you below. We spend a whole module in one of the new sections of our guide talking about Google plus and how you can use this for online tutoring, but getting an account and adding a few things to it is an important first step.
1. Go to Google.com
2. Below the search box you should see something like – Thanks for waiting. Google+ is open to all! Join now. Click on the Join Now link.
3. If you have a Google account you’ll need to sign in using that. If not you’ll need to create an account.
4. Add some useful information – I recommend doing the following.
At the top right of the page click on your name.
Click Profile
Click Edit Profile
Make sure the about tab is clicked.
Edit your
Introduction – include something about your tutoring business
Employment – include information about your business
Recommended Link – include your website and other social stuff as needed
Fill out anything else you feel comfortable doing, then you’ll want to make sure you click the “Done Editing” button. That saves it.
We look forward to seeing you next week.