Do you enjoy teaching others by sharing your skills and knowledge in a particular subject? If you are an expert on a particular subject, you must consider monetizing your skills by starting an online teaching business. With a constant emphasis on the need for students of all ages to improve their educators, a need for a convenient model of knowledge delivery online has also surfaced.
The demand for online education creates lucrative opportunities in the education industry and interested skilled educators can monetize on these opportunities to earn big profits. So if you think you are creative and highly skilled, you can consider how to build your own online teaching business.
Here is a step by step guide to help you get started.
Table of Contents
Choose your area of expertise
When starting an online teaching business, start by choosing your area of expertise. You must teach something that you know a lot about, but it should also be something that you are passionate about.
It can be anything, including languages, maths, science, baking, chess tactics, yoga, or anything that you are interested in and skilled at. If you are choosing a micro-niche, do thorough market research to make sure you have a valid target audience who are looking for learning the skills in that particular niche.
Set up your business goals
Like when running any other business, you must set up your business requirements and goals before launching your online teaching business. Set up a business plan where you consider your goals that helps to determine what you want to achieve with your business and where do you want to reach in terms of success.
After setting up your goals, you must be flexible with it as well. You might have to face changes along the way. Accepting and embracing the changes that come on your way is a part of the process. Celebrate both successes and failures and keep working towards your objectives and goals.
Study the competition
Understanding the competition is an important step you must take. Study what is available in the online teaching industry, how your competitors work, and how they do it. Learning about your competition will help you find the thin line between your area of expertise, what you must do to achieve success and the unique market requirements.
Research the competition to find out what is missing in the industry and where your educational expertise and experience fits in.
Choose your platform
When it comes to hosting online classes, there are N number of ways to do it. The obvious option is to use a third-party online tutoring platform where you can consider delivering your online classes. As different teaching platforms leverage different business models, but the disadvantage is that you will have not have any control over the revenue you generate. Most third-party platforms take a share of the revenue generate.
The different platform also has different requirements for qualifications and certifications for tutors. Considering all of this, the best viable option would be to build our own online tutoring platform so that you can have 100% control over the content you can create the way you deliver your classes and the money you make.
Arrange the right set up
The most basic thing you need to take online classes is a camera and a microphone which you might need for recording your videos and communicating with your student’s live. If you already have a desktop or a laptop that comes with a camera and a mic, utilize that. Otherwise, you will have to make an investment.
Even if your computer has a microphone, consider getting an external mic so that you don’t have to compromise on the audio quality. You will also need online tutoring software that helps you to build and launch your tutoring platform. Additionally, use a video editing so that you can polish your pre-recorded videos.
Set your price
Online teaching is a crowded industry with a lot of competition and hence setting the price for your online classes is really important. Before deciding on your price, see what others are charging for classes similar to yours and figure out where you fit it.
One of the best tips would be to start charging a nominal price if you are taking online classes on general subjects. Whereas, if you are delivering classes on a unique niche or a skill, in particular, that is difficult to find.
You can price your classes high without a second thought. Your learners would be willing to pay a premium for online classes if it gets substantially better. But, you must earn credibility among your audience so that you can charge more.
Don’t forget the marketing aspect
Just because you have an online tutoring platform with all the essential features and functionalities doesn’t mean that your audience would come in. You must find effective techniques to market your online classes so that you can stand out in the crowded market and beat the competition.
You can start by contacting your peers, friends, and family to spread the world. Consider setting up an online presence of your online tutoring business in social media and other online channels to find students for your classes and market your online classes.
Get feedback from your students
Before beginning your online classes, find a test audience to run demo classes to get feedback on your classes. This will help you understand the impact of your classes and how your users would perceive it.
Once you finish your online classes ask for feedback from your students. Ask your learners to rate your classes which you can use later as social proof to impress your potential students. Real feedback from your students can help you rate your classes and make any improvements if necessary.
Conclusion
Launching an online teaching business is a lucrative business idea that is highly in demand and doesn’t require heavy investments. As you can take one-one sessions and group classes where you choose the total number of students, you can monitor your learners individually making the overall learning experience effective for your student.
Set up a full-fledged and functional online tutoring platform and ensure that you have access to all essential equipment and requirements like stable internet connectivity, functional gadgets, and online educational tools to create and deliver your online classes effectively.
