I would like information on how to find legitimate work-at-home jobs
in the Detroit area.   I do not want information on work involving
cold calls, psychic lines, or sex-related work.  Specifically, I would
love to tutor from my home.

How does one begin a tutoring business?  What is the best way to find
students?  Is is reasonable to expect that a student come to my home
for tutoring? I taught English and French for five years in a private
school, so my qualifications are adequate in both of those fields.   I
play piano, and I could teach beginning students in that subject.

Please be as thorough and specific as possible.  I would prefer this
answer to come from someone who knows the field of tutoring as opposed
to someone who just has some ideas to try.

You do mention a specific location and don’t mention The Internet so I
am presuming that you intended to ask about traditional, face-to-face
tutoring. I can’t speak to your local market, for one thing you didn’t
specify a school district or exact location, but in many areas it’s
not very difficult to begin a tutoring business as long as there are
enough parents in the area who can afford your rates.

The first step is to learn if you are zoned for this kind of business
and to make a quick call to your insurance company. Next, determine
how much you need to charge and draw up a contract covering
liabilities, cancellation policy, and performance guarantees.  Have
this checked by a lawyer.

Somewhere before or after the talk with the insurance company, but
definitely before you invest any money on anything, ask some teachers
and school administrators, as well as any other tutors if there is any
market and whether the schools will let you post a card with your
business. It might seem strange to ask other tutors, but it’s really
this simple, if there are no others in the business then it’s very
likely that the business isn’t viable where you are.  If there are
others but they won’t give any help then they probably are just
scraping along trying to get more students.  Finally, if other tutors
are open and willing to share information then you know there is a
ready market and they may even refer students to you.

Obviously the Small Business Administration (http://www.sba.gov) is a
good place to begin.

Here is a business plan for this sort of business:
http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-15.pdf

AND

here is the Google HTML version of the same file:
http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:aQtUkv--s3gC:www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-15.pdf+site:www.sba.gov+tutoring&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

While this is not a step-by-step tutorial, I find that these SBA
business plans are a terrific place to begin because you’ll eventually
have to find your own answers specific to your situation anyway and
this provides all the important questions you will need to research
for your specific situation. Unlike freelance writing and some others,
this is a home business which the SBA will consider funding with a
loan.

There is a home tutoring business manual offered at: 

(http://www.hometutoring.com/manual.htm) complete with a table of
contents which is probably all you need.

Another business service is:

http://www.cleverapple.com/home4.htm

I recommend that you look over both sites but NOT that you send them
any money, at least not at this stage. Begin by reading and answering
all the SBA questions relevant to your circumstances and check out the
market by asking teachers and other tutors, then proceed.

You might also consider building a simple Web site for local students
and offering to tutor in person once each week, or once each month,
then provide a set number of e-mails or time limit on any online help
you offer in addition. I maintain such a school/student Web site and
get requests for tutoring out of the blue even though I’m not
currently offering this service.

I hope this provides the help and encouragement you need to get you
started.  This is GOOD business idea but it won’t work everyplace.
Although I don’t do this currently, I do have experience in this
field. The SBA information is so detailed that I don't believe
repeating it here would be worthwhile.

Keywords Used:

From the http://www.sba.gov/ site I used the Google Toolbar to search
the site.

Siliconsamurai-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by siliconsamurai-ga on 08 Jul 2002 12:14 PDT

I see that I didn't address your question about whether it was
reasonable to expect the student to come to your home.  Yes, this is
entirely reasonable but you are opening yourself up for liability,
hence my recommendation that you contact your insurance agent very
early in the planning process.

Also, I may not have been clear that one reason for contacting
teachers is to try and get them to recommend you to students who need
tutoring.  Other ways including just putting an ad up in grocery
stores or networking through parents.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by madamegilbert-ga on 15 Jul 2002 13:18 PDT

Though I believe I may have to do in-person tutoring, my subject line
of "tutoring or working at home over the internet" indicated my
willingness to tutor there.  It is mostly because I have been
frustrated with Tutor.com (where I paid $25 to be verified and never
heard anything from the verifiers) that I feel I must do in-person
tutoring.  However, if you know of any online opportunities, I would
actually prefer them (because of liability issues, etc.).

---

Clarification of Answer by siliconsamurai-ga on 16 Jul 2002 05:16 PDT

Hi. While I focused on answering your actual question "I would like
information on how to find legitimate work-at-home jobs in the Detroit
area. I do not want information on work involving cold calls, psychic
lines, or sex-related work.  Specifically, I would love to tutor from
my home," I actually did check out the online possibilities and,
simply put, there aren't any legitimate ones. Online tutoring just
doesn't appear to work as a business.

I can offer a suggestion which might possibly work -  try to get
students to use instant messaging for most of your tutorial sessions.

But people who pay for tutoring are looking for personal contact, if
they were comfortable doing this online or didn't require personal
motivation then they would simply go to one of the many excellent
homework help sites.

Here's an idea to eliminate the liability problem - can you make
arrangements with some local church or service organization so you can
hold your tutorial sessions on their site? This isn't exactly what you
asked about since it isn't done in your home, but you appear to have
expanded your question to include other possibilities and it is a way
to be self-employed and still avoid the liability problems.

I believe I have fully answered your initial $2.50 question accurately
and completely and hope you will take a moment to give my answer a
fair rating, but if you want more clarification I'll be happy to try
and help further. If you wish a complete analysis of the potential for
online tutoring, I believe that it would only be fair if that were
submitted as another question since it wasn't really part of your
initial query.

Good luck in your venture, as with most home-based jobs, it has
potential but will require a lot of "selling" on your part to make it
a success.

---

Clarification of Answer by siliconsamurai-ga on 18 Aug 2002 09:57 PDT

Hi, even though you've already rated this answer and don't expect
anything additional, I am posting a clarification in hopes you will be
notified of it.

I wanted to let you know that yahoo has started a phone-help,
work-at-home operation which you might want to investigate. I didn't
look into it too deeply but it appears that you get paid by the minute
to answer questions which are forwarded to your home phone.  I know
this is legitimate, although I can't promise that it's really for you
or will actually make you any real money.

Go to advice.yahoo.com for more information.

This service is very different from Google Answers, in large part
because the yahoo workers simply sign up and don't pass the rigorous
testing and supervision we do here at Google.

Hope this gets through to you and best of luck.

Thanks!

Dear Madame Gilbert, 

I am afraid my first finding is not good news. Most (legit) home based
jobs in the Internet business are sales-related or technology related.
By "sales" I mean trying to sell products online or various marketing
techniques, some on the verge of the illegal or immoral (such as
spamming).

In the academic field, there are no many tutoring sites left today
that actually pay the teachers. There are sites, like
www.liveadvice.com, to which people call with request to advice (guess
what are the most popular ones - the ones you rightfully rejected);
and there are "worse" sites for the rich-but-lazy student - ones that
offer to write papers for a fee (that's not illegal, but it is hardly
moral). Legit tutoring or teaching is hardly profitable, because of
all the sites that offer about the same for free. There are several
sites that offer classes for fee - I am not sure how many people
choose to use them and actually pay:
* http://home.universalclass.com/ (you can write a course and get
money from the people enrolled to the course)
You can find many more under this category: 
* http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Education/Courses/Online/Fee_Based/

Finally, another advice is to use the web to promote yourself (a
web-page; emailing) - but for a "traditional" home-tutoring, the same
that is advisertised throughout papers, schools, etc.

I hope that helped, please contact me if you need anything else, 
politicalguru-ga

Dear  Madame Gilbert ,

 There are opportunities for tutoring online and so also for home
tutoring .

 The following links might be of some use .

 1. 

     ... We connect teachers with students of all levels for online or
in person tutoring ... Tutorial and Scotopic Screening Service - Home
business of tutorial ...

dmoz.org/Reference/Education/Products_and_Services/
Services_for_Hire/Tutoring/


 2.

     NEED A TUTOR?   CHECK HERE FOR TUTORING IN YOUR AREA!
Cities are listed in alphabetical order under each state category.

Also if you want to set up your tutoring business online then the
following site might be of help .

  http://www.cleverapple.com/tutors.htm


 with regards ,

  blueskies .

Madame,
I work for an English as a Second Language program that teaches
adults.  We have a Tutor List that we maintain for our students, but
we do not endorse any one.  We merely give out the contact information
and the cost per hour and then it is up to the student to make the
arrangements with the tutor.  Some of our tutors have the students
come to their homes, while others go to the students. Some tutors
specialize in children or teens while others only adults.  Some work
on an individual basis and others in groups.  It is your business, so
you can do it however you wish and feel most comfortable.

The least expensive and quickest way to get started would be for you
to find a local ESL class and ask if you can be added to their tutor
list or if they will start one. If they have a list going, they should
be able to give you an idea of the "going rate" so you will know what
to charge.  If they don't want to maintain a tutor list perhaps you
could make up flyers and post them near the classes.  If there is a
university close to where you live they probably have an international
student population that you could tap into.

You might consider offering a free conversation class at a local
coffee shop or community center and let things blossom from there. My
information has mostly to do with English, but it might work with
French as well.  Good luck.
Tan-ga

When I tutored, I met students in university/college libraries--safe,
quiet & no liability issues. Good luck.