Make Money Tutoring

I recently met a guy who is in the last year of his honours degree in Biomedical Science. The thing that struck me about him was how he is funding his education and getting money for his living expenses.

Sam (not his real name) had originally wanted to study medicine at the University of Auckland. He breezed through the Health Science first year papers and got excellent grades which guaranteed him a place in the medical programme. But, after a bit of contemplation he decided that medicine was not for him and he continued with biomedical science.

Sam is an intelligent individual and has a real passion for science. Early on in his university career he noticed that a number of his peers would approach him when they needed help with course related work. He then made a decision to start charging students for his services and to his surprise they were more than willing to pay.

Over time tutoring has become one of his business ventures to the point where he runs tutorials specifically geared towards students who are trying to gain entry into medicine. Tutorials are held 5 times a week and students are charged $40 per session. During the quieter times of the semester classes have an average size of about 25. If you do the math that’s:

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• 25 students @ $40 each = $1,000 per night
• 5 nights @ $1,000/night = $5,000 per week

As you can imagine, when it comes to test and exam times, the class size grows and he could get up to 35 students (but that is really pushing it). That nets him:

• 40 students @ $40 each = $1,400 per night
• 5 nights @ $1,600/night = $7,000 per week

To add to that, he also runs UMAT workshops during the semester breaks which bring in about $7500 for 3 days work.

As you can see, he makes himself a good amount of money doing something that he is good at and most of all enjoys doing. Yes, he does get a bit tired at times because he does have other things to attend. Besides the money he gets a lot of satisfaction knowing that he has helped a number of students in achieving their goals and getting into the medical programme. These students have gone on to recommended his services to other prospective medical students and this has helped his business grow.

What Sam has done here is taken something he knows about and enjoys doing and turned it into a very lucrative revenue stream. Anyone out there can do the same because being a tutor is not limited to tutoring subjects such as chemistry, biology or physics. It can be absolutely anything from guitar lessons to hairdressing to using the internet and so and so forth. Everyone has something that they are good at and that being said, there is bound to be people out there who are looking for someone to teach them a thing or two about what you already know and enjoy doing.

If you know what you are good at and think that people would pay for you to tutor them, go out and find those and see just how far you can go.