Similar to a tutoring business, exam preparation businesses are niche services that are offered to a specific audience: students. Whether students are recruited from the local high school or college and university depends solely on your area of expertise and capabilities. So without further ado, here’s how you can start an exam preparation business.
When exam time rolls around, students diligently stick their noses to books and absorb as much as possible to ensure good results. But not everyone can do it on their own. Sometimes, they need help. This can be to help them with the discipline of studying, making study notes such as flash cards or mind maps, or to explain difficult concepts that are not quite landing. With numerous subjects to choose from across various grades and levels, finding the foundation to build your business on is easy. Best yet, you don’t need to have a tech-heavy business, and it is low-investment . This one, you can start with just your phone!
Identify the Need
Young entrepreneurs below the age of 18 and adults alike can explore starting an exam prep service. Your starting point will be to identify your areas of expertise.
For Under 18:
- Which subjects do you excel at?
- Do you always receive top marks for a particular subject?
- Are you able to articulate a problem and explain how to solve it clearly?
- Do you have tools that you rely on, like old exam papers, making flashcards, or mind maps?
For Adults:
- Are you knowledgeable in a particular subject?
- Do you have experience working within a certain area of expertise?
- Do you enjoy the subject and sharing knowledge about it?
Next, determine what students struggle with. Ask around at your local library, high school, or tertiary institution. Some topics seem obvious, like maths and science, but you might be surprised to see someone needs help with languages, economics or computer science.
Define your Services
Based on the research you conducted, determine what services you can offer. These may be as follows:
- Tutoring Exclusively for Exams: This type of tutoring only happens before exams, focusing on the contents of the exam itself. It can be one or multiple sessions of one-on-one or group sessions that
- Teaching Study Techniques: Using your own experience and some creativity, you can explore the learner’s learning style and help develop study strategies and tools that enable them to retain information much better than before.
- Exam Preparation Bootcamps: These are sprint sessions whereby one or more students join a full day or two of practice exams. They learn to work against the clock and answer as articulately and quickly as possible. It also helps show you where the student gets stuck in exams, such as particular questions, the length of certain exams, or a topic that the student struggles to understand.
You will need to indicate if your client has a preference for one-on-one preparation or if a group setting will suffice. Both have their pros and cons, like being able to generate a larger income with a group setting, but needing to consider if this negatively affects the student.
Based on the services you offer, set up a price list. Here’s an example:
- Tutoring sessions can be R100 per student per hour.
- Bootcamps can cost a similar amount, but cost additional supplies like printing worksheets that you need to factor in the cost of.
- Study techniques might also require supplies like stationery, but you can curb the cost by asking students to bring their own supplies.
Note: You don’t need to register your seasonal, solo venture like a tutoring business, but just as with any side hustle, you need to legally and accurately declare your income. If you are under the age of 18, you don’t need to declare your income.
Find a Location
Offering exam preparation services from your home might have logistical challenges. Therefore, find an appropriate space.
Start by reaching out to the school or tertiary institution that your clients attend. Inquire about space, such as an empty classroom, where you can use a chalkboard, desks, chairs and a plug point if you need your laptop.
You can also ask libraries, community centres or churches. These are non-profit organisations that are community-centred, so they shouldn’t charge you for the use of the space.
Attract Clients
As mentioned above, you can start this business with only your phone. WhatsApp for Business is a great tool in this instance. You can list your services, your business or “class hours”, as well as a link to a sign-up sheet.
Tools such as Google Forms and Google Sheets are free to use and integrate easily. You can share this link with the students who are interested in your business so they may indicate which classes or services they need help with.
From your list of customers, you can create WhatsApp groups to coordinate on which days you will deliver certain classes. For example, on Thursday at 15:30, you offer economics to Grade 11 students, but on a Friday evening, you have a group session for all ages where they can learn study techniques.
Exam preparation can be make or break for many students. This is why this is a good business idea that will always be in demand. Its seasonality also means that you are able to plan ahead, while not having to work on it full-time.
