“What’s the best way to start out as a tutor — on my own, through a franchise, or as an employee?”
What’s the safest and smartest way to start tutoring?
This is a difficult question to answer as we all have different starting points and end goals. Starting your own business as a franchisee or on your own requires a lot of commitment and hard work, yet at the same time they offer you the biggest opportunity for freedom and growth.
However, although each of the three options (as with most things in life) will have it’s draw backs they each also provide amazing opportunities.
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1. I really want to tutor — but I don’t know how to get started.
When anyone starts something new there is always an element of insecurity. Especially when your future and potentially your whole lively hood depends upon it. The term “what if…?” is always present in their mind.
In this article, we will walk through some of the answers to questions that you might be considering right now so that you can move forward with more clarity.
2. What are my actual options?
In this section we will consider, in turn, a jargon-free breakdown of the three key options
Going solo/self-employed
Joining a franchise
Getting an employed tutor job (e.g. through schools or agencies)
Comparison Table: What are your actual options in becoming a tutor?
🧭 1. Going Solo / Self-Employed
This is potentially the scariest option as you are “on your own” you are your own boss; there is no one within your business to tell you what to do. You are completely responsible for whatever happens.
What does this mean: You work independently; you set your own hours, rates, and methods. Everything.
Responsibilities: You do your own marketing, client communication, scheduling, and finances. You are again responsible for everything.
Income potential: You keep 100% of what you earn (minus expenses), but getting clients may take time.
Set-up tasks: Registering as self-employed, getting a DBS check, insurance, optional website/social media.
Setting up as self-employed was how I started my journey as a tutor back in 2012. It can feel overwhelming at first, especially if you don’t see yourself as a ‘business-person’. I had done GCSE and A’ Level business studies many years before, but in the real they counted for very little. My main experience of working in a business was helping my dad out in the summer holidays as a teenager.
But there is so much support out there in how you can start and grow a business, that you will no doubt find that with each new student your confidence will grow.
I found that as I proved to myself, I could do it, and I got positive testimonials my confidence grew, and I threw myself further into the business and I enjoyed it more and more. I could create it around my principles and my beliefs. It became more than just a business, more than just a job. It was something I was proud of. Something I was emotionally attached to.
🤝 2. Joining a Franchise
When you join a franchise there is a trade-off; there is a body of support, but there are other sacrifices instead.
What it means: You operate under an established tutoring brand with systems and resources already in place.
What’s provided: Marketing, student leads, lesson resources, systems for admin.
Costs and contracts: Usually an upfront fee and/or ongoing commission. You may have less freedom with pricing or lesson format.
Pros: Less pressure to “figure it all out alone”; faster setup.
Limitations: Less flexibility, ongoing fees, possible pressure to meet targets.
If the thought of doing it all alone makes you freeze, this might offer a reassuring bridge, especially if you can find a franchise which aligns with your values.
In the early days of starting my business someone I am close to suggested that maybe I should buy into a particular tutoring franchise. This person would provide me with the initial funding if I wanted to go ahead. The franchise had an established name and reputation, and I would gain sustainable income much quicker. But this franchise’s method of teaching by rote so misaligned with what I believed in with having worked in early years and with special needs children for over a decade, it felt wrong. It felt like I would be selling my soul to the devil!
As mentioned previously, if there is a franchise that aligns with your values it could be an option worth considering.
🧑🏫 3. Getting an Employed Tutor Role (e.g. with a School, Charity, or Agency)
This option will feel like the safest path, but it offers the least flexibility.
What it means: You are hired as a tutor (part-time or full-time), often with fixed hours, a salary, and a clear role/ instruction on how to present the lessons.
Where to find these roles: Schools, tuition agencies, charities, national tutoring programmes.
What’s covered: You don’t need to worry about finding clients, marketing, or admin.
Pay: Often lower than solo tutoring, but predictable and stable.
Limitations: Fixed hours, curriculum, and limited flexibility in approach.
If stability is more important to you right now than autonomy, gaining a job as a tutor can give you experience, income, and confidence without the pressure of running your own business (yet). It will give you an insight into what tutoring entails and the chance to decide whether it is something you would like to take further.
These days I have 14 tutors working for me in our local area. They get to choose their own hours and most of them are employed as PAYE, so I take care of their tax, insurance, etc. However, I am also very firm that our ethos is that we build confidence and every lesson is tailored to the needs of the individual. We do not provide a one style suits all approach. They must adapt to the needs of that specific child. So, although with one hand I do give some flexibility and freedom, with the other hand I am very firm with the presentation of the actual lessons: the use of resources, etc.
3. Which one feels the safest?
Do you have a gut instinct that you are leaning towards?
Most people have a fear of failing, the legal stuff, imposter syndrome.
There is no one defined answer and often by standing back and looking at things from a wider angle you can see the safety nets that can be created for each option.
Option 1
setting out on your own seems the most terrifying as you are 100% responsible. It seems like there is no one there to guide you or catch you if you fall. However, there are many mentors and coaches out there which can offer you support. There are Facebook groups you can join where you can ask questions and seek the answers that you need.
Option 2
is a big financial commitment and what if you can’t keep up with their targets?
Again, as mentioned previously, they have support staff in place to help you. They want you to succeed because it reflects far better on their brand if you do and makes it easier for them to sell more franchises to more people moving forward. They can’t do it for you, it is still your business, your responsibility, but they can offer you the knowledge, the guidance, the path to help you to reach your targets.
Option 3
getting employment as a tutor through an external company removes most of the fears you don’t need to be responsible for the marketing, finding students, asking for money, removing families who are unreliable and don’t pay or don’t turn up for the lessons.
None of that is your responsibility. You can just go to work, do what you must do and leave again.
But maybe that is why you have considered tutoring because you want to leave that conveyor belt style of work and life behind you. You don’t want to just go through the motions any more…
There is no one defined answer and often by standing back and looking at things from a wider angle you can see the safety nets that can be created for each option.
4. What if I want flexibility — but I don’t want to be totally alone?
You may feel as if you are going around and around in circles at this point. You want work-life balance but you also want support structures. You want flexibility, but you also don’t want the isolation of working for yourself.
As your own boss you are responsible for creating your own work life balance. If you choose to work 4 days a week and take 3 days off that is up to you. What you will need to do is plan how you will afford to do this. How many lessons do I need to complete at what price to fulfil this goal? Knowing your numbers: your personal costs and expenses, your business costs, your lifestyle costs, etc is paramount. Once you know your costs and the number of hours you want to work, you can establish your tutoring cost per hour. Is this feasible? Will people be willing to pay this? Does it seem a bit high? If it does, is there something I can do that will not cost me anymore but will make my lessons still appear good value at this price?
Since early on in the business I have had mentors. Sometimes they have been 1:1, other times I have found group mentors depending on what I needed at that particular point in this business. It has kept me on track and put me around other people who have similar (or bigger) goals, who are in a similar position to me (or further along their journey).
It has provided me with others to inspire and guide me.
It has taught me things that I would otherwise have been oblivious to (such as creating a knowledge centre of commonly asked questions such as this one, on my website). I have experienced firsthand the advantages of having a support system around me, though it has always been generic business support which is one reason why I created the “Tutors Support Group” so that tailored group or 1:1 support was available for those who wanted to start or grow their tutoring business.
Having a mentor or by joining Facebook groups you will find that some of the feeling of isolation will be removed. I often found that there are times when I wanted to talk about the business: some of my aspirations, goals, worries, challenges but wondered who I could talk to. My kids look bored; my mum would get concerned; maybe I should get a “proper job”. But a mentor removes some of that, they give you that listening ear. Sometimes what you need isn’t advice it’s just someone that you can voice something to.
I can remember a few years ago, speaking to my mentor and she asked a fairly simple question (I forget now what it was) and I just broke down into tears. Everything I had been keeping bottled up just flowed out in a torrent of tears. It was incredible. So, with her advice, that afternoon I went into London and met my youngest for lunch before coming home in the evening and setting of for my lessons as normal.
What I guess I am trying to say, is you can do it yourself but still have support around you to guide you.
5. I’m not great with business stuff. Will I have to market myself?
In all honesty, the only real method of protecting yourself from doing the “business stuff” is to be employed by someone else who will do it for you.
However, as with each of the points up to this point there are options. If you purchase a franchise, there are systems in place to support you with this. They will guide you and tell you what to do. They will potentially do some of your marketing for you at Head Office (this is partly what the monthly fees might be for – check what they cover). Although it is unlikely that they will promote your personal business, they will promote the brand helping draw attention to it on a national level.
There are also means of hiring people to help you on a short-term basis so that they can take on the responsibility. Or, with the help of Google and the internet you can also find many answers to your questions for free. It just means dedicating time, instead of money. When you open your business bank account you may also find that they will offer you much of the guidance you need to complete the early legal steps of starting your business.
The only real method of protecting yourself from doing the “business stuff” is to be employed by someone else who will do it for you
6. Can I try one way and switch later?
Yes, of course. You’re not locked into a decision forever. Starting as an employee will give you the opportunity to discover whether you actually enjoy tutoring before taking the plunge and going for it alone. You might decide to do it yourself, but then discover that actually, I enjoy tutoring but not the stress of running a business so you seek out work as an employee or purchase a franchise to remove an element of that stress.
You might decide to start your own business but then decide that if I was to buy into a franchise, I would have a lot of the groundwork already down and I would move my business considerably further into maturity.
Things can change. Your circumstances and your goals will inevitably change over time. When I started, my kids still lived at home. They are now all adults; my oldest is engaged to be married with a young lad and another baby due in just a week or two. My son has lived abroad for the past 3 years and my youngest is moving to Germany imminently. My original goal was to fund a summer holiday for the four of us, that is no longer relevant and my goals and my business has changed accordingly.
You can change your mind, your decision too as your life and experiences change.
7. “What’s worked for others like me?”
When I started tutoring it never crossed my mind that it was something I could do as an employee. Financially, buying a franchise wasn’t an option though, like I mentioned, someone close did offer to buy one for me. But with the benefit of over a decade of hindsight, I think I made the right choice for me. It has been slow and steady incremental steps to grow the business, but I have created my own freedom and something that is founded upon my own beliefs as to how children should be supported in their learning.
The friend that suggested I had a go at tutoring was working as an employee for an agency. She soon left that agency and moved to another. Briefly, she loved it there, but then left there as well, neither of them provided what she wanted. Sadly, the second venue was unable to survive Covid and closed during the Pandemic. Although she couldn’t find the one that worked for her, many people prefer this option as what they are seeking is the opportunity to make some extra money without the aggravation that comes along with owning your own business.
I was once chatting to a chap at a training event. It turned out that he and his wife had purchased a tutoring franchise. Their background was as teachers and they didn’t have any experience in business, so they decided to purchase a franchise and benefit from the knowledge of the people who had created this franchise, put the foundations, the knowledge, the systems into place.
We each had different starting points and end goals. I believe speaking to each of them there were aspects that we all yearned for from what the other person had, however life is never a smooth straight line; it will throw curve balls and challenges in your direction and there is no reason why you can’t take your first step in one direction today knowing that tomorrow another path may open up for your to take instead.
So, What’s next?
Whichever route you decide to take, I wish you the best of luck and here’s how we can support you:
Thinking about starting your own tutoring business?
Our membership group is designed to help you build confidence, get practical advice, and feel supported every step of the way. Whether you're just starting out or growing something that already exists, you're welcome.
Live near Aylesbury, Bucks and want to work as a tutor?
We occasionally have employed roles for maths and English tutors. Drop us an email, if you’d like to find out more.
Curious about becoming a Clara James Tutoring franchisee?
We’re not open for new applications right now, get in touch to join the waiting list to be the first to hear when we are.
Good luck. Believe in yourself, start by taking 1 small step today and you will make it happen, your way and if you’re still not sure, here’s a simple question to ask yourself: What do I need most right now — freedom, support, or stability?
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