Customer Reviews

Tutoring as a Successful Business - An Expert Tutor Shows You How

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a great book for people who want an anecdotal account of the author's tutoring experience. It is also probably very good for those who are tutoring or wanting to get a glimpse of how to tutor many different types of students in many different subjects. I was looking for something that was more business involved. Although the title implies such a book, it only devotes about 56 pages of the 243 pages to this topic. Much of the information could be read in other generic small business books.
In short, I was disappointed because the title is very deceiving. If you want to know the business side of tutoring, get a book for small business. If you want to read some stories of how she has successfully tutored some very difficult children, by all means, read this book. I would suggest checking it out at your local library to read the 56 pages on the business side of tutoring.

I've been a professional tutor for the last two years and involved in for-profit education in some way since 2001. Now that I've gained some tutoring skills, I'm thinking about starting my own firm, and I picked this book up looking for strategies about how to start a tutoring business. This author clearly loves what she's doing. Her compassion for her students is admirable. She sees tutoring as an accessible profession that everybody does to some extent, and she feels that others can follow her model closely and become tutors.

Like other reviewers, I was disappointed that she spent at most 1/3 of the book talking about the business side of tutoring. Perhaps she doesn't want to fully train someone to compete with her. She briefly mentions things like "Doing Business As" announcements in the final third of the book. She helpfully shares what marketing strategies have worked for her, and she gives several helpful anecdotes about what working with parents and students. I really wish that she had expanded this section because the practical advice she has to share is what separates this book from many other offerings on the market.

How you find the other 2/3 of the book will depend on what kind of tutoring you wish to attack. Probably the best thing here is that so many types of tutoring is addressed. She describes young kids, properly labeled Learning Disabled kids, falsely labeled Learning Disabled kids, adult learners, exam prep students, and other relevant case studies. Yet she doesn't really go into great depth on any of these issues. I tutor SAT, and I did not learn a great deal about teaching students from this book. Sadly, she doesn't go into great depth on ACT or graduate exam tutoring. On the other hand, I've always thought working with middle school and elementary school students would be tough for me and this book exposes me to the attitudes that have made her a successful tutor.

My suspicion is that this author is trying to vault into educational consulting from the tutoring ranks. It's a fine line. How do I share enough info to be classified as an expert without sharing so much that I train someone to compete with me? For the most part, strong tutors will gain from a quick skim and then find other resources in either the small business field or the educational literature that are more helpful. Still I believe that this is a helpful book that is worth picking up used or from a library as part of the background research for finding whether you have a calling for tutoring.

3 stars

--SD

postscript: I see that some reviewers are concerned that she bashes teachers. She is a little hard on teachers, but this is somewhat understandable. I don't think that she was a teacher before she started tutoring [unlike myself and most tutors]. Consequently, she hears mostly from students who have poor teachers and need tutoring. Most students from excellent classes with strong teachers will have their needs met in the classroom and are less likely to cross the author's path.

When my daughter was born, I knew I wanted to stay home with her. Since my main work experience was in education, I figured tutoring would be the best home-based business for me. This book confirmed my feelings and also made me think about things I hadn't yet thought of. It was very helpful and well written!

I agree with the reviewer who said the title is misleading. I do wish there were more about the business side of tutoring, but I find Eileen's advertising experiences very helpful, as well as her experiences in hiring other tutors to work with her. I thought this was a fascinating look into the career of a tutor with many examples of real students, their challenges, and the methods used to overcome those challenges. It is more narrative than instructional, and I really enjoyed this approach rather than the strict "how-to" approach in others I've read. Eileen is obviously very intelligent and highly dedicated, and her approach to tutoring is inspiring and insightful. She is highly attentive to the emotional states of her students.Overall, a great read, but it won't answer all your questions about tutoring.

Based on the tone of this book and the anecdotes it contains, Mrs. Shapiro, the author, seems like an excellent teacher and tutor. However, because I am not new to the field of education, this book was not useful for me. If you have never taught students before, and you need the information and motivation to start your own tutoring business, then by all means, buy this book! If you're already a teacher or a tutor, then you just don't need this book, unless you have trouble exercising common sense in either the business aspect or the educational aspect of tutoring.

The message the book conveys is certainly positive: that we tutors must always believe that our students can succeed. But this concept is much too rudimentary for teachers and tutors who are already involved in students' successes. It's true what the other reviewers have said; most of the book is anecdotes about how Mrs. Shapiro has helped students through tutoring. Her formulaic approach grew tiresome: "Sandy Sue was X years old. She really needed help with Y and Z. I helped her. Her life got better. Hooray!"

A few problems plague the book. Strangely, though the book was copyrighted in 2001, in the chapters about advertising and communicating with parents, there is no mention of the Internet or e-mail. The resources that the author provides in the appendices are embarrassingly basic. And while no book is edited to perfection, this book contained many strange errors in hyphenation, and two entire chapters are inserted twice, giving the book a thickness that belies its superficiality.

Finally, if you're going to purchase this book because you've never taught children before, and you want to start your own tutoring business, then I beg you, for the sake of your students, to read a whole lot more than just this book before you start. For example, after reading Chapter 3, "The `Can't-Read' Kids," PLEASE read both of the following books before you actually start tutoring kids in reading: Jerry L. Johns' "Basic Reading Inventory" and Kylene Beers' "When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do." These two books will give you a much deeper understanding of how you can identify and cure students' problems with reading.

I not only have read this book but spoken with the author. I have learned so much tutoring itself and feel good about starting a business tutoring out of my home.Everyone who wants to start tutoring should read this book.

Eileen Shapiro draws upon her many years of experience and expertise as a successful master tutor, to write Tutoring As A Successful Business. This firm, explicit, basic guide is strongly recommended reading for anyone with the aspiration, knowledge and wherewithal to be their own boss. Chapters cover such topics as working with special needs children, working with parents, choosing one's market, what to charge and how to advertise, countless anecdotal stories and much more. Tutoring As A Successful Business is an absolute "must" for anyone looking to get a job in one-on-one teaching, whether for a few extra dollars on the side, or as a lifetime primary career!

This is indeed a handy book to read on tutoring because it not only starts from Mrs. Shapiro's very first client (she tells you of how anxious she was, she describes the client, explains what she did to help him out, and eventually the successful little boy he became) but it continues to cover what she did over the years (the changes, improvements, the "what to do AND what not to do" etc) up until the present. It helped me to look at her tutoring tactics from a big picture point of view since she spans over 27 years of tutoring in her concise book. I highly recommend it. Informative and helpful.

I am a middle school science teacher starting to tutor after school. I looked at many books and this is the overall best book on the subject of tutoring. It gives good tips on teaching students from primary grades to college student. I also liked the section on the business of tutoring including types of advertising.
My biggest complaint with the book is the blatent dislike of teachers. Mrs. Shapiro has numerous examples of teachers treating students and other tutors with callousness and disrespect. My personal experience with other teachers in how we deal with students is not like that at all.
I do recomend the book, just try to remember all teachers are not as nasty as the author portrays us.

Shapiro provides much valuable information near the 2nd part of her book as to the practical specifics of starting a tutoring business. However, I find the benefit of this information to be overshadowed by her nasty, anti-teacher attitude. Her comments and tone suggest that teachers are lazy, selfish, and unwilling to help their students outside of the confines of the daily class period. As a former teacher, I am totally offended; that is simply a huge generalization to make about an entire profession. Every profession has its losers, but teaching has no more than any other vocation.
This poor attitude, in addition to the author's cocky tone, seriously compromised the value of this book. Tutoring is one of the easiest businesses to launch; take the $12.89 this book costs and instead put it toward your classified ad.