Some cities have homestay businesses that cater to a variety of colleges and universities. The institution hires the homestay organization to take care of everything from homestay assessment, to student placement, to airport pickup, to management of funds.
The homestay organization makes money from student fees, such as the registration fee, the pickup fee, the change of homestay fee, and a percentage of students’ monthly fees. For example, a student might pay $700 per month in homestay fees. The homestay organization might keep $50, passing the remaining $650 on to the homestay family.
The homestay business is not for everyone. People with strong organizational skills, well-developed interpersonal skills, and patience are best suited for the job, as the work is people-centered and often involves coping with individuals’ feelings and emotions.
Which ESL Option is Right for You?
The ESL industry is a new sector in the economy, and there is a great deal of room for growth, development, and change. With the right people, the right plan, and the right attitude (i.e., the “student as customer” philosophy), the opportunities are limitless.
Before continuing on in this book, spend a few moments considering your background and work style. This will help you figure out which business option is best for you — an ESL tutorial service or an ESL school.
Regardless of the results, you should read through all the chapters in this book before making a final decision.
Good luck!
Part 2
Starting and Running an ESL Tutorial Service
3
Understanding Your Role in the ESL-Tutoring Market
Hiring a tutor is a way for new immigrants and international students in public and private school systems to get ahead. With its personalized lessons and one-on-one attention, tutoring works for people from all walks of life, from the newly landed young person struggling to keep up with his or her middle-school classmates to the adult student needing a crash course in TOEFL in order to enter a North American post-secondary institution. Immigrant parents of young children hire language tutors and homework helpers, as do international graduate students and businesspeople with money available for language lessons or assistance with the writing or editing of documents and essays.
In Asia and many other parts of the world, hiring a tutor for help in English (and math and science) is common practice. When students come to North America to study English at a private ESL school or college, some hire conversation tutors to enhance their classroom performance. Students who have only a limited amount of time overseas might need one-on-one expert help in specific areas such as business English, TOEFL, or TOEIC. Some students even choose to attend classes part time, devoting the remainder of their time to private lessons and self-study.
Affluent parents of university-bound immigrant youth often send their children to after-school institutions that offer personalized academic help. Some seek out tutorial services that have tutors who conduct lessons in students’ homes.
A recent trend in the industry is to provide ESL services to international students with special needs, such as physical impairments or even social and emotional issues that make participation in a typical ESL classroom difficult or overwhelming.
Exploring Your Market
In order to determine what kind of tutorial service you are going to operate, you need to explore your market options. First, find out what kind of ESL students live and study in your area. Are they international students preparing for university or college in North America? Are they visitors looking for a few months of overseas fun and conversation with native English speakers? Are they new immigrants who have children struggling in the English-based school system?
You also need to find out how many students in your area come from countries that understand and value personalized language instruction. How many students hired tutors in their home country? More important, how many would be willing to pay for such services overseas?
Another consideration is the expectations of the students. What kind of tutorial arrangement are the students accustomed to? Do they prefer a formal arrangement that is signed and sealed in contract form or an informal agreement, with flexibility in terms of times, location, and even payment schedule? What kind of tutorial facility are they expecting — an official tutorial-business site? A public place, such as a library or a café? The tutor’s home? The student’s home?
Understanding students’ expectations regarding money is also important. How much do students expect to pay for tutorial services? And what do they expect to be covered by that fee — textbooks? Photocopied materials? A ride to and from the tutorial site? Coffee and/or snacks?
The more you can find out about what students expect, the better you can plan how you will meet their needs.
Finding a Niche Market
Now that you have a clear picture of your market, it is time to make decisions regarding your operation. Are you planning to have an official location, equipped with tutorial rooms and set hours of operation? Or are you going to go the more portable route, with a website and telephone number as contact information, and a variety of location choices available to students, such as their home, your home, and the library?
Part of your decision should be based on where you see a gap in the market. If your area already has an established tutorial service that serves the after-school immigrant market, you might want to offer parents an alternative setup with flexible hours and more personalized service. Or you might simply pursue the international student market.
On a similar note, if your area does not have a formal tutorial service, but instead features a loose network of people willing to tutor, you might want to establish a formal business that unites them under one umbrella.
Finding your niche requires legwork. The first step is finding out what is missing in your area. You then need to talk to prospective students about the options they would like to have. For example, there may be a need for evening or weekend tutoring. Or, perhaps international students would make good use of a drop-in center.
Keeping an eye out for new and emerging markets — such as international students with disabilities or immigrants running businesses who have shaky English skills — will also help you stay competitive.
4
Developing Your Programs and Services
Whether you have chosen to open a formal tutorial service for immigrant youth, an informal tutor network for adult international students, or a combination of education services, your programs and services must match the needs, desires, and expectations of your clientele. Your programs and services also need to be easily understood by your target market.
Tutoring programs differ from school programs in that they are created to suit the specific needs of a particular individual. The actual tutorial program cannot really begin until after the student is assessed and interviewed about his or her strengths and weaknesses, short-term and long-term goals, and areas of interest. However, the system of tutorial delivery can and should be developed before students access your services. In short, before you open your doors (or telephone lines), you need to set up an assessment system and a schedule outlining program-delivery options. Making decisions about assessments and program delivery requires some big-picture planning.
Big Picture