How to Get Tutoring Clients Without a Platform

Getting tutoring clients without a platform means filling your schedule through channels where you keep direct contact with families and the whole of your rate. Platforms help when you start out. But a commission that begins at 33% hurts when tutoring pays your rent, and many tutors want to depend on it less.

What a platform really costs

On Preply, the trial lesson with a new student carries a 100% commission: it earns you nothing. After that, commission starts at 33%, drops to 28% after 20 hours taught, and goes down to 18% past 400 hours. At a $30 rate, a new tutor keeps $20.10 per lesson; an established one, $24.60.

Over a year of 15 lessons a week for 36 weeks, the gap between $30 and $20.10 comes to a little over $5,300. That number is the reason to build a direct channel, even a small one. If you also use Superprof, where the student pays to contact you, our comparison of the two platforms explains how differently they work.

One rule first: do not take students off a platform

Preply's terms forbid tutors from teaching its students outside the platform, taking payment from them directly, or nudging them to pay another way. A suspended account costs more than the commission ever will. So the goal is not to move your Preply students. It is to make sure new students reach you through your own channels.

Direct channels that work

No single channel is enough. Combine three or four and watch which ones bring paying students.

Word of mouth, on purpose

A happy family talks about you if you ask. Request a short written review after a term, offer a free session to the family that refers someone, and hand them a message they can forward as is. Our tips on getting reviews and referrals cover the method.

A Google profile to be found nearby

Parents search for "maths tutor" plus the name of their town. A free Google Business Profile with your service area, subjects and a few reviews puts you on the map. It keeps working while you teach.

Local listings and boards

Local classified sites and community boards are still a direct channel with no cut taken from your lessons. A precise listing (level, subject, neighbourhood, rate) draws more serious enquiries than a vague one. Notices in libraries, bakeries and parent associations work too, especially in September and January.

Music schools, clubs and community centres

Sports clubs, music schools and community centres get tutoring requests they cannot handle. A short email with your profile, your free slots and your rate is often enough to get on their list.

Turning a direct enquiry into a student

A student who contacts you directly has none of a platform's safety nets, so reassure them:

• Reply fast, within the hour if you can, with a slot to offer.
• Offer a clear first lesson: length, goal and price stated up front.
• Put it in writing before you start: rate, frequency, cancellation rule, payment method.
• Invoice properly from the first month.

A family paying you directly judges how serious you are on three things: how fast you reply, how clear your price is, and how clean your invoice looks.

If you teach in France, our free lesson contract generator drafts that written agreement, cancellation and payment terms included.

Keep the platforms, lose the dependence

Nothing forces you to quit. You can keep a Superprof or Preply profile as a side source with one simple target: half of each year's new students arriving through direct channels. Note where every student came from when they sign up. After one term, you will know which channel deserves your time.

Direct students also change how you run the business side. With no platform collecting the money, you send the invoices, track who has paid and chase the late ones yourself. Set that up before the first direct student arrives, not after the tenth.

Sources

• Preply commission model, help.preply.com
• Preply Terms of Service (PDF)
• Google Business Profile
• Superprof