How to Start an Online Tutorial Business in the Philippines

The availability of the World Wide Web and everything that we can do on the internet make it a free-for-all quest for everyone who wishes to explore its limitless possibilities. One of these promises is to be able to tap into the potential job opportunities that are readily available but only to those who know how to find them.

Indeed, knowledge is power and anyone who has the right ideas at the perfect moment can smoothly claim financial success even by just having the right tools and investing enough time to learn the tricks of the trade.

One of these potential earning opportunities for Filipinos is learning how to make money from online tutorials.

Online teaching, commonly known as online tutorial, belongs to a progressive job market under one of the biggest online industries in the Philippines. The reasons behind the industry’s success are that, aside from its accessible and practical purposes for its prospective clients, it does not even require a formal physical office to operate.

If you are one of those aspiring individuals whose life goal is to start their own business, particularly an online tutorial company, this article will give you and your dream a little push.

If you are hesitant because you lack the knowledge and even just the basics of starting an online tutorial in the Philippines, you don’t have to worry.

Enumerated below is a 4-step guide on how to start your own start-up tutorial company in the Philippines.

1. Research
If you are about to venture into anything unfamiliar, doing a proper research should always be your first step. There are a lot of business success stories that started from the smallest ideas, but they never mentioned anything about what happens in the background.

For example, you already have an idea of what business you want to pursue, in this case, an online English tutorial company. It is important that you should be familiar with the basics of starting a business. In this particular circumstance, a tutorial company requires you to do a market research and ask these questions:

• What are the common demands of foreign students and what services can my company offer to satisfy those demands?
• Who will be my target students and how would I develop learning materials that could readily address their learning needs?
• How did existing online tutorial companies fare during the early stages of their companies and what can I learn from them?

Knowing what you are dealing with will always help you figure out the right steps to take in order to succeed.

2. Have the right tools
Managing an online tutorial business also requires the proper tools to address the demands of your company. In this case, as an online teaching provider, you should be able to point out one by one which software tools you will be needing not only to teach students online but also to manage transactions in the background.

Here are several tools that you can use in your business operations:

a. Skype – as a free tool for video and voice chatting, Skype is one of the main tools that other ESL companies use to connect both students and tutors during their lessons. This program is also user-friendly and have different features to facilitate learning.

In addition, Skype features a real time chat translator that can be helpful for beginner students who might have a hard time understanding teachers during class.

Here are other aspects of the application that can be useful:

• You can use the software anytime and through different devices such as PC, tablets and smartphones.
• It lets you share files with students quickly and easily.
• Video lessons can be possible as well as screen-sharing.
• Typing while on video call is a possibility and it could boost a clearer communication between tutor and student.

b. Dropbox
Cloud storage services are really helpful especially if you offer training resources and materials for your tutorial lessons. One of the perks of having a cloud storage like Dropbox is that, it gives you the ability to access lesson materials anytime.

The good thing about it is that, it is a secure storage to protect the exclusivity of your companies’ materials by controlling which folders you want students to access.

Dropbox also offers real-time collaboration feature so that you and your student can both work on one material at the same time.

c. Software for administrative management
Operating your business does not only require tools to facilitate in the actual services that you are offering. As an owner, one of your roles is to manage the business as well as administrative elements of your tutorial company. For this reason, you will need business management software applications to help you do the work.

Business management tools made specifically for tutorial business are available online and most of them offer the following advantages:

• Arranging a scheduler for your teaching as well as training sessions
• Invoicing students and calculating consumed training sessions.
• Generating billing and payment receipts for easier transactions.
• It also covers revenue reports.
• Runs business expense reports to give you an overview of how your business is doing.

3. Choose your services
Current trends in the ESL industry highlight two types of online tutoring services: catering to students by following specific academic curriculum and those who offer interactive online course that cover different sets of students’ learning demands.

Some companies based in the Philippines are mostly those that cater to a free and interactive set of clients, offering different lesson materials depending on the demands of the students.

For instance, businessmen from non-English speaking countries complete the highest population of English learners taught by Filipino tutors. As a response, ESL companies have their services focused on providing materials that could improve their Business Communication Skills, enriching their vocabularies with business-related materials and articles.

Another example is providing students with basic examination reviews for job-related language proficiency tests for Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) – both are factors for job promotions in companies in Japan and other first world countries in Asia.

4. Find the right people
Perhaps the most crucial step of all is to find the right people for your company. Skills should be the top priority especially expertise for the business that you are planning to run. However, since your employees will be interacting with different types of people every day, they need to possess the right attitude to handle a dynamic work environment.

Related article (How to Become an Online English Tutor in the Philippines)

Tutorial business in the Philippines, particularly English as Second Language (ESL) companies is at its golden age, having been recognized by students and clients from Asia and the rest of the world as a country with a large percentage of English-speaking population.

This asset of being expert at speaking and writing the global language that is English has been constantly recognized by investors and potential business owners across continents and this is the reason why they flock to the country to start their own start-ups – so why can’t you try it yourself?

Of course don’t forget to secure business permits and register your start-up business with various applicable government agencies to make it legal, compliant and duly registered. Here’s a list of basic business licenses in the Philippines for your guide:

a.Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration – for registering as a partnership or corporation

b. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) registration – for registering your business trade name (BTR) and as a single proprietorship business.

c. Mayor’s business permit – for getting the license to operate in the city or municipality and payment of your local business taxes.

d. BIR registration – for getting TIN, official receipts and invoices, registering your books of accounts, and paying your national internal revenue taxes (Income tax, VAT or Percentage Tax, Withholding Taxes, etc.,).

e. SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-Ibig Fund registration – for registering yourself or company as an employer and for remitting your employees’ contribution together with your employer’s share.

Other requirements may also be required by the government depending on your business size and other secondary business operations.