One thing I forgot to mention is to have a simple written contract which states if they cancel a lesson with less than 24 hours notice (or longer if you wish), they have to pay for it. I’d also recommend getting paid reasonably frequently. Each lesson, each week or each fortnight. No longer for this kind of small on-the-side tutoring.

Good luck…and don’t overspend on your first “marketing” attempts.

Some of the things we did to promote our English teaching business could help you out. When we started up we…
* left fliers around local Universities, libraries and cafes.
* put up A4 posters in the same places, plus church + community notice boards, etc.
* left business cards (free ones from vistaprint.com) everywhere.
* gave students who referred new people to us a free lesson after the new student had stayed for a month.
* contacted local schools and told them about our tutoring services. (Only had one referral in three years, but it was only an hour’s investment.)

One person I know did free one hour conversation classes in a cafe once a fortnight and ‘upsold’ private lessons from there.

We ran the business from our living room, but went to clients houses for lessons. We were often teaching immigrant high school children or the wives of foreign business people. Your situation is different; perhaps arrange first meetings (or perhaps all your lessons) in a public place, like a quiet cafe.

I guess you can easily cross-promote your medical tutoring when the time comes.

Once I finish my fourth year, I will probably teach anatomy and biochemisty and the like to lower year students. But that is two years from now, unfortunately.

Sorry about the tons of Q’s but my situation is different from most. Thanks guys!!

In many countries you ought to have a freelance or even a work visa, but often-times it passes under the radar.