When I first left the classroom to start my own private teaching business, I priced my services based on what I thought was "fair." I looked around at what other tutors in my area were charging and tried to stay in that range.
That led me to charge $25 per 30-minute session.
And I wasn’t alone. Just the other day, I had a conversation with a teacher-turned-online-tutor who told me she did the exact same thing. Her reasoning? She was just starting out, and $20 felt like the local going rate.
But here’s what I told her—and what I wish someone had told me sooner:
>> Pricing too low can actually hurt your business.
It may seem like a smart way to attract clients in the beginning, but undervaluing your services causes two major problems:
It doesn’t communicate your value.You are not just a tutor. You’re a trained, experienced, professional educator. Pricing yourself like an entry-level peer makes it harder for potential clients to see the difference between someone who knows the content and someone who knows how to teach the content.
It sets you up for burnout.Even if you fill your schedule, you can’t make enough to live sustainably—especially when you factor in prep time, communication, admin work, and taxes. You’re working hard but still stuck. That’s a recipe for frustration and exhaustion.
That’s when I asked her the question that shifted everything for me:
"How much are private music lessons, dance classes, or sports training in your area?"
When I stopped comparing myself to Craigslist tutors and started modeling my business after my daughter’s dance studio—everything changed. The dance studio had policies, registration fees, and consistent monthly tuition. They weren’t just charging for time. They were charging for professional instruction.
And that’s what you provide, too.
Anyone with an aptitude for a subject can offer tutoring. But teachers? We know how to deliver transformative instruction. We know how to scaffold, differentiate, assess, and build confidence. That’s not tutoring—that’s teaching.
If we want to be seen, respected, and compensated as professionals, we need to stop marketing ourselves like bargain tutors.
You didn’t go through years of training, licensure, and classroom experience to compete with a high schooler or college student on a tutoring site.
So stop selling yourself short.
You are a teacher. Own it. Lead with it. Price like it.
If you’re not sure how to do that yet, I’ve created a free Pricing Strategies Webinar to walk you through exactly how to set sustainable, ethical, and confidence-aligned pricing.
🎥 Watch it now on YouTube → Watch HERE
Because when teachers take back their profession, students, families, and society win!