4 Tips for Building a Business Plan for a Successful Tutoring Franchise

If you love teaching, and feel passionate about imparting your knowledge on the younger generation, then why not start your own tutoring franchise? It’s a lucrative sector with plenty of profitabile possibilities. To get started, you’ll need to create a business plan that allows you to keep up with the competition in a thriving sector. These top tips will help you do so effectively.

If running a tutoring franchise sounds right up your street and you’d love to make a career change with a teaching business as soon as you can, you’ll need to understand that the sector is vast, and very competitive. The online education and training sub-sector alone is worth a whopping £4 billion and employs over 5,000 [IBISWorld]! Combat this competition with research and preparation, and build the franchise of your dreams. It all starts here.

How to build a business plan for a tutoring franchise

People often put off writing a franchise business plan, as it can seem overwhelming at first. However, it’s a necessary step when starting your own education franchise - or, indeed, any kind of franchise. Not only will you often be required to present it to your franchisor during the initial investment stages, but you’ll also have to present it to a bank or other funding body if you’re seeking financial backing.

Most importantly of all, though, your business plan will be something that YOU can look back on and dynamically update. You can make it your tutoring franchise’s bible and use it to measure your progress towards goals and keep yourself on track. Every franchise business plan should include the following elements:

• An executive summary
• A business description
• Product/service descriptions
• A management summary
• Market analysis
• Operational details
• Business premises details
• Sales and marketing plans
• Financial projections and requirements

Beyond those core components that must be covered in order for your business plan to be truly considered comprehensive, here are four tips for building a business plan specifically for a tutoring franchise. Every industry is different, and the tutoring industry has grown so much over the past couple of years, making it especially unique…

1. Detail the current market situation in your niche/sub-sector/subject of focus

Some franchise businesses in the tutoring space conduct multi-subject teaching, like Boost Education. Boost Education teaches Maths, English, Science and 11+ prep to kids between four and 16. Other tutoring franchises take a more specialised and focused approach. Mother Nature Science, for instance, is all about making science fun, while Mathnasium (as you can probably guess) is all maths, all the time.

These types of franchise could be considered different tutoring sub-sets, and whichever sub-set you’ve chosen to enter by this point will need careful exploration within your franchise business plan. It can’t just be a case of providing a rundown relevant to the entire tutoring sector. 

If you’re a franchisee with, say, computing tutoring franchise Jam Coding, you obviously need to dive into the shape of the industry as it pertains to that particular subject. The demand level for coding classes heading into 2022 might be far higher than the demand level for, for example, Latin classes heading into 2022, and if that’s the case, you should take the time to reflect this in your plan.

2. Include comprehensive costings and equipment details

This one is especially important if you plan to show your business plan to funding bodies, as financial viability will always be their first priority, and if they don’t think you’ll be able to build a viable business and repay the loan in time, you won’t get the loan in the first place. Don’t just account for obvious costs like the investment amount and the franchise fees as you detail the financial situation, also consider smaller costs like:

• Ongoing royalty fees paid to your franchisor
• Ongoing operating fees paid to your franchisor 
• Ongoing advertising fees paid to your franchisor
• Your IT equipment
• Your stationery
• Your website (set-up, hosting, maintaining, etc.)
• Recruitment of employees/tutors
• Costs associated with running a premises/running a business from home (depending on the type of investment you make)

3. If you’ll be running a tutoring centre, dive deeply into location plans

Obviously, this is a tip you can skip if you’re investing with a tutoring franchise that’ll see you primarily working from home or in the homes of others. But if not, information about where you’ll be based (and why that’s a viable location from which to base yourself) will definitely be needed within your franchise business plan. Talk with your franchisor about the type of location they envisage for you, and answer questions like:

• How good is foot traffic in the area, and how much impact will that have?
• How good is through traffic/visibility in the area, and how much impact will that have?
• How much should my location be costing me, and how large should it be in size?
• Is this location going to be future-proof and a great place to be in the long term?

Choosing the perfect location for your franchise isn’t easy, but if you can do it right, you’ll set yourself up for future success AND show any funding body that you know your stuff, and you understand the way that location will impact your tutoring business/the different priorities that must be balanced when selecting a base for your tutoring centre.

Typically, locations guaranteed to bring in a stream of customers are the priciest locations for setting up a shop. Less-ideal locations will have cheaper rent or a lower price for the land. If you're off the beaten path, you may need to compensate for the low rent by spending more for advertising.
- Fraser Sherman, Chron

4. Set out your marketing and advertising intentions clearly and extensively

Marketing, along with location, is a key to franchise success. Your marketing plans are a must-include in your franchise business plan, and they should be backed up by the niche market research mentioned in tip one. Lay out plans for your tutoring business’s website, for its social media channels, for its more traditional offline advertising methods. 

Try to back up these plans, too, with examples (such as the success of other franchisees in the network using the same methods). If you can crack the marketing side of things before you’ve even officially launched your business, you’ll be well ahead of the competition and more than ready to thrive in the tutoring space.

Start a tutoring franchise and enjoy all the benefits of running your own business

If this article has given you the confidence and knowledge you needed to become certain that becoming a tutor is the right path for you, then don’t let anyone stop you from walking down that path! Browse Point Franchise’s wide range of available tutoring franchise investment opportunities, and start the ball rolling ASAP.