What It's About
A tutoring side hustle that really takes off!
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
We always ask our featured side hustlers what kind of advice that they have for anyone looking for follow in their footsteps, and Thais had something great to say:
"Make sure they’re clear on their mission statement. Parents want to hire authentic tutors that have their kids’ best interest at heart, and not someone who’s in it for the money."
Fun Fact
321 is the area code for Florida’s Space Coast. Also...Thais used a program that flipped the image (like in selfie mode) on her first online tutoring session. This made all of her writing appear backward! To fix it, she found a sharpie and wrote with a heavy hand so it bled through the other side of the paper. Then she held up the back side and the writing appeared normal for her student! Houston, we no longer have a problem.
Notes from Chris
Episode 769
Thais Lage loves numbers. Born in Brazil but living in Florida since childhood, she’s been tutoring struggling students in math from the age of 14. Neighborhood parents were quick to hire her once they discovered her command of the subject. Her trigonometry teacher recognized her talent and asked if he could share her phone number with students who were having difficulty. Soon, her tutoring hustle was earning her $100 a week as a high school student. In college, she kept it up, printing flyers and posting them around campus. She even tutored her hair stylist in exchange for free haircuts. Fast forward to December 2015: Thais graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering. She’ secured her dream job as a Mechanical Operations Engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. She’d become a first-class rocket scientist. Despite her demanding job, she was still fueled with an insatiable desire to help others. She kept tutoring the neighborhood kids but at a higher rate—because, after all, she was now a rocket scientist. As Thais continued tutoring, she’d sometimes film and email a quick “how-to” video to her students to help with their homework. She noticed she was making the same videos several times. If her group of students all had the same questions, perhaps others did too. What if she made more videos? In September 2018, the tutoring hustle was in full throttle, working in tandem with her job. She called it 321 Tutoring, and she tried to make her lessons fun. They’re like reading a book about anti-gravity—impossible to put down. Startup costs for this hustle were $70 for her website and domain with the iPad Pro costing around $900. She charges $50/hour for middle-high school math and $80-100/hour for SAT/ACT prep. She recently hired 2 tutors that work under the 321 Tutoring umbrella, and she keeps 10% of whatever they earn. But now she needs to go to the next level, by putting her lessons on YouTube. On her new YouTube channel, she’ll share quick math tips and study techniques with students around the world. She hopes to have five to eight videos uploaded by the end of February so she can have an official launch. When she’s not sending rockets into space, Thais says she’d eventually like to create an online course. Her other future plans include hiring more tutors so she can expand her reach... to infinity and beyond!MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- 321 Tutoring: Looking to help take your child's grades to new heights? Head on over to Thais' website to learn more about this educational side hustle!
- Wix: The online website building platform that Thais used to set up her website for 321 Tutoring
SEE ALSO:
- Father of 9 Starts “Uber for Tutoring” Hustle: After being frustrated in his search for the right tutors for his many children, a busy father creates a directory that has generated more than 100,000 user profiles
- Turkish Student Turns Teacher, Starts $14,000 Tutoring Gig: A student with a flair for teaching gives extra classes to fellow students, optimizing the process along the way and working fewer hours each time
- Atlanta Chess Champ Finds Checkmate With Tutoring Side Hustle: It started as a hobby when he was four years old. It’s now a profitable passion project for an Atlanta chess guru
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Resources
CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE
Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.
Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today!
Learn More
GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time.
Quote of the Day
Sponsors & Gratitude
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To infinity and beyond,
