Day 358 - Preying On Their Fears

So, I am off the day by day (as it's September) but have a few remaining topics to blog on

I have discovered that many parents share a common fear - their child isn't very good at maths and needs a tutor. From my limited experience, alot of this may be to do with the parent's personal fear of maths but what the hell, there's a goldmine here!

I may have low balled it to start with (£15 and hour), but am gradually getting my fees up to a level that could mean a lucrative top up to my vast salary. I would rather not think about the difference in hour rates between marketing consultancy and maths tutoring but at least it's cash in hand.

The impact you can have on an individual is remarkable. I noticed straightaway with my first client (can I call him that?) that he wasn't writing anything down at all. He tried to do everything in his head and, as the maths got harder, he couldn't cope with the complexity. I taught him to simply get his pen out and write stuff down!

Over the summer I concocted a little algebra intensive for three clients and all three have gone from that haunted look when the word 'algebra' is mentioned to actually enjoying the challenge of solving equations with brackets. Well, enjoyment may be too strong a word!

I now have BIG PLANS. I will definitely build up my client base to try and bring in some decent cash over the year but I have a kernel of an idea to set up some kind of summer school - one week of fun maths in the real world. More to follow on that.