The best (& worst) side hustle I started...
Academic Tutoring (let me explain why).
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Date: 25th March 2025Average Read Time: 3 mins 30 seconds
I’ve been working as a part-time doctor & business owner for over 5 years now but my entrepreneurial journey started a long time before this….. I started academic tutoring when I was at school. It was something I started almost by accident.
A parent of a student a few years below me knew I had studied for verbal & non-verbal reasoning entrance exams… I had passed these exams to secure a place at a very competitive local Grammar school. They were hoping I could help their daughter do the same and asked me if I could help. I was prepared to take up the challenge (even though I felt a little out of my comfort zone initially).
Do I think I would have started tutoring if it hadn’t been for this parent coming to me?
I’m not sure if I would have but it started a great side hustle for me as I then continued to tutor throughout school & university. I started tutoring verbal & non-verbal reasoning but went on to tutor in Maths, Biology, Physics & Chemistry at GCSE & A-level (the subjects I had studied).
There are a number of reasons why this was the best side hustle for me.
Firstly, I had credibility. I was tutoring students in the years below me to pass the exams I had just passed (with flying colours). I was teaching them to overcome problems I had already overcome by sharing with them the same methods I had used. It was the perfect example of me knowing exactly what solution my customer needed because I had been my very own first customer!
Secondly, I was good at it…. It came naturally to me. I understood how to explain things in different ways to my students. Their results improved & they were happy about this which they shared in their reviews… it gave me qualitative & quantitative proof that what I did actually worked.
As a result of this, I found it easy to find new clients. I almost had too many & I was able to justify increasing my prices (again & again).
You might be wondering…. How was this my worst side hustle?
There (again) are a number of reasons why this side hustle was my worst.
I had created a business where my time was the product/service. It was my 1:1 attention that my students wanted & I quickly realised that I couldn’t scale this…. The way I was working was just exchanging my time for money & there was only so much time I could give. The amount of time I could give became even less when I needed to focus on my own studies.
I also started to find that as much as I loved working with students 1:1 that it was quite draining, especially as a bit of an introvert…. I would spend an hour or more at a time talking, problem solving & explaining concepts which I really did enjoy but it would sometimes leave my energy levels feeling depleted rather than filled.
The entrepreneur in me wanted to be able to grow this side hustle though…. I realised that I was good at what I was doing & wanted to try to help more students. I had tried my hardest to do this by working as much as possible but that only left me feeling drained & (at times) burnt out.
I realised I needed to change my approach if I wanted to continue tutoring, especially when I started working as a Doctor as I just wouldn't have the time.
The start of doing this became the end of my side hustle as a tutor….
I tried to productise my tutoring into pre-recorded lessons. I spent hours creating a website, recording content & formatting it into fun (but easy to follow) presentations which students could watch in their own time. I can’t tell you how much time I spent doing this, creating beautifully formatted work sheets for students to use in parallel. I thought I had everything ready & I had created the perfect solution to my problem.
I started to advertise it to students I had previously worked with & started to share academic tips on social media.
I found that despite these efforts students just wanted to work with me, they didn’t want to purchase my guides, they wanted my time…. I tried to persist with the digital resources but they didn’t get much traction & I stopped trying.
I decided to quit whilst I was ahead.
I do sometimes wonder if I should have quit when I did but regardless, I learnt so much from the time I spent tutoring from topics including customer service, pricing, advertising to handling time-wasters. It built up my confidence and it really did help me on my entrepreneurial journey.
Please don’t hesitate to drop me an email elle@gabrielletodd.com with any questions if you are considering tutoring as your own side hustle. I’m happy to help & share my experiences whichever way they might help you!
A parent of a student a few years below me knew I had studied for verbal & non-verbal reasoning entrance exams… I had passed these exams to secure a place at a very competitive local Grammar school. They were hoping I could help their daughter do the same and asked me if I could help. I was prepared to take up the challenge (even though I felt a little out of my comfort zone initially).
Do I think I would have started tutoring if it hadn’t been for this parent coming to me?
I’m not sure if I would have but it started a great side hustle for me as I then continued to tutor throughout school & university. I started tutoring verbal & non-verbal reasoning but went on to tutor in Maths, Biology, Physics & Chemistry at GCSE & A-level (the subjects I had studied).
There are a number of reasons why this was the best side hustle for me.
Firstly, I had credibility. I was tutoring students in the years below me to pass the exams I had just passed (with flying colours). I was teaching them to overcome problems I had already overcome by sharing with them the same methods I had used. It was the perfect example of me knowing exactly what solution my customer needed because I had been my very own first customer!
Secondly, I was good at it…. It came naturally to me. I understood how to explain things in different ways to my students. Their results improved & they were happy about this which they shared in their reviews… it gave me qualitative & quantitative proof that what I did actually worked.
As a result of this, I found it easy to find new clients. I almost had too many & I was able to justify increasing my prices (again & again).
You might be wondering…. How was this my worst side hustle?
There (again) are a number of reasons why this side hustle was my worst.
I had created a business where my time was the product/service. It was my 1:1 attention that my students wanted & I quickly realised that I couldn’t scale this…. The way I was working was just exchanging my time for money & there was only so much time I could give. The amount of time I could give became even less when I needed to focus on my own studies.
I also started to find that as much as I loved working with students 1:1 that it was quite draining, especially as a bit of an introvert…. I would spend an hour or more at a time talking, problem solving & explaining concepts which I really did enjoy but it would sometimes leave my energy levels feeling depleted rather than filled.
The entrepreneur in me wanted to be able to grow this side hustle though…. I realised that I was good at what I was doing & wanted to try to help more students. I had tried my hardest to do this by working as much as possible but that only left me feeling drained & (at times) burnt out.
I realised I needed to change my approach if I wanted to continue tutoring, especially when I started working as a Doctor as I just wouldn't have the time.
The start of doing this became the end of my side hustle as a tutor….
I tried to productise my tutoring into pre-recorded lessons. I spent hours creating a website, recording content & formatting it into fun (but easy to follow) presentations which students could watch in their own time. I can’t tell you how much time I spent doing this, creating beautifully formatted work sheets for students to use in parallel. I thought I had everything ready & I had created the perfect solution to my problem.
I started to advertise it to students I had previously worked with & started to share academic tips on social media.
I found that despite these efforts students just wanted to work with me, they didn’t want to purchase my guides, they wanted my time…. I tried to persist with the digital resources but they didn’t get much traction & I stopped trying.
I decided to quit whilst I was ahead.
I do sometimes wonder if I should have quit when I did but regardless, I learnt so much from the time I spent tutoring from topics including customer service, pricing, advertising to handling time-wasters. It built up my confidence and it really did help me on my entrepreneurial journey.
Please don’t hesitate to drop me an email elle@gabrielletodd.com with any questions if you are considering tutoring as your own side hustle. I’m happy to help & share my experiences whichever way they might help you!
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