how would you find a tutor?

[Sassyfrassy]

I'm thinking of going back to tutoring but haven't done it for a long time so I'm curious as to how parents look for a tutor and what would make you choose a particular tutor. When I did it before I only had one pupil that came to me so I never got into advertising myself and then I was too busy working as a full time teacher to consider doing extra work.

So, I'd love to get some ideas for how / where to advertise myself and find out what parents think make a good tutor.

Thanks...

[cornsilk]

You could join an agency to begin with. Lots of tutors get work due to word of mouth between parents, so that would be a foot in the door anyway.

[melissa75]

Sassyfrassy, I currently do tutoring, some I do right after school which has come from word of mouth through parents in the school, but I also have a website I created using weebly which allows you to create free sites and they host them for you, so that I could use that to refer on to other people. Also, register with some of the tutoring agencies available. Some of them charge extortionate fees for their services of referring you, but some let you set the min. amount you are willing to take home in pay, and then they put their charge on top of it.
Speaking from the parenting side, I think I would be looking for a tutor who is obviously knowledgable of the subject they are teaching/tutoring, and also someone who I feel would be a good match for my DS or DD, personality wise. Obviously references would be ideal, but if your just starting out, this is more difficult to acheive. Another thing I do is offer the first session as a freebie, which seems to go over well, as it allows the parent to get a feel for the potential relationship I would have with their child, and also it gives me a chance to assess the child to see whether I feel I am best suited to help them in their particular area of need.