Prove someone will pay before you spend real money
- Pick the niche worth owning45 min
What this produces: a written niche statement naming the subject or test, the grade band, and the one school district or neighbourhood you will serve. Why it is tricky: the subject you enjoy most is rarely the one where families are densest and rates are highest — this step chooses with numbers, not preference. Everything after it — the interviews, the price list, the pilot — runs through this statement.
List three candidate niches — subject or test plus grade band, from what you can teach cold. Examples: SAT Math for grades 10–12, Algebra 1 for grades 8–9, ACT English for grades 10–12.
Run the density check on each: count the families sitting in that band inside your target district or neighbourhood. Find the district in the NCES public-school-district search to get its total enrollment and school count, then add the grade-level cohorts and the last SAT or ACT sitting count for the district.
Run the rate check on each: look up what one-to-one tutoring for that subject commands on local platforms — Wyzant, Care.com, and tutor listings in district parent Facebook groups. Record a low and a high for every candidate.
Score and pick: the candidate where families are densest and the achievable rate is highest wins. That is the decision rule — density and rate beat enjoyment every time. If your favourite subject ranks third, it loses.
Write the statement: one dated paragraph — “I serve [subject or test] for [grade band] in [district or neighbourhood], where about [N] families sit in the band and one-to-one rates run [$X–$Y].”