Online registration for tutors: new families sign up direct

Every new family means a string of emails: collecting contact details, agreeing a time, sending your terms, asking for payment. Six new families a month at 40 minutes each is 240 minutes, 4 hours, and some go quiet halfway through and sign up with someone else.

TutorBird includes a drag-and-drop website builder with registration and booking forms. Its website page says one form can collect student information, book a student's first lesson, accept your policies, take payment and capture inquiries from families not ready to book. If you already have a Wix, Squarespace or WordPress site, you can embed the sign-up and booking forms there instead. Bookings only go into times you've marked as available.

A primary maths and 11+ tutor in Guildford gets about 6 new families a month, mostly through recommendations, and handles each by email.

About $120£90€107A$173C$169 a month of time saved, against $19£14€17A$27C$26 for TutorBird. That's 3 hours (240 minus 60 minutes) at an assumed $40£30€36A$58C$56 an hour, before counting any families who'd otherwise have drifted off mid-way.

1. 1Set your weekly availability and the length and price of a first lesson.
2. 2Build the registration form: parent's name and contact details, the student's first name, year group and subject, and your policies to accept.
3. 3Add the form to your TutorBird website or embed it on your existing site.
4. 4Make a test registration from your phone to see what a parent sees.
5. 5Check each new registration the same day and send a short personal welcome.

• Ask only what you need to start. Health, special educational needs or family circumstances are better discussed with the parent than collected on a web form.
• Bookings only fit your diary if TutorBird's calendar is kept up to date, including lessons arranged by message.
• A form can't tell you whether you're the right tutor; keep a short call for anything unusual before the first lesson.