You charge according to your value. Your value is not determined by you, but by the marketplace. If you can charge over a thousand an hour, that means that your value is assessed by the marketplace as being at least worth $1000 an hour. If you’re not filling your schedule at $1000 an hour, then the perceived value of your services is not equal to $1000. You then have two choices: find a demographic that is willing to pay that much (it could be that you’ve been attracting the wrong clients), or charge less. 
[quote=“thelaowai”]I’ll give a brief description of my tutoring job.
1,250 per hour, 2 siblings (1 elementary school, 1 junior high), tutoring in their home with materials I prepare. 2 years on the job, total travel time to and from their home: 30 minutes walking, preparing materials: about 30 minutes or less. Homework: reading articles, texts, short stories, age-appropriate books, writing summaries. In class: telling me what they have learned, orally summarizing what they’ve read, telling me about their week, singing. Results: top school marks, trophies in various English language and other competitions, earning seats in classes after highly competitive testing.
Parents: business people. Students’ level: near native quality, able to work with materials at Western grade levels appropriate to their age. These students had a good foundaiton of English when I started with them and they’ve continued to improve. I’m now spoiled and would only agree to tutoring this calibre of student.
Edit: I’ll add that when I first began the tutoring, the parents told me that I would receive 1,000 NT per hour. After about 6 months, I noticed what I thought was an “overpayment”
in my monthly envelope and tried to return the money. The answer was that they had decided to increase my pay. I have also been paid 1000 NT per hour to provide pronuniciation help to an executive of a large international company. The company paid.[/quote]
All in all, be it over/under $1000 nt per hour, every teacher has their own reasons for their respective hourly charge. Regardless of how much money you charge, it is still how you teach that keeps them coming back.
When I do a 1-1, I have to account for travel time(the biggest factor), then prep time(yes I do prep), and then materials. I have a lot of 1-1 students. Why? My hourly charge is quite competitive compared to the market price. Why do I charge the way I do???1-1 students come to me(I own a small bushiban), the materials I use are through digital media(give the students web links). As for prep, adults I teach do mostly content from the web, they prepare it before. I tend to stick to adults with mid-high level English as the turnover is a lot less. Most adults(mostly engineers/sales/int’l companies) just want a conversation partner. As for kids, I have my own material(they have to pay) or the parents can bring their own material from home from which I supplement. Every private to me is different, I have no set teaching material, it really depends on what the student’s expectations are. Most of my 1-1’s are paying similair rates, but some are different.
Knowing your student’s expectations from the get go is the most important. First meeting, free, talk about the class, needs, materials, etc…get everything down on paper and go from there…
Parents start to bargain on price? Fine, cutting out the travel time makes a difference. Make them buy their own material, recommended by you. Another way is to increase the frequency of the class(volume discount). Start a bit high with the rate, lower it down to your acceptable rate and they usually give in.
There are arguments about what the acceptable rate is, to me every teacher has their own standard. It also depends on the student’s learning objectives.
This one is the best selling feature. Rates are for example only. Let’s say you went to a regular English class(with 10 other students) eight times a month(16 hours), and it cost $100/month. If you come for a 1-1 for 8 hours a month it will cost $150, but the 1-1 ratio makes the equivalent of 3 hours private equal to 10 hours of regular class time. Here is the math if you don’t follow. This isn’t rocket science.
Regular class time= $100/16 hours=6.25/hour(most english schools would charge this rate)
Private class=150/8 hours=18.75/hour***most people are turned off by this…BUT if you show them this…
(3 hours private equivalent to 10 hours of a regular class)*18.75 hour=5.62/hour…guess what, they are actually getting more bang for their buck as they are being more efficient with their time…I have seen a huge increase of parents asking for privates because they are thinking of the time savings, they realize it is more expensive but they accomplish more per hour than in a regular class…Then there is the longevity of it, a cheaper price(not slave labor prices) will make the student stay longer=less turnaround. Every teacher loves students that stick around a while.
Test prep VS. expertise. Good points. Pay for experience. Again, nothing is written in stone, everything is negotiable.
Have privates during non working hours, they get a bit of a discount if it is during a time, let’s say mid-week in the afternoon when you aren’t doing anything anyways. Weekends do not apply to this rule.
And last but not least, guanxi/word of mouth. Connections never hurt.
If I am doing an on site company class, I will charge more because of the travel time and usually there are more students in the class.
This debate will continue to go around and around as time goes on.
Much like Douglas, privates aren’t my main income and my free time is important. I explain what I do and how I do it, the travel and prep time, the more personal attention than they’d get in a large class, etc. Most people are still turned off by paying over 1,000NTD/hour. I understand that’s a lot for them, but it’s not a lot for me, and why would I charge them 600NTD/hour and put in all that effort (which would actually bring it down to 400NTD or less per hour) when I could get the same for less effort working at a buxiban, for instance? I don’t bargain with them and I don’t convey any sort of desperation for the business. I don’t even canvas for students. Occasionally, people ask me, but I don’t enter the conversation expecting anything from it. Usually, I just let my wife do all the talking anyway because I’m not particularly interested really.