We are all very different from each other. Our personalities; our way of thinking; our priorities; our wants and our dislikes. 

The most important facet of a tuition business is working with people. That’s your business partners, parents, tutors and working staff. 

This is something you’ll be doing daily and at times more than 10 hours every day. That’s a significant part of your daily life. So, it’s vital to understand individual personalities before you decide who to involve in your business. 

Take me and my brother for example. We both have been brought up by the same parents in the same household, but we are completely different people in how we think about life. My brother has a more materialistic take on life, whereas I’m more purpose-driven; and for that reason, we both have different drives in life. 

We both were brought up in the same household, but yet have very different personalities from each other. 

Now imagine how different people will be, from different backgrounds and walks of life. They too will have different personalities and drives in life. 

So, it’s vital to understand your potential business partners on a human level before you involve them in your tuition business.    

So what to look for in an individual? 

You want an individual who brings an energy about them, someone who likes interacting and dealing with people. Of course, this is not the only trait you look for, as there are others too. But this is an important one that needs to be factored in. 

After all, the tuition business is service-based and requires interaction with people. You need someone who likes to connect with people and have good interpersonal skills. This is very important when it comes to maintaining relationships with parents (who will pay you for your services). 

Remember the brother of our third business partner? He was at times awkward with people. And you don’t want that when interacting with customers. We had complaints about him from customers, so this was something we had to address with our business partner. We told him, how his brother was and we needed for him to know and understand these things. 

You want someone pleasant and easy to talk to. Someone flexible; someone who’ll listen and understand concerns, and can then help resolve them afterwards. 

Our business partner had his issues too when dealing with people. No doubt he was a talker and very confident. But he was quite ‘military’ in his approach, and not a person who would show much flexibility in any given situation. He would take everything at face value, quite literally, and wouldn’t know when to practise flexibility and empathy. 

I remember once, there was an instance where the classrooms were quite untidy. I said to him: “These classrooms should have been cleaned up, after all, we are paying for it as a part of our rental charges.” 

Without giving it too much of a thought, he said: “I’ll deal with it.” 

He went straight to look for the facilities manager. He later showed him the state of the classrooms. He spoke to him quite firmly and in a very condescending manner. No matter who you are, you should be respectful and courteous to people. 

The facilities manager was a key figure as he was responsible for renting out classrooms to businesses like ours. It’s quite concerning when you spoil relationships with such a key individual, who has the power to kick you out. You don’t ever want to do that. 

No premises means no business (applies to premises-based tuition businesses), and we couldn’t have that especially when we were just starting.  

I was on good terms with the facilities manager. There were many occasions when he mentioned how he didn’t like our business partner, which is why I had to manage the relationship going forward. This goes to show how sensitive people are; so you have to deal with situations accordingly.

A flexible and empathetic person is someone who would understand that. 

Conclusion

It’s important to see how individuals are with people, how they deal with them and whether they treat them with respect or not.

Understand people’s personalities before you involve them in your tuition business. 

You want energetic, flexible and emotionally intelligent people in your organisation, especially as business partners. If you don’t factor in their personality, then know that you’ll have to deal with them daily. 

So to avoid the daily stress, make sure you look for people that you can work with and are going to be the right fit for you as business partners.