Well, you need to know your reasons for starting a tuition business first. If you understand the why, then it’ll help you decide whether you want to go alone or with business partners. 

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.” 

Simon Sinek, Author and Motivational Speaker on business leadership

Truth be told, it also depends on the individual and the people you’ll be working with. I very quickly learned some important lessons, but first, it’s the 9 life-long considerations that have stuck with me forever. These are considerations that I’ve learned through my own experiences. 

So, is it best to go alone or with business partners? Everyone needs to understand that running a tuition business or any business for that matter is more about the people you work with. If there is no alignment in personality, mental aptitude, and vision, it will present issues and challenges in the future. 

It also depends on your circumstances i.e. do you have a family to support, do you live with parents, are you single etc? The key is to know and understand what you’re getting yourself into. Many people won’t know these things until they’re in the thick of it, through which they will learn. 

“It’s important to learn from your mistakes, but it is BETTER to learn from other people’s mistakes, and it is BEST to learn from other people’s successes. It accelerates your own success.” 

Jim Rohn, American Entrepreneur and Author

In my case, I ended up doing both. I started with business partners but ended up going alone. There are reasons for it which I’ll be sharing in my future posts.  

When my brother came to me with the opportunity, honestly, I didn’t consider any of what I’m telling you. After weeks of contemplation and consideration, I JUST WENT FOR IT. 

I did have a background in tutoring that made it easier to make my decision, which also meant I wasn’t going in blindly. I knew my role in the tuition business, where I was teaching Maths at the time during my university. I needed this job. I had to make some money to cover my basic needs like books, clothes, travel etc.   

My reasons were very clear for starting. At the time, I wasn’t getting qualified as a Chartered Accountant, and I had a stream of exam failures. I thought to myself that I’d never get anywhere in life if I just depended on a piece of paper (qualification) for the rest of my life. What if I fall at the final hurdle? That would mean not being qualified. You have to pass all your exams to get your Chartered status, otherwise you won’t get anything. I mean that requires some serious commitment of more than 3 years, relevant work experience and passing 15 exams.

I feel blessed that I eventually managed to pass them all; although it did take me 5 years to get there, with perseverance and hard work I got there in the end. I never gave up. I kept on going. I don’t even remember how many exams I failed. Let me just say it wasn’t one exam. But it was all down to the ‘not giving up’ attitude that I managed to get over the line. You can do the same with tuition business, you just have to start and keep on going and going and going. 

Once I decided to start, now it was time to decide on how we were going to proceed. Do we need more people to join us? What next?

During my tutoring days, I knew a friend, he and I also went to the same Sixth Form College. We both talked about opening up a tuition business for ourselves given the number of years we had been tutoring already. This was before my brother came to me with an offer. Unfortunately, that never materialised, and it was all just talk and thinking on our part. But my brother was serious. My brother has always been a go-getter, so his offer was real. I reached out to my College friend and mentioned the opportunity, but there wasn’t much interest from him; and in the end that chapter closed.

At the same time, I also made good friends with another guy. Ironically, I met him at my College friend’s birthday. We connected and got on well. I used to hang around at his place late at night for hours, even on weekdays knowing I had work the next day. Our friendship took off during these hang-out sessions. One thing led to another and I suggested to my brother if we could get another person involved. My brother met him, and he ended up being our third business partner. He was a talker, and I mean a real talker. He was good with words, and we needed someone who could close a sale. But he presented other challenges, which led to me eventually working alone and learning a lot in this process. 

So which one to go for? Alone or business partners? 

I made a lot of mistakes, and through my learning, I would always consider these every single time.

1. Don’t work with negative people
2. Work with positive-minded people
3. Avoid working with people who only care about money
4. Understand people’s personal goals, ambitions and vision for the tuition business
5. Understand what each person is capable of bringing to the table
6. Understand people’s personalities
7. Avoid working with family and friends if you can
8. Understand if anyone is controlling and doesn’t like to delegate
9. Stay away from the ‘Mr. Know it all’

“You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”

Simon Sinek, Author and Motivational Speaker on business leadership

I agree with Simon Sinek. Skills are something you can always teach people, but attitude is unique to each individual. Changing attitude is something that can present challenges, especially when you get to a certain age.

“Your personality settles between 18 and 23 years old and then it stays that way forever, that’s who you are.”

Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple

Steve Wozniak, the Co-Founder of Apple once said in a podcast interview with Guy Kawasaki: “Your personality settles between 18 and 23 years old and then it stays that way forever, that’s who you are.”

Conclusion

In summary, whether you decide to work alone or with other people, know that both have their pros and cons. Best to consider these 9 key points before you decide on anything. They’ll help you make a decision. As the African proverb goes – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The key thing is: YOU DECIDE. Only you know the situation you’re in. 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

African proverb

As I said, I’ve done both and there is no right or wrong answer. It’s whatever works for you. Don’t let anyone talk you into a particular way over the other, just know that both can work, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into.  

More posts to follow, where I’ll elaborate on all these considerations through my personal experiences.