I did a competitive analysis on a tutoring company called Wyzant. It is also a professional private tutoring platform that connects students with professional teachers who have a Bachelor’s degree, teaching certificate to provide solutions to students’ needs. This company had features I plan on implementing into my business idea such as having in person tutoring and not just online through the website or app, having multiple ways to pay tutors, no upfront payments or subscriptions to making sure students get the full satisfaction before they pay. Those are some common features that both my company and wyzant will be having.
Although this is similar to my idea, during my research I found some cons about wyzant that make their customers quit using their planform and I could use those cons and apply them into my own idea in a good way, for example wyzant allows tutors to pick the prices they want to charge their students which is a good thing but then 25% of the money goes to the company which tutors find that really challenging and difficult to give because they aren’t making much profit on their ends. Wyzant does not supply previous exam past questions to students who need them for practice and wyzant in person meetings with tutors are based on locations that either tutor or a student pick, which is not safe for both parties. For my idea the in person meeting has to be within a school’s premises to keep both the tutor and the students in a safe environment. I won’t want to be taking 25% off tutors payment, instead I let the students pay in cash to tutors after their services or give the tutors the options to pick their mode of payment.
Our value proposition is almost the same goal, being flexible, efficient and effective to serve both tutors and students from different colleges because we are both carrying out the same kind of services. I think I’d still go on with this business idea, I will probably still have to do more research on how to stand out because Wyzant currently has tons of users at different colleges, they are flexible, have multiple slots available for students, over 300 subjects available to all students not just college students. If I am coming into the market I have to make that big/important change to attract customers and make profit.
Hello Jennifer,
I like your approach of making use of Wyzant’s cons to make your idea even better! It really is unfortunate that 25% of the money goes to the company, since that leaves the tutors with not much profit. For sure, that is a component that can be taken into consideration for your idea; as long as you don’t mind not getting much profit from this business idea, you can definitely lower service fees.
I think one on one tutoring is always the way to best help students and make them feel like you actually care about their betterment. the cost is also a really nice idea to implement so people don’t feel pressured to pay for something that they don’t fully believe in. also you not only are helping people who want to be tutored but also help tutors who, like you said, are usually underpaid in what they do.