Rocket Scientist Launches Out-Of-This-World Tutoring Business

Notes from Chris

Episode 769

Thais Lage loves numbers. Born in Brazil but living in Florida since childhood, she’s been tutoring struggling students in math from the age of 14. Neighborhood parents were quick to hire her once they discovered her command of the subject.

Her trigonometry teacher recognized her talent and asked if he could share her phone number with students who were having difficulty. Soon, her tutoring hustle was earning her $100 a week as a high school student.

In college, she kept it up, printing flyers and posting them around campus. She even tutored her hair stylist in exchange for free haircuts.

Fast forward to December 2015: Thais graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering. She’ secured her dream job as a Mechanical Operations Engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. She’d become a first-class rocket scientist.

Despite her demanding job, she was still fueled with an insatiable desire to help others. She kept tutoring the neighborhood kids but at a higher rate—because, after all, she was now a rocket scientist.

As Thais continued tutoring, she’d sometimes film and email a quick “how-to” video to her students to help with their homework. She noticed she was making the same videos several times. If her group of students all had the same questions, perhaps others did too. What if she made more videos?

In September 2018, the tutoring hustle was in full throttle, working in tandem with her job. She called it 321 Tutoring, and she tried to make her lessons fun. They’re like reading a book about anti-gravity—impossible to put down.

Startup costs for this hustle were $70 for her website and domain with the iPad Pro costing around $900. She charges $50/hour for middle-high school math and $80-100/hour for SAT/ACT prep. She recently hired 2 tutors that work under the 321 Tutoring umbrella, and she keeps 10% of whatever they earn.

But now she needs to go to the next level, by putting her lessons on YouTube. On her new YouTube channel, she’ll share quick math tips and study techniques with students around the world. She hopes to have five to eight videos uploaded by the end of February so she can have an official launch.

When she’s not sending rockets into space, Thais says she’d eventually like to create an online course. Her other future plans include hiring more tutors so she can expand her reach... to infinity and beyond!

 

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• 321 Tutoring: Looking to help take your child's grades to new heights? Head on over to Thais' website to learn more about this educational side hustle!
• Wix: The online website building platform that Thais used to set up her website for 321 Tutoring

 

SEE ALSO:

• Father of 9 Starts “Uber for Tutoring” Hustle: After being frustrated in his search for the right tutors for his many children, a busy father creates a directory that has generated more than 100,000 user profiles
• Turkish Student Turns Teacher, Starts $14,000 Tutoring Gig: A student with a flair for teaching gives extra classes to fellow students, optimizing the process along the way and working fewer hours each time
• Atlanta Chess Champ Finds Checkmate With Tutoring Side Hustle: It started as a hobby when he was four years old. It’s now a profitable passion project for an Atlanta chess guru

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,