Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Charles.
Hi Alexander, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started tutoring when I went abroad after college. I was initially working as a translator after getting my degree in Comparative Literature from NYU. I got ESL teaching work at a local school. Then my friend from college recommended me to a boutique school that taught ACT/SAT.
When I started teaching ACT/SAT, I realized that it was a great use of my talents. I was able to help students at the age much better — they’re starting to develop their critical reasoning faculties, which I am able to contribute to in our sessions. At the end of the day, the college admission exams are testing for an ability to reason within and across discourses (for example, not just solve this math problem, but solve this geometry problem using algebra). That’s what I’m really good at teaching.
I had to leave Turkey before too long. The country was suffering a lot of geopolitical problems in 2016, including a coup attempt and three terrorist attacks, all of which I was present for. I realized these problems were not going away by the time 2017 rolled around, and I preferred to live in the United States anyway. So I moved back home for a couple months and started my business.
For a while, I was helping students through a number of other tutoring companies until my SEO started ranking me on Google, and I started helping clients of my own. Building my website from scratch sounds a lot simpler than in fact it was, but that’s the essential way that my business has become successful.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I knew starting my own business would not be easy, but I didn’t realize it would be this hard. I prefer a challenge. I spent 10 years in sales in Los Angeles, billing millions of dollars and ranking among the top salespeople in all of the companies I worked at. That wasn’t easy either, but I inherited my father’s work ethic, and I was (and still am) extremely amibitious, so I worked day and night to make it happen.
Regarding my own business, I thought coming from a sales background, I would have an advantage in starting my own business. The acumen I had accumulated through the past ten years did pay off but it also didn’t pay off. Basically, the only thing I had going for me in terms of business skills was a desire to succeed. Focusing on my own business showed me all of the ways in which working for a company provided me as a salesperson with a lot of benefits — not that I was unaware of this fact; I think it’s impossible to be aware of the extent of services a company provides you until you have to take care of everything yourself.
I’ve had learn how to program. I already knew vanilla Javascript, but I learned how to program in Next.js, which I’m actually quite fond of. From there, I had to build out the entire website. I had to write the content in a way that was conducive to being ranked through Search Engines. Additionally, I’ve had to pivot my marketing to increase sales a number of times, from direct mail advertising to both parents and high schools, to Yelp and Google ads, organic outreach, and finally SEO.
At a certain point, I had to realize that the motivating principle for making my own business wasn’t merely financial, though that certainly was a primary factor. There’s a statistic about businesses failing within a certain number of years. I think it’s most fail by year 5? I’ve had my business for almost 10 years now. It’s taken that amount of time to understand the impulse that has motivated me to continue refining the business; I’ve had to transform that desire to create my own business into a service a large number of people can understand. Which is to say, after almost 10 years, I’m only recently what people would consider a succesful small business owner.
But looking back, I don’t think I would’ve done it any other way. I admire entrepenuers for thinking differently. I know from personal experience that your first however many iterations don’t work. Perseverance I think is the number one factor in whether or not a venture is succesful — which directly contradicts the widsom of the Sunken Cost Fallacy. I’ve heard a number of business pitches that have immediately made me doubt the business’s potential for success. With the perspective of having done it myself, however, my instinct isn’t that a person should give up on the business when it’s not successful in 2,3,4,5 even 10 years. Instead, I mentally congratulate the person on the effort and persipacity to launch his or her own venture. Nothing I can say or do will persuade someone to act any differently if they are fundamentally obsessed with seeing their business become succesful . And I think to be successful – besides being personable, insightful, and organized – one has to be a little obstinate.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I believe education is everyone’s right. College Admission exams – the ACT and SAT – can be very helpful for universities to determine who will see success in their programs. For students, the exams replicate the inequalities they see every day at school. That inequality in education is what I seek to address. Nobody should have their future dimmed becuase of where they were born.
To that end, I offer my tutoring services – with my decade of experience outperforming literally 10s of thousands of other tutors on a variety of metrics, including match rate (does the family like working with you?), score increase percentages, and customer service – at a much more competitive price.
Additionally, I’ve designed my business around minimizing the number of hours needed in session. Maybe this logic sounds a little contrary to popular wisdom, but hear me out. While a private tutor for the SAT and ACT can be extremely valuable, the most value comes when a student buys in as well though. There is a different form of tutoring where a tutor can show up 20, 40, 60 hours and teach the student everything he or she needs to know in session. I think it’s better for the student, the family, and my business if the premise of the sessions is instead I can pinpoint where the problems are with laser-focus, and then have the expectation be that I will assign homework the student will complete to overcome any knowledge gaps. That way we spend far fewer hours together in session, but those hours spent together are far more valuable.
Another thing owning my tutoring business allows me to offer is scholarships to study with me. I take the premise that education is everyone’s right seriously – I work with students all over the country and even the occasional student from outside the country who couldn’t afford my services. They submit affadavits from their parents and school saying they have a financial need, and, based on my availablity, I help the most number of people I can. I do have space for 1 or 2 scholarship students this fall if your readers know of anybody looking!
How do you think about luck?
I have a lot less to say about luck because luck is merely a function of showing up. What I mean by that is you have to build the organization, dial in what works, and keep showing up no matter what. Eventually, you’ll be reconciled with people who want to work with you. That’s called luck.
I’m very grateful for all the families I’ve been able to help. The individuals I’ve been lucky enough to work with have been a function of me showing up every day.
Pricing:
- 1-2.99 hours : 194.99/hour
- 3-4.99 hours: 174.99/hour
- 5-5.99 hours: 134.99/hour
- 6-9.99 hours: 109.99/hour
- 10+ hours: 94.99/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alexandercharlestutoring.com
