Jim P.

WYZANT has been a 5 STAR company to work for!

I) Review of Wyzant:

In one year exactly, I moved to the highest Wyzant pay percentage. Out of every dollar billed to a client, 80% -100% now goes to me.

(Wyzant's cut after you put in four hundred hours is zero to twenty percent, depending on whether a client chooses a bulk tutoring package. In addition, when clients leave feedback about you, you make an extra couple of bucks - hence the possibility of making over 100%).

With my present rate, Wyzant makes $0 - $11 per hour on me. Do I get anything for that?

YES!

Here is what I get:

1) CLIENTS. (Folks who find me, who would never have otherwise.)
2) ACCOUNTING. (All billing matters taken care of.)
3) FULL PAYMENT. (If a client doesn't pay, I still get paid.)
4) SAFETY. (Clients have to provide billing information before seeing me.)
5) LIGHT SECRETARIAL SUPPORT. (This also occurs via the software itself.)

Now, the above is from someone who knew he wanted to put in a substantial amount of time tutoring. I therefore did not fret over the larger Wyzant cuts during the early months of tutoring. While I can certainly understand the stress a few-hours-per-week tutor might feel about a 60/40 split, Wyzant does not restrict its independent contractors from finding clients on their own.

My own experience however is that finding enough customers to pay one a reasonable salary takes time and effort. What is one's NET hourly rate, working on one's own, when part of your time is spent finding clients? What is that net rate when the other four points I mention above must all be done by one self?

Wyzant provides an incentive to become a successful tutor by offering pay percentage increases. A final Wyzant cut of 0% - 20% seems reasonable in light of what they offer. I understand that there will always be debate on what the early pay splits should be, and how many hours should be put in before each pay percentage is reached. For myself, I just kept sprinting, and now Wyzant is stuck providing me with free services whenever a client buys a full tutoring package.

II) Review of Wyzant Personnel:

Everyone I've ever interacted with at Wyzant has been extraordinarily helpful and cheerful. This was true when I joined and was waiting for my first client, and it remains so today as I collect 80% - 100% on multiple clients.

III) What I'd like to see improved:

Before I offer my two cents on how to improve Wyzant, let me be clear that they already offer a way each of its tutors can have their suggestions heard. I therefore have no need to offer my suggestions here, except to be comprehensive in this review.

For any tutor, one's net hourly rate depends strongly on four things: -The time expended finding clients. -Administration time (such as emailing clients, juggling schedules, tax preparation, etc). -Lesson preparation time. -Drive time.

Wyzant excels at finding new clients. I'd now like to see them dramatically expand point number five, "Light secretarial/software support", in order to reduce my administration time.

This could be done via software on wyzant.com where one could have access to an online calendar. There, tutoring sessions could be entered, mileage between students automatically calculated and tallied, contact information stored, etc. A sister piece of software, available for portable devices, would also be fantastic.

IV) Personal Data:

Finally, since some posters are vocalizing their upset over Wyzant's "take", I'd like to leave some explicit data on the topic. In my case, after registering with Wyzant, it took me three weeks to get my first Wyzant job at the base pay percentage.

---From there it took less than 2.0 MONTHS to move to the 2nd pay level.
---Then less than 1.5 MONTHS to move to the 3rd pay level.
---Then less than 3.5 MONTHS to move to the 4th pay level.
---Then less than 5.5 MONTHS to move to the final pay level.