Welcome to Tutorcircle.com. Over the last few months we’ve been working at building a site that addresses a fundamental issue amongst tutors and parents: How do tutors in a given community directly connect with tutees? Currently, tutors can generate business through one of several means. First, a parent or student can recommend a tutor to one of their friends. While giving a tutor instant credibility, this word-of-mouth is limited by the extent of a parent or student’s social network. Another traditional method is for a tutor to post fliers advertising his/her services. This method, while increasing a tutor’s coverage, takes away from their credibility, since people have difficulty trusting a random name on a flier. Parents and adult learners also have the option of going to either brand name or neighborhood learning centers. In this case, parents are limited to the tutors at the learning center. Another problem is the tuition cost is seldom—parents, in effect, have to pay a set price for whomever they get. These issues can be summed up as coverage, control, community, and credibility. At Tutorcircle.com we provide the solution. Coverage As we grow our tutor base over the next few months, there will be a greater and greater number of tutors to choose from. We are agnostic towards tutors, because we understand that certification doesn’t make a great tutor nor can parents always afford an expensive tutor. So whether you are a college student with a love for learning or a professional tutor with your own website, tutorcircle provides a platform for you to market your services. And as more parents join, tutors will be able to reach a far greater number of prospective students than they would if limited to their own social network and the number of replies to posted fliers. Control At tutorcircle, we do not broker any of the interactions between tutors and prospective students. Unlike other sites, where tutors or parents have to pay up front to access one another, tutorcircle allows tutors and parents to connect and communicate freely. Just as importantly, we do not set any prices on tutorcircle.com. Tutees/Parents and tutors are free to negotiate price, meeting location, and session length. If parents want to start a small class composed of only a few children, then they are free to do so. Community/Credibility At tutorcircle.com we endeavor to create the first on-line community where a tutor can leverage their existing student base to put in a good word for them. All a tutor has to do is create a profile on tutorcircle to get started. Next, the tutor can invite his/her students, both past and present, and they can go to the ‘testimonials’ section to chime in on their tutor’s, personality, style, and effectiveness. Likewise, parents can also invite parents in their circle to join. These parents in turn will invite other parents to create a network. Such a network will function as a word-of-mouth referral system—parents will be able to vouch for a tutor, or in the case that they are looking for a tutor, use their extended network to connect with highly recommended tutors. Tutors can also create networks with parents, as well as other tutors. That way, when a parent asks a writing tutor if he/she can also teach chemistry, that tutor can tap his/her tutor network to see who can teach chemistry. By offering a community that gives parents greater coverage and control over the process, and tutors away to establish credibility on-line, tutorcircle will bolster the quality and accessibility of learning in our communities.