We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shivani Sodawala. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shivani below.

Shivani, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I remember it was on the 2020 Thanksgiving trip, that I had the idea for My Tutor-To-Go. I loved teaching and even wanted to be a teacher growing up, just like my mom and my grandmother. I ended up becoming an Engineer, but since 2016, after moving to the United States, I was a tutor on a private website. It was November 2020, which means people were just starting to get used to the new reality, of living in a global pandemic. All the classes and lectures had moved online, and my feed was filled with articles about how the pandemic is broadening the educational gap between the haves and the have-nots. Homework was becoming more stressful than pre-pandemic. I saw the need for an affordable, one-on-one tutoring service, to help the students who actually needed the extra academic push, without being a burden on their parent’s wallets.
It was just an idea, I was working full-time as an engineer, and it would be crazy if I even thought about going through with it! I did start mentioning it to some family members and friends at work, (as a joke) and actually received overwhelming support and push to go through with the idea. Multiple people saw the need and the potential for a service here.
Of course, I started an idea book for it, first order of business was picking a name with an available ‘.com’ domain. I was going to use my savings and no other investments, which meant the start-up cost had to be low. Going with an online learning platform that would connect students and tutors virtually, at an affordable hourly rate, made the most sense. My vision was for a go-to tutoring service, and that’s how I came up with ‘Tutor-To-Go’. Sadly, that domain name was already in use, and the resale value for it was out of my budget. The first setback, I really loved that name, and then my sister suggested, what about My Tutor-To-Go? Bingo!!
I registered My Tutor-To-Go with the State Secretary in January 2021, purchased the domain www.mytutortogo.com, and started reaching out to lawyers, accountants, and website developers. I needed a business lawyer to go through all my filings, and advice me on contracts and agreements. I needed an accountant to help me figure out how I can go about hiring tutors as contractors and of course, a website designer to create my product. I had to figure out doing all that within my start-up budget, and it was finally in May when My Tutor-To-Go made its first hire, a Social Media Marketing Manager. My one tip for anyone going through this phase is to not shy away from using freelancers.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born and raised in India, and I moved to the United States when I was 22 years old to pursue a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering. This was the time when I came across an online tutoring website, and I started tutoring for two reasons, to make some extra money and because I loved teaching. I started My Tutor-To-Go, when I was working full-time as an engineer, and we were in the middle of a global Coronavirus pandemic. My Tutor-To-Go is an online, one-on-one learning platform where we connect students who are looking for that little extra and personalized push to excel, with passionate and professional tutors. On top of quality tutoring, state of art Whiteboard system, and easy-to-use scheduling software, our prices set us apart. The mission of My Tutor-To-Go is to make quality online learning affordable and accessible for everyone. Private tutoring is for students who are struggling for someone to give them some extra attention and teach them at their pace how to solve a quadratic equation, for example. A service as essential as this should not cost a fortune!! We offer online private tutoring for PreK, K-12, and college students, all from as low as $20/hour. If you prefer one of our packages, it is even cheaper than $20/hour. Our tutors specialize in early ELA, all K 12 subjects, College Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English writing, and Test Prep including GED, SAT, ACT, and GRE. I am very proud of all our tutors and the service they provide where they put the student’s academic and developmental progress above everything else. The My Tutor-To-Go’s low prices actually represent superior quality and our passion. We have so far helped students from preschool reading lessons to Graduate entrance Exams and everything in between, to conquer their challenges.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

If I am asked about one major skill I developed as a small business owner, I will say it is pivoting. Your Plan A almost never works out, and that used to disappoint me. I have grown to like a decent Plan C or D now because plan B of course also comes with its challenges. We started our social media marketing with Facebook and Instagram accounts as everyone does, or so we thought. Our marketing manager was creating some great designs and content, and we started using Facebook/Instagram ads to promote it. They did not do well. We decided to wait, and keep trying as we were sure it is just taking time to ramp up and build brand awareness. 4 months in, we have tried everything, and still, we are seeing no progress. She (the marketing manager) decided to start with Google ads for a small amount of time. We were already paranoid about spending any more money, still trying to figure out where our target audience was. I suddenly saw a spike in the website visit analytics. We were also still using the Facebook ads, now we had to figure out which one was working. We never looked back from Google ads, that is all we use since for social media advertising.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

In the Education industry, it is critical to have a trusting relationship between the client and the tutor. Clients for us can be the student themselves, or the student’s parents. Sometimes, they just need to be reached beyond an occasional review request, to find out how they are feeling about the student’s progress. My Tutor-To-Go makes it a point to check in with new clients via call or text after a couple of sessions to see if they are happy with their matched tutor, which they usually are. Our tutors always remain accessible to the clients and work with them patiently. We email clients with any new offers or improvements but we keep those emails to a minimum and necessary basis. Texting or calling works great for us as the quickest and most preferred way of communication by our clients. We are consistent in the means we choose to communicate with any particular client.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mytutortogo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mytutortogousa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/My-Tutor-To-Go-109719184694909
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/my-tutor-to-go
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtds-dkjHQJWdAeSav-TjkA

Image Credits
Ashleigh Caison