Local woman offers help on launching a tutoring business
By Sophia Fischer

sfischer@theacorn.com

Laurie Hurley

Helping children succeed has long been Laurie Hurley’s focus. The Newbury Park resident has operated a tutoring business from her home for several years and is now branching out to help others start their own in-home tutoring companies.

This summer, Hurley is unveiling The Complete Home Tutoring Business manual she’s written, along with an accompanying website for tutoring entrepreneurs. The manual is a step-by-step howto guide. Hurley will also offer accounting software, contracts and forms she uses for tutors and clients, as well as camera-ready ads for newspapers and one-on-one training with Hurley herself.

“The tutoring business is alive and well and booming, especially since 2004 when the SATs were changed,” Hurley said.

Hurley’s company, Bright Apple Tutoring, provides tutorial support to more than 1,000 children in the Conejo Valley, San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley. She is expanding into Santa Barbara and Pasadena. She contracts with 60 tutors in all subjects and services between 175 and 200 clients per month. She works with kindergarten through 12th-grade students, including those who are home-schooled or have special needs.

Hurley had been working as a full-time hotel management executive, but she wanted to spend more time with her young daughter. A friend of hers was purchasing a home tutoring franchise, and Hurley decided to try that business on Cape Cod, where she was living at the time. She ran the business for three years before moving to California in 2001 to be closer to family.

A year later, rather than buying another tutoring franchise and paying royalty fees, Hurley opened Bright Apple Tutoring out of her home. She began advertising in local newspapers, including The Acorn, and business took off.

She has seen the demand for tutoring increase over the years and attributes the rise to several factors. The increase in classroom size means that a teacher doesn’t always have time to address the individual. With younger children, Hurley says, there is increasing pressure for students to read by the end of first grade.

With teens, some are embarrassed to ask questions in front of the class, and some haven’t developed organizational and study skills.

“Suddenly, when they get to middle school, they have six teachers and six different styles of teaching and they’re drowning,” Hurley said.

The new SAT test has increased the demand for tutoring in test-taking skills, particularly writing, since the new test now has an essay section.

“We are doing a lot of writing preparation, teaching kids how to write,” Hurley said.

For more information call (888) 847-0033 or visit www.brightappletutoring.com.