Roya loved helping other instructors so much that she found herself engaged with some of them in online meetings or phone for hours in her evenings and weekends. While this was fun for Roya (while being very helpful for her fellow instructors), it didnt exactly help pay the bills in a rising living cost environment! Furthermore, Roya was a bit envious of her TLC co-workers who got to interact more with students, helping them with course work on a day-to-day basis.

So, Roya went ahead and started her own tutoring service. She started by reconnecting with a couple of instructors who had asked her about TLC services. They had some struggling students had been asking about getting help beyond two tutoring hours per week- TLC capped the amount of time each student could get to ensure adequate time could be equitably allotted to all interested students. At the time, Roya had cited ethical concerns about making money off the same students she was, in a way, already compensated to help. However, after thinking about it, she decided to go ahead and offer the students private help- they desperately needed the service and were willing to pay for it. Also, she was still doing more than her fair share with helping instructors- that was her job at SQUIT, not helping students directly.

When she started her business, Roya priced her tutoring services at $70 per hour (and has stuck with that rate for the rest of the year). However, she has since learned that pricing needs to be adjusted for different circumstances. For example, some students meet with her over an online meeting- this is a very easy arrangement for Roya. Others prefer to come to her home office for help- this still works well but is maybe a bit more challenging/annoying for her (though seeing the student in person can make explaining some topics easier). Finally, there are some students who insist on meeting her at a different location such as their homes, at the SQUIT campus, or the public library. These arrangements have proven to be the toughest for Roya, as driving not only costs her time-wise but with vehicle expenses.