Hi,
I normally teach from home but a pupil's mother specified that I come to her, I'm not able to turn down a new pupil and it's not too far away. I just told her my normal rate but a fellow teacher said I should add extra to compensate for the cost of petrol etc. She suggested adding ?2.50 on but I'm not sure, what do you normally charge?
X

I do most of my teaching away from home and always add the cost of public transport on to my fee for the lessons (I don't drive) and all my students have been fine with that. Otherwise I would be losing a lot of money if I paid them myself because transport in London is very expensive.

Remember that you can log the journies, and claim 45p/mile expenses on your tax return (meaning you don't pay tax on that money, because it's not profit). I'm not sure you can do this if you also charge for the travel.

Tread carefully! If it's not too far away, then why can't they come to you? The mother "specifying" that you should come to them seems a bit dictatorial, and I wonder what other aspects of the lessons / teaching she is planning to control?

You should definitely make a charge to cover your travel expenses, and inform the mother of this before you go to the first lesson (she may change her mind once she hears about it!) but if you don't do this, you will lose out - and remember that you will be spending time travelling, than might soon be better spent teaching another pupil who is willing to come to your house.

I know it can seem like you can't afford to turn down any work when you are starting out, but just make sure it really is worth your while and you don't end up bending yourself out of shape to accomodate all requests. It's amazing how flexible people can be once you set some boundaries...just saying (as one who has indeed tied herself in knots attempting to accomodate every last request from students) - amazing how a simple No can sometimes turn a "we can't possibly do that" into a "oh well, perhaps we can rearrange our other commitment"!

If parents ask, I just tell them I teach from home. If they don't like that then it's too bad. But I've found almost without exception it's accepted.

Totally true, and not just when you're starting out. I spent many years just taking on everyone and everything which came my way - in the end, many proved to be a either a false economy or a pain in the neck (usually both) - just not worth the bother. These days, it's either on my terms or it doesn't happen - I'm sorry if that sounds inflexible to anyone, but it goes some way to preserving my sanity!

If you are going to charge (which you should definitely do), you need to factor in the time travelling and the travel costs. I have a set hourly teaching rate, but if I do any work which doesn't require prep outside of the session or where there are little, if any other costs involved, I reduce this by 25%. This might (though I have no experience) be a way of establishing a rate for the time taken to travel there, with HMRC mileage on top. So, for me, if I travelled somewhere a couple of miles away and it took there and back about 15 minutes, plus mileage, I'd be adding about ?7 on top of the normal fee. To me, this doesn't seem that unreasonable, but really, I have no idea as all my pupils travel to me! Whatever you do, be very clear about it, be realistic about the time/costs involved, and stick to it to it applies the same to everyone.

I have about half, and half, set aside from the school work I do. With the ones that I travel to, I started off by charging an extra 15 mins, and going a little over their time, but then they found me another student in the same area so I don't charge either extra as it is worth my while to travel over. I now have two cases of this which is lucky. Otherwise I do aim to teach from home.

Like one of the other comments above - you don't want to be spending time traveling unless it is worth it - either at least an hours worth of work or charging a little extra.

Same here. My reply is ' all my students come to me'.

I agree with Scooby Doo and Seer Green. You don't want to get to the point where you are turning away new pupils for the very reason that you are spending time travelling to others.

Depends where you are : but make sure you do add something, and make sure it's viable both time and money wise for you. I do a few home visits, and they fit nicely into my schedule (one pupil I have lives midway between school and band rehearsal venue, and I call in on the way to band : perfect!)

If you absolutely have to do a home visit then certainly charge a little more. I only do home visits on Sundays now and charge an extra quid an hour.

Bag x

This is exactly what I do. Simply state it as fact and don't get into discussions or convoluted explanations as that just weakens your position.