Teaching · For Tutors · Pricing

Before the
discount goes out,
count the sessions.

Type your week as it is and the discount you have in mind. The calculator shows what the discount gives away, how many extra sessions it has to bring to pay for itself, and what your year looks like either way.

Test a discountWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Tutoring business kit, $69 for 64 items.

The discount calculator

The worked example is made up: a tutor at $70 a session, twenty sessions a week, thinking about 15% off for families who prepay a term. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

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What you get

Teaching · For Tutors$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
What a discount gives away on the sessions you already have, the extra sessions a week it needs to break even, your profit for the year now and with the discount, and a table of outcomes. It prints as a one-page summary and downloads as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Independent tutors and small tutoring businesses weighing a seasonal offer, a referral discount, a sibling discount or a prepay discount.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Tutoring business kit ($69) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Tutors space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Type your regular rate, sessions a week, weeks a year and cost per session.
  2. Type the discount and the share of your current sessions it would apply to.
  3. Read the extra sessions a week the discount needs to break even.
  4. Type the extra sessions you honestly expect and compare the two years.
  5. Print the summary or download the spreadsheet.

Test a discount

How the break-even is worked out

What is given away, divided by what a new session earns.

The worked example, one week1 · Given away$105.0015% × $70 × 10 sessions2 · A new session earns$54.50$59.50 − $5 cost3 · To break even1.93$105.00 ÷ $54.50One week of the example1 · Given away on current sessions$105.0015% × $70 × 10 sessions2 · Each new discounted session earns$54.50$59.50 − $5 cost3 · Extra sessions to break even1.93$105.00 ÷ $54.50
The example’s discount gives away $105.00 a week on the ten current sessions it applies to. Each extra session at the discounted price earns $54.50, so it takes 1.93 extra sessions a week to come out even.

The arithmetic

The discount gives away the rate times the discount on every current session it applies to. A new session at the discounted rate earns the discounted rate minus your cost per session. Break-even is the first figure divided by the second. Profit for a year is each week’s profit times the weeks you tutor. If a discounted session earns nothing after costs, there is no break-even and the page says so.

Reading the result

Break-even always takes more new sessions than the discount percentage suggests, because the new sessions are discounted too and each carries a cost. That is why discounts for new families or for prepaying are cheaper than a discount for everyone: they leave most current sessions at the regular rate. If you cannot picture where the extra sessions would come from, the discount is a price cut.

Sources

  1. Farris, P. W., Bendle, N. T., Pfeifer, P. E., and Reibstein, D. J. (2010). Marketing Metrics, 2nd ed. Pearson: contribution margin and the break-even volume change for a price cut.
  2. U.S. Small Business Administration small business guides (sba.gov): cost per unit of service and break-even thinking for pricing decisions.
  3. Federal Trade Commission, Guides Against Deceptive Pricing (16 CFR Part 233): a discount advertised against a regular price should be measured from the price you actually charge.
  4. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business: income is what families actually pay after discounts.

The worked example is made up. The extra sessions a discount brings are your estimate; this page does arithmetic on it. Your figures stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.