As many of you probably have heard by now, the rate paid to tutors for each subscriber attending a SuperPass class increased by $0.23 from June to July. And while some have already expressed disappointment at what they view as a ‘small increase’, let me go on record and state that I am absolutely thrilled! In this period of slow / no economic growth that has left many of us unemployed I just received a 6.55% increase in potential income using SuperPass. And as an added bonus, my fixed cost of doing business (the cost of the eduFire platform) effectively stayed the same.
Better still, this 6.55% increase came in a single month. If this rate of increase remains steady month after month for the next twelve months, the rate paid to subscribers will be $8.01 come July, 2010! Now there are no guarantees payouts will increase at the same rate throughout the year. However, such an illustration helps one to see the potential payouts that can be realized through SuperPass.
While I must admit that I also wish the increase would have been larger, the fact that it was a substantial increase gives me great reason to be very optimistic regarding the future of SuperPass. Think about it this way. What do you think the head of a major pharmaceutical, banking, or telecommunications company would do if he or she learned that the company can see an increase in income by 6.5% over the previous month’s income for every product the company sells? Think the CEO might light a fire within the organization to learn ways to improve the manufacturing and marketing of the company’s product line to capitalize on this golden opportunity through increased sales?
Let’s do a little bit of role playing here, and imagine you are the newly appointed CEO of the world’s largest automobile company named Gee M. For longer than most anyone can remember, your company has been the dominant leader in the world-wide automobile market. However, over the past several years the company’s inability to respond to changes in the market place and huge marketing blunders have left the company with a dwindling market share and nearly bankrupt. For example, your predecessor made the mistake of flying in a private corporate jet to ask the government for billions in guaranteed loans needed to keep the company from going under in just a matter of weeks. Things then got so bad that the newly elected President of the United States forced your predecessor to resign due to a lack of confidence in his ability to turn the company around financially. (OK – I realize this story is getting a little far-fetched! No major corporation can act that stupidly. But just humor me and pretend for a minute that such a company did exist!)
Now on a dreary Wednesday morning your Chief Financial Officer rushes in and screams, “Great New! Starting now we’ll get a 6.5% increase in income per car sold over last month’s income!”
You jump up out of your chair filled with joy! It’s exactly the kind of news you’ve been waiting for – such an increase in income can help turn your company around and put thousands of people back to work! This really is great news!
But then reality sinks in and you drop back in your chair filled with defeat. You lash out at your CFO screaming, “You nitwit! What good is a 6.5% increase in income for every car we sell when the reason we’re going bankrupt is because people don’t want to buy our cars in the first place! Get out of my office!”
If as the CEO you take this position and choose not to make any changes in the way you design, manufacture, and market the cars you sell, then of course this news will be just another missed opportunity in a long line of missed opportunities. But what if you, as CEO of Gee M Motors, started the initiative to begin building the kind of cars your potential customers want to drive? What if you made sure these cars were filled with optional features your potential customers are willing to spend additional money for? Then, just magine if you instructed your marketing department to go the extra mile and figure out exciting new ways to communicate these changes to the world. Don't you think these changes wiil result in Super Charged results in regards to additional income?
As tutors here on eduFire we are faced with the same type of situation. We can look at the increase in eduFire SuperPass pay as a measly $0.23 and say, “Hey, that’s not even a quarter!”
Or we can choose to think optimistically! We can say, “You know, I must dedicate myself to doing research to find what kinds of classes my potential students really want. Then I need to take the time to develop courses that are entertaining, invigorating and beneficial to helping my students. And then I must figure out new and exciting ways to get the word out about my great new classes here on eduFire so people will seek out my classes and I’ll get lots more money in the future”!
One of the most important things we as tutors should do in light of the new eduFire SuperPass system is to create exciting new classes that our students can’t wait to attend. It’s not so important that we create classes we as tutors deem valuable. We must look to our potential students to help us determine what defines true value in the services we provide.
And think about this. What if we are truly blessed and the eduFire SuperPass pay increases at a steady 6.55% each month for the next 12 months, resulting in an $8.01 pay per pupil per session in July of 2010? Wouldn’t you as a tutor be far better off if you started today finding ways to increase your monthly student count say from 50 each month to perhaps 200? Now imagine 500, which is certainly conceivable given some of the tools the internet has to offer for helping tutors market themselves online.
In light of these future possibilities, does a measly $0.23 monthly increase seem as small?
