Hello and welcome. I’m Rachel, a CIMA qualified accountant specialising in bookkeeping, tax and financial guidance for tutors and education businesses. I’m also a qualified teacher and a working maths tutor, which means I understand your business from both sides of the desk.
This blog is where I’ll share practical accountancy and bookkeeping tips, alongside business advice and the occasional musing from my dual life as an accountant and tutor. My aim is to help you improve what you do and build a business that matches the vision you had when you started it.
Who do I help?
I support small business owners in the education sector, including:
- private tutors and tuition businesses, whether sole traders or limited companies
- tuition centres and small group tutoring providers
- education consultants, trainers and course creators
Whatever stage you’re at, from your first self-assessment tax return to running payroll for a growing team, I want to help you do three things:
Own your numbers. They’re yours, and they shouldn’t feel like a mystery or something to avoid until January.
Understand your numbers. Not just record them, but know what they’re actually telling you about your business.
Use your numbers. Good financial information helps you make better decisions on pricing, spending and where to focus your time next.
Why an accountant who is also a tutor?
I spent more than twenty years working in finance, most recently as a finance manager and department head, before retraining as a teacher and becoming a full-time tutor. Today I run a tuition business alongside my accountancy practice.
That combination matters. When we talk about your income patterns, term-time peaks, cancellation policies or whether to register for VAT, I’m not guessing at how a tuition business works. I run one. I know what your invoicing actually looks like, why September and January feel different to July, and where the money quietly leaks out of an education business.
Tuition is a real business, so treat it like one
Tutoring is often thought of as a side hustle, and once upon a time that’s mainly what it was. Not any more. Many tutors have built tuition into a full career, and that means it needs to be treated seriously by every founder.
Here’s the honest truth. If you don’t treat your tuition business like a business, it becomes very hard to sustain. The stress creeps in. HMRC appears with a tax bill you weren’t expecting. And you find yourself wondering why you work so hard for so little.
None of that has to happen. With clear records, a bit of structure and someone to explain things in plain English, your finances stop being a source of worry and start being a tool you can actually use.
What will I be writing about?
Expect regular posts answering the questions tutors and education business owners ask me most, including:
- Am I doing my accounts properly? Common bookkeeping mistakes, what HMRC actually expects and the record-keeping habits that keep you out of trouble.
- What expenses can I claim as a tutor? Allowable expenses explained clearly, from resources and software to working from home.
- How does self-assessment work? Deadlines, payments on account and how to avoid the January panic.
- What is Making Tax Digital and does it affect me? Plain English guidance on MTD for sole traders, including what HMRC really requires.
- What do my numbers actually mean? Moving beyond recording transactions to understanding profit, spotting trends and making confident pricing decisions.
Where am I based and who can work with me?
I’m based in Leeds and work with tutors and education businesses across the UK. Everything I do can be handled online, so wherever you are, the support is the same: clear, organised and in plain English.
Let’s grow together
Stick with me and we can grow our businesses into something genuinely successful. And as for what success actually feels like? That’s a question worth sitting with, and probably a blog post all of its own.
If there’s a question about tax, bookkeeping or running an education business you’d like me to cover, I’d love to hear it. It might just become a future post.
Rachel