By Anthony Wilson
Are you a university student stumped by an economics issue or a high school student who simply can’t work out the calculus question?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, help is both a click and half a world away.
Centretown resident Kristen Simmons is a twenty-something math whiz, who took the plunge and opened her own Web-based tutorial business, Ask Your Tutor Inc (askyourtutor.com), last February.
Although the last two years have been brutal on Internet start-ups, Simmons has been able to meet all of her financial commitments — hosting the website, buying materials and textbooks — and make a small profit of $8,000, although the business has only been in operation for a year.
In that year, Simmons says she has tutored some 50 students.
She estimates about 80 per cent of her students are at university.
She has also developed a mostly international clientele with about 35 of her students coming from the U.S., England and Qatar.
Simmons graduated from Colonel By Secondary School with outstanding grades in calculus, algebra, and economics.
She went on to complete a Bachelor of Commerce at McGill University where she majored in economics.
In April 1997, Simmons completed the Canadian Securities Course, an intensive study of financial markets, business structures and portfolio management.
Then she completed the Chartered Financial Analyst course two summers ago and was “looking around for something to do which would have involved creating my own business”.
She came up with a web-based tuition business because she loved to tutor and had helped other students throughout her studies.
Students from around the world can log onto the Web site and submit questions to Simmons.
When this happens, she is alerted that there is a question by a message on her Blackberry pager.
She then explains the question to the student by a process of back and forth e-mail. Simmons works with each student until she is sure they understand the question or the issue.
She does not give the students the answers to the questions but instead strives to help them understand what they are doing.
“We are not a place to come to if you are simply looking to have your homework done because that would not help the students in the end,” says Simmons.
For university students, Simmons tutors macroeconomics, microeconomics, international trade and the basics of Management Information Systems and U.S. and Canadian business law.
For the tertiary-level students, Simmons offers a basic package of $64.95 plus GST allowing students to ask 10 questions with the response being given “as soon as possible”.
Her normal hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For students who are doing last minute revisions for exams and need her urgent assistance, Simmons also offers an emergency package. She charges $19.95 per question and commits to answering questions within the hour. This service is available from Sunday 5 p.m to Friday 11 p.m.
Her peak periods are around exam time and during the mid-term period when students are caught up trying to finish essays.
She also provides packages to high school students. “To date,” she says, “it has not happened that I have gotten a question that I can’t answer.”
Simmons says there are many companies that provide Web-based tutorial services which allow students to book an hour of time.
There are other sites where questions can be answered for free by people who donate their time.
“The advantage I have over other Web-based tutorial services is that I am available right away to tutor anyone, anywhere,” Simmons says
Up to now, she has done all of the tutoring herself, but she is looking to expand her one-woman business.
“Eventually, I would like to hire other people to tutor in other subjects such as science and computers.”