Administration
In order to hold a successful LSAT Classroom Seminar, four things are required:
An Instructor
(that would be yourself)
A Classroom
for lectures
A Textbook
for each student
Students
crucially
You will also need to manage registration, accounting, and tax reporting. Administration involves all the actions business owners must take in order to make sure that each of these requirements is met. Let’s review each requirement in turn.
Instructor
We strongly recommend that business owners teach classes themselves using the same textbook provided to students and the Instructor Guidelines provided. It’s not a bad idea, however, to recruit a law school classmate to serve as backup in case you suffer an illness or accident that leaves you unable to teach. Provide your backup instructor with a copy of the textbook and a copy of the Instructor Guidelines so they can prepare to teach. A class of twenty students produces $10,000 in gross revenues. Can you afford to refund $10,000 if a class were to be canceled? Probably not. That’s why you need backup. How much should you compensate your backup instructor? We recommend $500 for small classes and $1,000 for large classes. Teaching is challenging and stressful. We strongly recommend that all instructors dress in professional business attire.
Classroom
Hotel meeting rooms are very straightforward to reserve. All you have to do is call the meeting room coordinator at the hotel of your choice. You should request a meeting room in a quiet part of the hotel. Make sure no church services are being held at the hotel. They can be noisy and distracting. The meeting room should be set classroom style for 24 people. Be sure to request a whiteboard and water service. Coffee service can be very expensive and is best avoided. It is fine for the hotel to set aside sleeping rooms provided no deposit is required. Expect to pay $250 per day for a meeting room at a business class hotel. You will likely need to make a deposit to reserve the meeting room. Over time, do your best to develop a good relationship with the meeting room coordinator.
Textbooks
Purchase textbooks by sending an email to:
Be sure to include the number of textbooks you wish to order and your shipping address. You will need a PayPal account in order to pay for your textbooks. Remit $49 per textbook to the author’s PayPal email address:
Please be aware that Prepmaster Review may replace instructors who purchase fewer than 40 textbooks per year directly from Prepmaster Review.
If that happens, you will no longer be able to purchase textbooks directly from Prepmaster Review and your website will no longer be listed on the Prepmaster Review website. You will still be able to purchase textbooks directly from Amazon. You will still be able to use the trademark Prepmaster provided you use our textbook in your classes. You will still be able to use the copyrighted Instructor Website Template and copyrighted Poster Templates provided you use our textbook in your classes. Your classes can continue without disruption. We will still be happy to answer any questions that come up and support your classes in any way we can.
Students
Registering students is your top priority and is the key to the success of your business. Take a close look at Poster template 1:
Poster template 1 contains precise answers to the following questions:
When is the course?
Where is the course?
Who is teaching the course?
What are the instructor’s credentials?
What are the course features?
How much does the course cost?
The power of Poster template 1 lies in its specificity. The reason the poster can be so specific is because it advertises a single course location. In comparison, Kaplan and Princeton Review posters are generic. Their posters do not answer the questions listed above.
Poster template 1 is your business superpower and is the key to your business success!
Thoroughly post your local college campuses at the beginning of each calendar quarter. Walk from building to building in a grid like fashion. Post the entire campus. Don’t skip science and engineering buildings. Their graduates sometimes go on to become patent attorneys. Similarly, physical education majors may go on to become sports attorneys. Theatre students may go on to become entertainment attorneys. In each building, take the stairs to the top floor and then work your way down floor by floor. Try your best to place your poster on every single bulletin board including bulletin boards located inside classrooms. You will likely need to clean some of the boards to make space. Studies have shown that, on average, a person sees a poster seven times before taking action. That’s why schools need to be posted from top to bottom. I typically use 25 posters at small schools, 50 posters at medium size schools, 100 posters at large universities, and 150 posters at major state universities like the University of Texas at Austin. The posters should be printed on 24 lb gloss text paper. Use staples to securely attach each poster to the bulletin board. Use push pins if there is a notice on the bulletin board requiring push pins or if you can see that most of the posters on a particular bulletin board are attached with push pins.
The more schools you post, the greater the likelihood your business will succeed. Our estimate that 100 students per year will register on your website assumes that you will be posting at least ten schools in your local area from top to bottom each calendar quarter. In order to post this number of schools, you will likely have to drive to nearby cities. Large schools are more productive than small schools because they have more students. You will need to post 2-3 schools each 8 hour posting day in order to post 8-12 schools in the time alloted for posting. Two weekends per calendar quarter means there are four posting days each calendar quarter (4 posting days × 2 schools per day = 8 schools posted; 4 posting days × 3 schools per day = 12 schools posted).
Posting is fantastic exercise! You are earning $147 per hour and getting fit at the same time! It is generally not a good idea to hire someone to post the schools for you. If you want to make absolutely sure that your schools are properly posted, you need to post them yourself!
In the long run, word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising there is. The secret to the long term success of your business is to do an outstanding job teaching the course.
Trust me, once the various prelaw advisors start getting positive feedback from students, your business will be UNSTOPPABLE!
Poster Templates
Download the PDF file for the poster template you prefer (see below) and take it to your printer along with written instructions regarding the edits you wish to make. We recommend using Poster template 1. Poster template 2 is provided for instructors who don’t feel comfortable posting their name and credentials on college bulletin boards. An excellent alternative is to use both posters. This will allow you to post different posters on adjacent bulletin boards. Your website URL and QR code should replace the Prepmaster Review URL and QR code at the bottom of the poster templates. Each poster has a vertical strip down the left edge of the poster with seminar dates. The seminar dates on Poster template 1 include dates for eight seminars. This is the format you will want to use after you teach your first June seminar. The abbreviated schedule on Poster template 2 shows how the schedule should appear when you are first getting started. Posters should be printed on 24 lb gloss text paper. We recommend ordering 500 posters (or 250 of each poster) per calendar quarter (50 posters × 10 schools = 500 posters).
Click below to download poster template PDF files:
Supplemental Posting Income
I am responsible for Tour America by Bicycle, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information and inspiration to individuals who are interested in touring America by bicycle. At the beginning of each calendar quarter, depending upon whether or not funds are available to pay instructors, I will be mailing 100 Tour America by Bicycle posters to each Prepmaster Review instructor. Each poster is 8 ½ × 11 and is printed on 24 lb gloss text paper. I request that you place Tour America by Bicycle posters at ten prominent locations at each of the ten schools you post. Since you are already posting the schools, this is a relatively easy way to earn an extra $100 per calendar quarter or $400 per year. Complete instructions, including instructions regarding how to receive your payment, will accompany each shipment of posters.
—Thomas J. Lowry III
Author, A Systematic Approach to the Law School Admission Test
Registration
Your website will register students and accept payments even while you are sleeping. Your website collects each student’s full name, email address, cell phone number, seminar date, free repeat status (if applicable), and transaction information. You will receive an automatic email with each student’s information each time a student registers. You will also receive automatic emails confirming free repeat registrations (if applicable) and automatic emails with information for students who change their seminar date or cancel their registration. I recommend charging a $99 course cancellation fee. If you maintain a file folder with printed copies of these various automatic emails, you will have all the information you need at your fingertips to check-in students at the seminar.
Business Entity
It is usually best to keep things simple. Prepmaster Review is a sole proprietorship founded in 1981. I recommend that you establish your business as a sole proprietorship operating in your name. Please be aware that major hotel chains maintain high levels of liability insurance. State laws vary, but I don’t think you will need a business license to establish an e-commerce account for your website. Some states have proprietary school requirements. Prepmaster Review is not a proprietary school. Prepmaster Review is a publisher. You are not a proprietary school. You are an individual tutor.
Accounting
Your tutoring business is so simple and so straightforward that you probably do not need to set up a formal accounting system. Organize your receipts by maintaining a separate file folder for each expense category.
Tax Reporting
Tuition payments are exempt from sales tax. At the end of the year, summarize your revenues and expenses on Form 1040, Schedule C. You may be able to deduct part of your rent or mortgage as home office expense provided you meet all the IRS requirements.