How to Start a Tutoring Company in Australia

What do you actually need to start a tutoring company in Australia?

At minimum: an ABN, a business structure that matches your risk (sole trader to start is fine for most), the right insurance, a Working With Children Check for you and every tutor, and a way to actually run sessions, invoice families, and pay tutors without it living in a spreadsheet forever. None of it is hard on its own — the difficulty is doing it in the right order, because some steps (insurance, WWCC) block you from legally running your first session.

This guide walks through that order, from registering the business to onboarding your first tutor.

1. Choose a business structure

Most tutoring companies start as a sole trader — cheapest to set up, least admin, and you can convert to a company later once revenue justifies it. A company structure makes sense earlier if you're bringing on a co-founder, want the liability separation, or plan to raise money. Get this one right before you register anything else, because your ABN and business name registration both depend on it.

• Sole trader: you and the business are legally the same entity. Simple, but your personal assets aren't separated from business liability.
• Company (Pty Ltd): separate legal entity, registered with ASIC, more setup and ongoing compliance (annual review, more detailed record-keeping).
• Partnership: rare for tutoring companies unless you're starting with a co-founder and don't want a company yet.

If you're unsure, a one-off conversation with an accountant here is worth it — the business.gov.au business structure tool is a reasonable starting point before that call.

2. Register the business

Once you've picked a structure:

• Apply for an ABN (Australian Business Number) — free, done through the Australian Business Register.
• Register a business name with ASIC if you're trading under anything other than your own legal name.
• Register for GST once your turnover is likely to exceed the registration threshold [VERIFY current GST registration threshold with the ATO] — or voluntarily earlier if most of your clients are GST-registered businesses (rare for tutoring, but check).

3. Get the right insurance before your first session

This is the step operators most often skip, and the one that actually blocks you legally running a session with a minor in the room.

• Public liability insurance — covers injury or property damage during a session, whether in-person or at a client's home.
• Professional indemnity insurance — covers claims arising from the tutoring advice/service itself.
• Some states and school partnerships require specific coverage minimums — check before you sign anything with a school.

4. Working With Children Checks — for you and every tutor

Every adult who has contact with children in your business needs a valid WWCC (naming and requirements vary slightly by state — see our WWCC requirements guide for the state-by-state breakdown). Apply for your own before you take your first booking; the processing time varies by state and can take longer than you'd expect, so don't leave it to the week before you need it.

5. Decide contractor vs employee for your tutors — before you hire, not after

This is the single most consequential early decision, and it's not just a contract-wording choice — Fair Work and the ATO look at the actual working relationship, not what you call it. Get it wrong and the cost is back-paid super, penalties, and potentially unpaid leave entitlements. Read our dedicated tutor employee vs contractor guide before you make an offer to your first tutor.

6. Price your sessions

New operators consistently under-price early, then have an awkward conversation raising rates on existing families a year in. Better to get this closer to right from the start — see our tutoring company pricing guide for a cost-plus vs market-rate framework.

7. Pick how you'll run the business day to day

At the very beginning, a shared calendar and a spreadsheet will get you through your first handful of students. It stops working the moment you have more than a few tutors, because scheduling, invoicing, tutor pay, and WWCC tracking all start needing to talk to each other. Most operators hit this wall between 3 and 6 tutors — see our scaling guide for what that transition actually looks like.

The order, as a checklist

• Pick a business structure (sole trader to start, in most cases)
• Register for an ABN and, if trading under a different name, a business name with ASIC
• Register for GST if/when required [VERIFY current threshold]
• Get public liability + professional indemnity insurance
• Get your own WWCC before taking your first booking
• Decide contractor vs employee for tutors, correctly, before hiring
• Set your pricing model
• Choose how you'll run scheduling, invoicing, and tutor pay

Every one of these gets easier with the next one done in order — insurance and WWCC before your first session, contractor classification before your first hire, pricing before your first quote. Skip the order and you end up retrofitting compliance onto a business that's already running, which is always more painful than building it in from day one.

General information only — not legal, financial, or tax advice. Confirm anything specific to your situation with your accountant or a solicitor.