 of working from your home and be paid for it. In fact, what if you could start a business without having to step out of your house? Yes, you can do exactly that by becoming a self-proneer. To begin with, we will talk about online tutoring. If you hold a subject expertise and are passionate about teaching, this is the best self-employment opportunity for you. So, what is online tutoring? Online teaching broadly happens in two formats. One way is to sign up with an online aggregator that connects teachers and students. These platforms do not interfere in allotting students to teachers and teachers are allowed to set their own hourly teaching rates. Platforms like Tutor Vista, Bharat Tutor and Chek work on this model. In the second format, you can sign up with a virtual coaching center. Virtual coaching centers hire part-time as well as full-time teachers and pay them a salary. They allot teaching slots to teachers and the teacher might also have to visit their center to give tuitions to teachers. The popular platform Vedantu works on this model. Another way is to register yourself with online platforms that work as virtual coaching centers. These platforms hire full-time as well as part-time tutors and pay them a salary. Since they work on the salary model, they might allot you time slots and may ask you to visit their office to give tuitions. So, why is online tutoring becoming so popular? Unlike conventional form of tuitions, an online teacher does not have to commute to deliver his lectures nor does he have to follow shift timing. This means that he can take tuitions according to his convenience while also save money on commute. Moreover, even if the teacher has to shift cities, his student base remains intact and he does not have to worry about starting from the scratch. One of the biggest upsides of online teaching is that you can take foreign students which fetch much more money. One big advantage of becoming a self-preneur is that you don't need a huge capital to start. In the case of online tutoring, a mid-range laptop, a high-resolution camera, a clear mic and a high-speed internet connection is all you need. A 15-inch screen mid-range laptop will cost you around Rs. 38,000. If you have a PC and you want to buy a webcam separately, you will have to shell out an extra 8 to 10,000 for a high-resolution camera. A top-quality headset will cost you another Rs. 4000. While these are all one-time costs, internet connection will be a recurring expense that will cost you another 1000 per month. Talking of recurring expenses, we advise you to buy premium packs on teaching websites. These packs will help you get better visibility in the student community. These packs can cost anywhere between 2000 to 2500 rupees per month. There are three main parameters to consider before you decide to become a full-time online teacher. One, you should have a professional degree or certification in the subject you want to teach in. While there are some platforms that allow you to get on board without a degree, take note that your initial earning can be as less as 10 to 15,000 per month. Second, you need to invest in high quality audio and video equipment to eliminate the possibility of getting misheard or misunderstood by your students. Third, make sure that you do your research before choosing the platforms you want to sign up with. Also, do not sign up with more than three platforms at a time as each platform will require you to dedicate at least two hours of your day every day. How much money you make as an online tutor depends on your subject expertise? The class level of the student that you're going to teach and your prior teaching experience. But most importantly, your monthly earning will depend on the number of hours you teach for as most platforms have fixed hourly rates. For instance, for somebody with an experience of five years or more, the fees is around rupees 600 per hour. Whereas for a beginner, it is around rupees 350 to 400 per hour. The fees can vary further. For a foreign student, the fees is higher by 250 to 300 rupees compared to an Indian student. Similarly, there's a difference of another 250 to 300 rupees in the fees of school and college students. And if you're a science teacher, you stand to get 100 to 150 rupees extra per lecture compared to a humanity student. Looking at all the figures, back up the envelope calculation shows that an experienced teacher who takes three lectures per day, five days a week, can easily make upwards of rupees 50,000 per month. Whereas a beginner teaching for the same number of hours can make around 20 to 25,000 per month. While online tutoring is a promising self-employment option, it comes with its own challenges. The shift to online tutoring has not happened completely, so it may not always be easy to find students. We advise you the way the pros and cons before you take the plunge. Meanwhile, for more business ideas, log on to www.entrepreneur.com. Like the video, then don't forget to like, comment, share and subscribe to Entrepreneur India. Hit the bell icon to get notified for more such videos.