According to Politifact.com, a political news source that has won a Pulitzer Price, 90 percent of American workers don’t own their own business. Theo Korolev, a junior, is not part of this 90 percent. At just 17 years old, Korolev has created his own tutoring business called Neighborhood Tutoring.
The business offers help to any student in elementary, middle, and high school in any subject. All one has to do is go to the site and sign up and a tutor will find a date to help them out.
Korolev created this business primarily because he wanted to create a more simple and cheap way to get help for school.
“All throughout my high school career and mostly this year, I have tried to sign up to attend local tutoring businesses but it’s always so competitive and the prices are outrageous. Just this year, I was trying to find a tutoring business to help me with the SAT but they were charging 90 dollars an hour,” Korolev said.
Korolev used this frustration as a way to make his own business and give students a better experience. Since it’s creation, Korolev has hired tutors of all ages and experiences. He has two Stanford alumni working for the business and various Carlmont students also.
“Working for Neighborhood Tutoring has been awesome so far. I love working with the kids and I believe it’s a great business,” said Brooke Seim, a junior who tutors for Neighboorhood Tutoring.
Along the way, Korolev has faced many difficulties with starting a new business, but he believes that with more experience and exposure, the business will thrive.
“It’s hard trying to gain popularity when there are so many other competitors and it’s hard to work on it when I’m busy with other hobbies. It’s not my full-time job, so I can’t work on it all the time, but as time goes on, I believe it will grow,” Korolev said.
Korolev, who never saw himself creating his own business, believes this is a story that everyone should know and learn from.
“Never in my future could I have predicted that I would have my own tutoring business to run, but I tried something new and it worked out. It goes to show that expanding your horizons and trying new things is worth it. Anyone can do what I did. My advice to anyone who wants to try and create a business, or try to make a difference in our community is that with hard work, anything can be achieved, and to try new experiences” Korolev said.
I believe that especially in high school, we have the opportunity to make a difference, and it doesn’t take much. It can be like what I did, or something much more simple, but if we put effort into whatever we do, it can be achieved
— Theo Korolev
Karen Deanna Friis • Jun 4, 2018 at 6:49 pm
Great article and wow – Theo! Super impressive!