204 Meet The Man Who Built a $5 Million Course Business

13 snips

Nov 6, 2025

Rich Thompson, a UK science tutor turned entrepreneur, shares his journey of transforming his one-on-one tutoring into a thriving online academy that serves tens of thousands. He reveals how analyzing exam papers led him to create efficient learning programs. Rich discusses the dramatic drop in subscribers during COVID and his strategic reinvestment for growth. He offers insights into marketing tactics, from ads to word-of-mouth, and shares detailed metrics that can reshape how you approach your campaigns, all while navigating the challenges of selling to both students and parents.

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ANECDOTE

From £200/hr Tutor To Course Founder

Rich started as a one-to-one biology tutor charging ~£200/hour but could only teach about 10 students a year.
He built that into a course business that later reached roughly £700k per year before COVID.

INSIGHT

Teach Exam Skills, Not Just Facts

Rich re-engineered teaching by analysing 10 years of exam papers and teaching students how to write exam answers, not just know facts.
He summarises it: "It's not what you know, it's how you write it down."

INSIGHT

Exam Cycle Drives Subscription Value

The business scaled from breakeven at ~$10k to about $700k in five years, then dropped after COVID when exams were cancelled.
The market is cyclical: many students join only around exam seasons, so LTV depends heavily on timing.

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Today's episode is absolutely fascinating. I'm sitting down with Rich Thompson, who built his online tutoring business from literally zero to generating millions in revenue, and his story is going to blow your mind.

Rich started out as a one-on-one biology tutor charging £200 an hour (about $300 US), which sounds amazing until you realize he could only work with about 10 students a year. He was stuck in this paradox where he'd built this successful tutoring practice but had to physically sit next to students to make money. Not exactly the location-independent lifestyle he was dreaming of.

So he completely re-engineered his approach. He analyzed 10 years of exam papers, figured out exactly where students were losing marks, and created an online program that's now helped over 65,000 students. The growth was meteoric - he went from breaking even at $10,000 in year one to hitting $700,000 by year five.

But here's where it gets really interesting. When COVID hit, the UK government cancelled exams and 95% of his subscribers vanished overnight. Rich watched his entire business almost disappear. He told me if he hadn't been conservative with his spending that year, it would have been the end of his company.

We dive deep into his funnel, his marketing strategies, and some surprising insights about advertising to teenagers versus their parents. He shares exact numbers on ad spend and ROI that will make you rethink how you approach your own campaigns. Plus, we do a live review of his sales pages where I spot some quick wins that could dramatically increase his conversions.

If you're running an online course business or thinking about starting one, this episode is packed with lessons from someone who's been through the highest highs and lowest lows. Rich's honesty about what worked, what didn't, and what nearly killed his business is refreshing and incredibly valuable.

🔗 Check out Tailored Tutors: https://tailoredtutors.co.uk/?utm_source=the_art_of_selling_onine_courses&utm_medium=podcast
🔗 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tailoredtutors
🔗 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tailoredtutors

🎁 Grab the free download I mention in the episode at https://datadrivenmarketing.co/pages - it's our guide to the 15 elements every high-converting sales page needs to have.