KENYA · GUIDE 0622 · EDITION 4.2
Primary mathematics tutoring in Kenya: Startup Costs and Budget
Build a budget around the first deliverable
Plan primary maths tutoring around the child's actual concepts and school context, agreeing guardian expectations, practice format, and a small set of understandable learning goals.
This scope determines what you need before the first order. A national average or a supplier's bundle cannot establish your opening budget. The main cost drivers for this business are:
- Tutor time
- Printed resources
- Venue
Separate setup, operating cost and working cash
| Budget line | What to establish before spending |
|---|---|
| Counters | Specify the pilot quantity, purchase/hire option, delivered quote and payment date. |
| Original worksheets | Specify the pilot quantity, purchase/hire option, delivered quote and payment date. |
| Topic checklist | Specify the pilot quantity, purchase/hire option, delivered quote and payment date. |
| Progress record | Specify the pilot quantity, purchase/hire option, delivered quote and payment date. |
Equipment that remains useful after the pilot belongs in a separate setup schedule. Consumables used in accepted work belong in operating cost. Refundable deposits use cash but are not automatically an expense. Do not count the same equipment purchase in full both as setup spending and again as one period's operating expense.
Include costs that are easily missed
Include preparation, manipulatives, suitable practice tasks, teaching time, progress review, and guardian feedback, allowing for gaps that require revisiting earlier concepts before advancing topics.
Prepare the cash schedule in date order. Supplier payments can fall due before the customer pays; a positive paper margin does not fill that gap. Record transport, rejected inputs, corrections and your own working time against the actual trial rather than assuming them to be free.
Set a spending decision
Use this pilot as the smallest meaningful commitment: Assess one skill such as place value before offering a small, clearly scoped lesson block.
Before buying, obtain comparable written quotations with the same item specification, quantity, delivery destination and relevant support terms. Keep uncertain lines marked unknown until you have evidence. If the cash requirement exceeds your available funds, reduce the trial scope, negotiate transparent payment stages or defer the purchase. Do not silently replace missing costs with zero.
Tutoring underperforms when repeated worksheets improve speed but conceal misunderstanding of place value, operations, or the meaning of the problem being solved by the learner.
Use the pricing and cash-flow chapter to test whether accepted sales can cover recurring costs after setup. This page supplies a budgeting method, not a verified opening-cost estimate.
Build the first spending decision from actual specifications
| Resource in this guide | Evidence needed before payment |
|---|---|
| Drawing sheets | Test legibility and spacing. |
| Counters if suitable | Avoid small loose pieces where swallowing risk exists; drawings suffice. |
| Observation form | Separate independent and guided attempts. |
The listed cost exercise below is a narrow scenario, not a complete startup budget. Do not buy this entire list automatically: first decide whether the trial requires purchase, suitable hire or a competent service provider. Record one-time resources separately from repeat inputs, and enter the actual supplier due dates.
A cash-timing exercise using the same example
Assume solely for arithmetic practice that opening cash is zero and the entire listed input bill of KSh 715.00 must be paid before handover. With no advance, that amount must be funded before any sale is collected. This deliberately simplified case does not establish when your actual suppliers need payment.
If a buyer hypothetically pays a 30% advance on the example revenue of KSh 950.00, cash received would be KSh 285.00. Paying the listed bill then leaves KSh -430.00. The additional cash needed to avoid a negative balance at that point is KSh 430.00. The unpaid remainder is KSh 665.00; it is a receivable, not cash already in the business.
The 30% figure is an invented teaching assumption, not a recommended or agreed customer term. Check whether deposits are refundable and which commitments they can actually fund. Do not count the advance again when entering the final collection. Add equipment payments, tax, owner drawings and unlisted operating bills to the dated cash plan as appropriate. The 13-week planner in file 10 shows week-end funding gaps; inspect intra-week dates for a large payment.
Close these budget uncertainties
- No learner assessed or curriculum alignment claimed.