GSHE is focused on serving New Hampshire independent home education families, and as part of that, we are passing along some tips and resources to education providers. We recognize that many homeschoolers utilize providers for various opportunities along the way, so this is a win-win for the community.

Know Your Customers

Business owners need to identify potential customers as products and services are developed and create distinct marketing plans for each because different customers have different needs.

Your “customer avatar” is your ideal customer. Identify as much about them as possible, such as where they live, their gender, age range, what are their needs, how much do they have to spend on this product, how important is it to them, and so on. This helps you focus all elements of your marketing strategy.

You might have a couple customer avatars to represent different customer segments.

In order to identify potential customers, education providers need to understand the distinctions between independent, traditional, unfunded home education from the Education Freedom Account. The differences are detailed in three NH statutes: the compulsory education law, RSA 193:1; the home ed law, RSA 193-A, and the EFA law, RSA 194-F. The differences matter for legal requirements and discretionary funding, even if the children’s day-to-day experiences are similar. The majority of EFA participants use the funds for tuition at private schools. Regardless of how the funds are used, the EFA is a separate legal pathway, separate from home education.

GSHE developed a Venn diagram and this brief overview of home education to help explain critical differences.

4 Elements for Success

There are four fundamental principles of marketing – product, price, place, and promotion.

Product = This is whatever you are offering to the homeschool community, whether it is tutoring for a specific subject, annual evaluations, special ed coaching of some kind, a co-op with lots of classes for a specific age range or based on a particular instructional method, individualized tutoring, or something else.

Price = Your price is based on what customers are willing to spend and the value they place on that service or product.

Place = This is where your product is available, such as online, at one location such as your home or a library, or maybe in the customer’s home.

Promotion = This is how you communicate your product to your target market.

Know the Competition

There are many options for enrichment programs, classes, activities, and academic support that families can utilize for their children’s learning. With this array of choices, it is important to understand your potential competitors.

There are many free programs, too, including some offered by the NH Department of Education and through local libraries.

What GSHE Offers

GSHE is a support organization for home-educating families. We do not provide business or marketing consulting services, accept advertising, include affiliate links, sell our members’ information, or promote education providers and their programs on our social media platforms or in our forums or newsletters. 

Connecting families with education providers based in New Hampshire and neighboring states is a happy bonus that benefits our members.

GSHE may include education providers in our extensive resource directory which is available to members with a registered account. Inclusion in our directory is not an endorsement or recommendation and we maintain complete discretion about offering this opportunity to any business.

These are the types of services and programs we may include in our directory. Click on the link for specific information.

• Enrichment programs, learning centers, and co-ops
• Evaluators, proctors, and tutors
• Special education services
• Field trips