BC Business
Large Tutoring helps students of all ages, including those with learning disabilities like ADHD and dyslexia.
Life Story: Before travelling to Costa Rica last summer, Clinton Large made a six-page spreadsheet to plan out the trip. “I don’t think I’ve always been entrepreneurial, but I think I’ve always been good at organizing and logistics,” he says.
Providing evidence to his claims of being “very Type A,” Large recalls, in high school, arranging a protest against budget cuts in Mission’s School District No. 75. And, in his final year of undergrad studying applied science at UBC, he organized the inaugural National Engineering Month Gala, raising some $8,000 in scholarships for gender diversity in engineering.
After working as a tutor for nearly three years, Large launched his own business in 2020. His first student was his mentor’s son, who hated physics before meeting Large. “I would go over once a week and help him for about an hour, and then we’d have dinner together. And that was my payment,” Large says with a chuckle. That student ended up earning a gold medal for academic achievement.
With classes ranging from high school math, science and languages to university-level courses, Large Tutoring serves everyone from elementary kids to post-secondary adults, many of whom are struggling with learning disabilities like ADHD and dyslexia.
As a queer small business owner, Large feels compelled to create safe spaces for his students and 24 employees. To establish a trusting environment, he begins his classes by asking students to share something fun from their week that has nothing to do with school. His business offers sliding-scale options to people with financial difficulties and Large himself dedicates around one to five hours in pro bono services every week.
Bottom Line: Large Tutoring projects revenues of $220,000 for 2023 after bringing in $150,000 in 2022. According to Large, its online and in-person lessons (which are charged hourly) have been able to help 400 students across B.C. and Ontario earn spots in reputable universities like UBC and the University of Toronto.