Pros
When I first started using take lessons it worked for me. Yes, they take 40% off the first 5 lessons, then 30%, then 20% and finely 10%, so it takes a while to get a decent rate, but at first they sent me a pipeline of students and because they took care of the money, I didn't have to. In my subject area, students sometimes want a lot of lessons, so I was often able to get my rate up to 90% within the first couple of weeks. Again, I wasn't crazy about the 40%, but overall with several students at different rates, I was averaging enough per hour to make it worth it. They allow you to tell your story and explain your expertise on their website which dominates when students are searching for teachers. It's a lot of free advertising that looks professionals.
Cons
The company decided to focus on online lessons and stopped sending me local students in my major subject area! 90% of my business with them disappeared. Online lessons in my subject area can be had at a very low rate as teachers can teach in countries with a very low cost of living. I was outsourced! There was no way that I could lower my rates for the subject area to the point where I could be competitive. Yet, there is a large competitive supply of students in my community who want an "in person" experience with a teacher. Why would Take Lessons end this? I never got a coherent explanation. The students I wound up getting online often either needed lessons short-term, or only wanted to meet once a week for a short time period, so getting up to the 90% took much longer. Once students started to trickle in on a non-regular basis, the model no longer worked for me. Months later they changed again, and decided to offer local lessons, but it's never picked up to the pre-change level, and I could not get by with the number of students I now get from them. This has nothing to do with local market, as I now get more work than ever through other sources. Given the low rate I now get for the initial lessons, and the lack of students, I question whether it is work taking their students at all. You can't offer different lesson lengths at different locations. For instance, it would be great to offer 30 minute or 45 minute online lessons. It's not so great to travel to somebody's home for a 30 minute lesson, but if I offer 30 minutes in one place, I have to offer them every place! With carfare and travel time this isn't feasible. While I can add travel time to lessons in student's homes, I can't add it to lessons in locations I regularly use that may be far away from each other or from my home. I can't charge a premium for lessons at different times of the day either. I don't particular want to do online lessons at midnight, but I might consider that if I could get a premium rate. Other than their having a student's credit card on file, there is no protection when you are meeting a student in his or her home or allowing one into your home. You are on your own -- an independent contractor -- if anything happens to you. If you agree to going to people's home, that's what you agree to. They have a "ask a question" features that has tons of bugs in it. Potential students naturally want to contact teachers directly and of course the system doesn't allow it so that Take Lessons can get their cut. This leads to a lot of awkward communications with students! The system also sends teachers threatening reminders if they don't answer a student's "questions" even if a student is simply replying "Thank you for the information" in reply to your reply! Because they are always fearful that teachers will try to "steal" students from Take Lessons, their "bots" pick up a lot of stuff from the answers to these questions -- even stuff that's not there! I've written long thoughtful replies to students' questions, only to find out that my reply didn't get through the bots! Teachers need to accept or reject a student without receiving any information about the student. I've hit "accept" only to find out that the student wanted lessons at a time when I can't schedule lessons or that a student lives outside of the area I will travel to. Once I accept a student and realize that it's not going to work -- that the student is at a young age range I don't accept or outiside of my traveling range, I have to contact Take Lessons and explain this whole thing, and I always worry that this will lessen my odds of getting more students. I've heard about them firing teachers because they merely suspect those teachers have been stealing students, because the students they get sent don't sign up for more lessons, and because they temporarily stopped taking students or went on vacation. There is absolutely no job security. Because of problems with auto-billing, etc. I've had students BEG me to work with them outside of Take Lessons. These are some very awkward conversations!