Good, Bad, Ugly Part 1

Good, Bad, Ugly Part 1

Dec 15, 2018 | Side hustles, Starting a new group class, Startup journey

Well, I wasn’t actually expecting to write this blog about launching an online startup business. When I sold/transferred my preschool teaching business about a year ago, I thought I was done for a while. But that’s not the way it seems to be turning out.

Saying goodbye to Startup #1

So why did I sell it? A couple of reasons. First, I was once again teaching full time, and in a totally new subject area. I had never taught English Language Learners and although I had a strong base in understanding language acquisition, I was pretty much starting from scratch as far as materials and such and didn’t have any spare time.

Second, I had realized that my Spanish preschool startup business wasn’t going to serve the needs of my family long term. My husband and I had been talking about spending some time living overseas, and a preschool language business just wasn’t going to fit into that plan.

A New Startup

So I started exploring online options. I tried giving French classes online, and I loved it. But it was a pretty big stress on my family for me to be online and totally uninterrupted at a specific time each week. We’re a hot mess around here, and that just wasn’t working for us. Plus, a lot of my students had the same trouble. Their schedules changed from week to week, so they missed a lot of classes.

I kept thinking if I could only pre-record classes and set it up so they could do it on their own schedule, that would be ideal. I just didn’t know how to do it without making it deadly dull. I mean, it’s my sparkling personality that brings my classes to life, right? OK, well, maybe that’s an overstatement. But things just aren’t as interesting when the instructor can’t react to the student in real time. What to do?

Finally, I figured out a way to use video clips with my voice narrating them. Because a lot of the videos I use in my classroom have a twist or a surprise at the end, I felt like that would compensate for not having the personal interaction. But there was the issue of copyright infringement. I couldn’t use a lot of the videos without permission from the creator. I pondered that for a week or two, and finally found a solution (or a couple of work-arounds, actually) that will allow me to start on the class until I can get it 100% figured out.

So now, I’m working my way through a course I bought about 2 years ago. Here’s a shout out to Amy Porterfield, who is absolutely my hero in creating the course. So far, it’s been a breeze thanks to her amazing step-by-step system. Check out her page here. She’s also got a kick butt podcast, which I’ve mentioned before. It’s taking me step-by-step through the process of building my own course from the ground up.

The Startup Plan

At this point, my plan is to offer a free four-week class. This will allow people to see whether the format works for them, and also help me to see what folks like and what they don’t. The free class will remain available as a lead magnet. In other words, in order to get the free class, you have to submit your e-mail address. This serves two purposes, as I’m sure you know. First, it allows me to get subscribers the course information. Second, it allow me to start building my e-mail list.

Once we’ve gone through the free class, I’ll have another class ready for people who want to continue. Pricing and a lot of things are still in the air, but I’m unbelievably excited about this. I miss teaching French SO MUCH! And as I was sitting around planning the free course this morning, and working on content, I was just so incredibly psyched about how much my students are going to get out of this course. Even if they never pay me a cent, I want this course to be a huge value in their lives and allow them to learn things they wouldn’t otherwise.

Why I’m sharing it

So here’s why I’m sharing. When I read blogs, it really inspires me to see people who have shared their journey from the beginning – the good, the bad, and the ugly. One of my favorite blogs was The Simple Dollar,a blog in which the author shared his story of going from drowning in debt to being 100% debt-free. It really inspired me by showing how small, consistent steps can totally change a person’s situation. Plus, I just like seeing people succeed, so reading it always made me feel uplifted.

My plan is to let you all take this journey with me if you want. Every two months I’ll publish an income statement with real numbers to let you see what kind of progress (if any!?!) I’m making. If you know me at all, you know I’m pretty transparent. I’m not overly afraid to share my failures as well as my triumphs. So this is my chance to start at the beginning and allow any of you who want, to come along for the ride.

Let’s go. We’ve got this!

 

Small wins lead to big wins

Small wins lead to big wins

Dec 1, 2018 | Side hustles, Uncategorized, Words of wisdom

We all want big wins. Run a marathon. Write a book. Break $100K in income in your business. And we often hear talk about BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals) and how setting an audacious goal will push us to achieve more. If you shoot at nothing, you’ll hit it everytime, right? So you’d better shoot for something amazing.

Except, NO.

Those big, frightening audacious goals might actually make you LESS likely to finish your goal! What?

Amy Porterfield for the win

OK, I’m going to take a quick sidetrip here and recommend one of my favorite podcasts to you. Amy Porterfield’s “Online Marketing Made Easy” Podcast is not just about online marketing. It is full of not just marketing stuff and not just online hacks. It’s about running a business and being a person.

So anyway, I was listening to one of her episodes a week or so ago, and I thought, “I’ve just got to share this one.” She was interviewing Jon Acuff whose latest book is Finish: Give yourself the Gift of Done. It follows Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work that Matters and a couple of others that look good, but I haven’t had time to read yet.

What REALLY helps you finish

So for this book, Acuff actually did research on what helps people finish projects – tough projects like writing a book or losing weight. What he found was that people are actually MORE likely to stick with their project if they set a goal, then cut it in half. The example he gives is losing weight. People who set a goal of losing 10 pounds, then lost 8 were discouraged. However, the people who cut their goal in half, were thrilled. They had totally slammed that goal. And as Acuff said, “I’m more interested in your long-term success than your short term success.”

Starting a business is great. But what I really want for you is to have a viable business that still works with your personal life 5, 10, or 20 years from now. Getting to stay home with your kids for a year is nice, but I don’t want you to have to go back to teaching before you feel ready simply because your finances dictate it.

What it looks like in your life

That’s why I encourage you to take it one step at a time. Don’t implement 5 frugal habits all at once. Choose one and do that until you make it a habit. Then choose another one. Don’t try to give up your morning coffee, prepare all your meals at home, pack lunches, quit going to the movies, and start shopping at consignment shops all in the same week. It will all come crumbling down, and you’ll create an image of yourself as a loser in your own mind. Instead, cultivate an image of yourself as a winner by giving yourself SMALL wins.

In the income building area, this means that maybe that big, hairy audacious goal isn’t what you need. Maybe what you need is to set a realistic goal, then cut it in half. Maybe instead of saying, “This year I want to go from $0 to $20,000 in revenue,” you honor all the work that goes into a business before you ever make a penny, and say, “You know, I’m going to celebrate EVERY time I make $1000. And my goal is to make $8000 this year.” You know, $8,000 isn’t chump change.

It’s not easy for me, either.

Of all the things I have shared with you, I think this is the hardest concept for me. I want to do it ALL. PERFECTLY. TODAY. And then get even better tomorrow. So right now, I have limited myself to one goal for my blog. My goal is to post every week for three months. That’s it. By the time you read this it will probably be a year or so from when I am writing it. Why? Because I don’t have any readers yet. Nope, not even one. But my goal isn’t to get readers right now. It’s to post content that will help my readers. So that when they come, they will find not one or two blog posts that help them, but 20 or 30. And because they find quality content, they will come back again. And again. And again. And – God willing – their lives will change for the better.

Until then, hang in there. We’ve got this!