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!